The latest baffling conspiracy theory to gain a groundswell of support is the idea that "15-minute cities" are a socialist construct intended to inflict a police-state type of municipal authority on society.
If you've been following the news lately, you may have heard about a recent protest in Edmonton against an urban design concept that is being explored by that municipality – the idea of the 15-minute city.
The concept of a '15-Minute City,' introduced by a Paris-based university professor back in 2016, is to re-design urban planning around the local availability of amenities – the idea that every person's daily needs should be able to be fulfilled within a 15-minute walk or bike ride. Essentially, the goal is to improve a city’s walkability and reduce residents’ dependence on their vehicles, so they could walk instead of drive to the grocery store, barber shop, local library branch, etc.
For some reason, the concept has captured the attention and imaginations of online conspiracy theorists who believe the establishment of a '15-minute city' is a communist government tactic that intends to restrict people’s freedom of movement, track their whereabouts, and create a dystopian future where no one would be allowed to drive cars.
In Alberta, the controversy appears to have started in Edmonton, when some residents expressed concern the establishment of a 15-minute city would create a sense of inter-municipal isolation. Other dissenters went further, stoking fear the City of Edmonton would go as far as fining people for leaving their "district."
Tweets from prominent social media accounts, including former University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson and Calgary entrepreneur Brett Wilson, have fanned additional flames in recent days.
It's been an absurd amount of hysteria for what is essentially an urban planning concept that only intends to reduce urban sprawl and make city-dwellers' lives less vehicle-dependent. But as people saw during the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy theories have a tendency to spread in online echo chambers, to the point where they don't even seem plausibly true, but obvious.
