Because Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of UK describes 15-minute cities as an attack on Motorists and vows to abolish such things.
It’s amazing how some sociopaths destroy everything if some money is thrown their way.
This is in Oxford. Stop the buses and 15 minute city to help the traffic flow…
Maybe the American propaganda pushers don’t make French language versions
Russia did push a lot of propaganda and they probably still do, but France clamps down on it from time to time.
Members of the extreme right also follow each other online, so it’s not really possible to tell if a french translation of a replacement theory conspiracy meme was made by a Russian at the IRA, or by a genuine french incel.
Putin’s trolls also support the far right party of Le Pen and that party repays this support by voicing their support for Putin from time to time, similar to other extreme left/right parties in Europe. Getting Le Pen elected in France would be almost as big a coup for Putin as a re-election of Trump in the Usa: it would damage the eu, NATO, give Wagner free reign over the Sahel and stop french support for Ukraine. And unlike Trump, Le Pen is not an idiot, so she would be able to do a lot more damage in a lot less time. This all makes France a prime target for the Russian propaganda machine.
What France doesn’t have (yet), is a popular domestic far right media empire. There is a conservative family building up a similar misinformation empire as that of Murdoch, but they’re only getting started, so it’s nothing like in the UK or USA (yet): https://www.france24.com/en/france/20230711-france-s-murdoch-right-wing-media-swoop-threatens-pillar-of-french-democracy
This specific idea seems to be a mix of climate change denialism (they want us to stop driving) mixed with COVID time authoritarian scares (forced internment, stay at home etc) and while we know Russia has helped push parts of these ideas before or pushed this after I think this one really did originally come direct from the right wing American billionaire owned think tanks.
This specific idea caught on for some reason but they’ve been chucking out variations on this crap for years
Conspiracy theorists and the reputation the UK government has for corruption.
Conservative propaganda is the reason… Next question
Because Paris is its own jurisdiction.
Paris’ mayor, Anne Hidalgo, is incredibly unpopular in the rest of the Parisian Metropolitan Area (whose government is right-wing under Valérie Pécresse). Much of these areas are still car-dependent beyond belief with bad-to-awful public transit, meaning they are progressively getting cut-off from car-hostile Paris. Paris is completely unaffordable to live in, so it is normal for the working class to have a 1h+ commute into Paris.
This understandably breeds resentment from most people who have never heard of the term “induced demand” or think that the lack of rail transit it Hidalgo’s fault.
Paris is completely unaffordable to live in
Affordability is a really important part that is not talked about enough. Walkable cities are better for people and the environment but they need to be affordable for it to matter.
If only the law of supply and demand had some guidance to offer us on how to make walkable areas of cities more affordable…
I think Vienna has a great model to follow for making housing more affordable.
Interestingly the public transit in paris and its metropolitan area is entirely under the authority of the “region”, that is to say Pécresse.
There are massive investments in infrastructure throughout the area though. With metro lines being created and prolongated all over the place at huge expanse. Obviously this doesn’t happen overnight.
This is not just Paris too. France as a whole did not change municipality boundaries since WW2. So usually legal city is just what in the rest of Europe we would be the city center. You often can not really tell the difference between the city and a French “suburb” on a satellite picture.
As a result it is rather easy to kick cars out of the city, as the residents do not need them and are just annoying for them. It also leads to bad connections to the outer parts of what really is the city, which pisses off the residents and that leads them to vote facist.
