“War” Secretary Hesgeth backs 15-minute city model

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You just can’t make this stuff up. As conservatives around the world wage a holy war against the “15-Minute City” concept, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has thrown his weight behind the idea. His newly announced “Fortress America” military resilience plan includes a new vision for military bases that encompasses walkability and quality of life. If that sounds like the 15 Minute City plan in action, it is. Oh, sir…

What is a 15 minute city?

Walkable communities are as old as the hills. That’s what people did before cars came on the scene and cities were organized around cars. Credit for applying the walkability model to 21st century urban planning goes to Franco-Colombian scientist Carlos Moreno, who formalized the 15-Minute City concept in 2016. The idea received a further boost of attention when Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo proposed walkable and bikeable neighborhoods as part of her successful 2020 re-election campaign.

The 2020 COVID-19 lockdown was also a pivotal moment, with an increase in the number of households working from home, drawing attention to the need for local resources as a matter of survival and resilience in the event of a widespread emergency.

The 15-Minute City model covers a lot of ground, but the basic idea is that people should be able to do their shopping, recreation, socializing and other essential routines within walking or cycling distance of their homes, making cars largely optional within the neighborhood. Pedestrian access to schools and healthcare is also part of the plan.

The argument for 15-minute cities (also called 15-minute neighborhoods or 15-minute communities) is also pretty simple. Walking is healthier than sitting in a car. Avoiding injury or death from car accidents is another advantage. Walking also reduces carbon emissions and saves money on gas.

Plus, walkability levels the playing field, so to speak. Everyone in the 15-minute zone has walkable access to basic resources, regardless of whether or not they can afford a car. In other words, there is an important element of equity and inclusion in the concept…

What exactly is wrong with a 15 minute city?

…and that’s where the problem begins. In 2022, the World Economic Forum published an article by Lisa Chamberlain, founder of urban business and communications firm Strategies for City Builders. Chamberlain describes a 15 Minute City characterized by diversified, mixed-use neighborhoods built to withstand crises like COVID-19 and climate change.

“As climate change and global conflicts cause shocks and stresses at faster intervals and with increasing severity, the 15-minute city will become even more critical,” Chamberlain emphasized, with greater emphasis on equity and inclusion:

“Specifically, communities that foster and maintain social and economic relationships do not have to be wealthy, but they do have to be walkable and safe, with residential and commercial buildings intact. And, I would add, for 15 Minute Cities to thrive, they not only survive crises (and this cannot be emphasized enough), they must also have abundant equitable and mixed-income housing, as well as digital access.”

It wasn’t long before the conspiracy machine sprang into action around the world. In February 2023, for example, the Australian news organization ABC radio summarized the 15 Minute City conspiracy theory as follows:

“For some, it is an urban planning concept that promotes sustainable and healthy living.

“For a small group of people, it’s a plot by ‘tyrannical bureaucrats’ to take over our cars and control our lives, which could lead to a real-life Hunger Games scenario.”

“Limiting cars and promoting pedestrian or bicycle access presents a slippery slope to government-run open-air prisons,” ABC continued.

Oh! ABC also quotes Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson. who lashed out at “idiotic tyrannical bureaucrats” who “decide by decree where they are ‘allowed’ to drive… and, make no mistake, it’s part of a well documented plan” (emphasis added).

The US Department of Defense has a well-documented plan to take away your freedoms

Of course there is a well-documented plan and it is called urban planning. And that’s where the United States Department of Defense comes into play.

In September, in a move that went unnoticed Technical Cleaning radar, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the new “FORTRESS America” plan, with FORTRESS representing “Federal Operations for Resiliency, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply and Survival.”

Stripping away Secretary Hegseth’s testosterone-fueled purple prose in the September 30 announcement, FORTRESS AMERICA applies the 15 Minute City urban planning model to major Department of Defense bases in the U.S., ensuring they can operate independently of civilian infrastructure for a sustained period of time. That includes everything necessary to sustain community life, as well as the supplies necessary to sustain military operations.

FORTRESS America even goes beyond the initial 15 Minute City concept. As envisioned in the “Next Great American Base” program element, a central feature of the plan involves access to a reliable on-site power source.

If the US military adopts 15-minute cities, why not us?

Don’t just take my word for it. “The program aligns base and infrastructure projects to ensure that they collectively move toward greater independence,” Hegseth stated in the official order, referring to independence as the ability to sustain operations within an installation that is isolated from civilian resources. That is, sustainable urban planning for military installations.

Hegseth tasked the Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment with carrying out the new order. The basic design portion of the order was passed to Dale Marks, the Under Secretary of Energy, Facilities and Environment.

Marks didn’t let the grass of 15 Minute City grow under his feet. In a public presentation on October 29, he emphasized the importance of incorporating quality of life into a sustainable model for military installations in the United States.

“Let’s build facilities worthy of the warriors who call them home,” Marks emphasized. “The nation should not expect warfighters to focus on high-risk, multi-domain operations when they return to their bases with black mold, faulty plumbing, and leaking roofs.”

“Poor living conditions are not minor inconveniences. They are an active loss of morale, combat readiness, and our retention of top-tier talent,” Marks explained.

It’s not just about rehabilitating military housing. In the presentation, Marks made the case for a complete 15 Minute City model. “The Next Great American Base will include a compact, walkable concept with top-notch schools, advanced healthcare, and community-building urban centers,” Marks continued, neatly summarizing the fundamentals of 15 Minute Cities in a nutshell.

Marks anticipates that state governors and other interested parties will compete to see where the first “Next Great American Base” will be built. Once completed, the new facilities and its 15 Minute City will serve as a model for future projects.

In terms of on-site power generation angle, nuclear power occupies the first position, for now. However, as Marks and Hegseth emphasize, speed is essential. Results are required in months, if not weeks. That leaves plenty of room for solar-powered microgrids to jump into the FORTRESS America ring. After all, if speed to generate power is the name, solar power and batteries are the game…

Image: The 15 Minute City model calls for pedestrian and bicycle access to basic services and resources, a concept that has been adopted by none other than the US Department of Defense (courtesy of Rutgers University).