CityLab Daily: The Case for Designing a 15-Minute City for Friendship
Also today: Chicago confronts a $35 billion pension crisis, and inside the wealthy NYC enclave fighting against “ugly” 5G towers.
Friends gather at the Place des Vosges park in Paris.
Photographer: Michel Setboun/Corbis via Getty Images
The popular urban planning concept known as the 15-minute city suggests designing neighborhoods so that residents’ basic needs can be met within a small radius accessible by foot, bike or public transit. Those needs include work, school, child care, groceries and maybe even health care. They can also include social connections.
Experts say living close to friends matter, especially at a time when cities around the world are contending with a loneliness epidemic. Friendship, after all, has been shown to improve physical and mental health. Being neighbors with friends can not only help people maintain connections through regular — and spontaneous — hangouts, writes Sarah Holder, but also make it easier to support one another materially and emotionally. Today on CityLab: What If We Had a 15-Minute City for Friendship