Tech billionaires ramp up plans for 15-minute city in California

A group of billionaires behind plans for a 15-minute “walkable” city in Northern California said this week that businesses are ready to set up shop.

California Forever

The group, named California Forever, includes LinkedIn founder and Democrat megadonor Reid Hoffman, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Emerson Collective founder and Steve Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell Jobs, and former Goldman Sachs trader Jan Sramek.

Since 2017, California Forever has bought up 60,000 acres of land in rural East Solano County, about 60 miles northeast of San Francisco. The group has unveiled plans to build a 15-minute city on that land, expected to house approximately 400,000 residents.

What is a 15-minute city?

A 15-minute city is a community in which everything a resident needs is within a 15-minute walking distance, obviating the need for cars. The idea is being pushed by globalist elites, who present 15-minute cities as idyllic utopias that will save the climate by reducing private vehicles. Many oppose 15-minute cities, however, calling them “climate ghettos” that would allow authorities to impose pandemic-style lockdowns more efficiently.

California Forever has touted the planned city in East Solano as “walkable.” From its website, it is clear that the city is meant to reduce private cars. 

“The community is designed to provide a range of transportation alternatives to cars, including walking, biking, and frequent transit service,” the website says, adding that the plan is designed so “each family can live within a short walk for most daily needs, including schools.”

California Forever Head of Planning Gabriel Metcalf claimed last month that residents will have “freedom of choice” in transportation and private cars are not being outlawed. However, the group’s website makes it clear that the intent is for families to only own one private car.

“Car light living – our goal is to make it possible for a family to have one car instead of two or three, by making it possible for parents to work locally, and for kids to walk to school,” says California Forever’s website.

“Many of our streets are designated as ‘community streets’, which accommodate cars but only at 10 miles per hour, and greenways, which are car-free spaces,” the site explains. “These designs turn these streets into public spaces that foster community, by making it easier and more pleasant to go for a walk, to sit on your stoop and chat to your neighbors, and to bump into your friends more often when going somewhere. Just as importantly, these streets make it possible for kids to walk to school alone, giving them more independence (and giving their parents a lot of time back!).”

The plan will be presented to voters in November.

WEF: 15-minute cities ‘a matter of life and death’

Powerful organizations like the World Economic Forum (WEF) have thrown their considerable weight behind 15-minute cities.

“As climate change and global conflict cause shocks and stresses at faster intervals and increasing severity, the 15-minute city will become even more critical,” declared the WEF, which suggested that 15-minute cities are intended to make lockdowns easier.

“[W]ith COVID-19 and its variants keeping everyone home (or closer to home than usual), the 15-minute city went from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a rallying cry,” says the WEF on its website. “Meeting all of one’s needs within a walking, biking or transit distance was suddenly a matter of life and death. The pandemic created an urgency around equitable urbanism that sidelined arguments about bike lanes and other ‘amenities’ that have roiled communities for years.”

Reducing private car ownership is one of the main objectives of the climate agenda. In May 2023, the WEF outlined a framework for a 75% reduction in private car ownership by 2050 to reduce carbon emissions. By 2050, the WEF estimates there will be about 2.1 billion cars in use, which will emit 4.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide. To save the planet from alleged climate change, the organization aims to reduce the number of cars to 0.5 billion. 

C40 backs 15-minute cities

The WEF is joined in its support for 15-minute cities by C40, a Soros-backed conglomerate of nearly 100 mayors who have pledged to transform their cities into climate-compliant communities. 

“A 15-minute city reimagines streets and public space to prioritise people not driving, building more vibrant neighbourhoods where walking and cycling are the main ways of getting around. It enables and encourages people to choose not to drive. This means reclaiming car-dominated space for more productive, social and community-building uses, upgrading walking and cycling infrastructure to better serve the daily, local trips of people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds, and expanding green space in every neighbourhood,” explains the C40 network on its website.

Oxford: A 15-minute city case study

In November 2022, the UK’s Oxfordshire County Council voted to carve the city of Oxford into “15-minute neighborhoods” by restricting Oxford residents from driving beyond their own community centers. 

The system involves six “traffic filters” — busy stretches of road that filter one neighborhood into another. From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week, private vehicles that are caught driving past their own neighborhoods for “non-essential needs” will be subject to a £70 fine. 

Private drivers who wish to travel through the traffic filters may apply for a permit for up to 100 days a year, which averages out to about two days per week. In a household that has multiple vehicles, a maximum of three permits will be allowed. 

Other cities around the world are also implementing 15-minute neighborhoods or cities, including Paris, Portland, Barcelona, and Edmonton, Ontario.

‘15-minute ghettos’

German Member of European Parliament (MEP) Christine Anderson is among those who oppose 15-minute cities. Speaking on a recent episode of Ask Dr. Drew, Anderson said the “15-minute ghettos” will be used for “climate lockdowns.”

"The climate madness is the very next thing they're coming up with,” she stated. “So people are willing to give up their cars, individual mobility, even possibly accept like these 15-minute ghettos which will be used to have a climate lockdown and all of that. But it's always for ‘the greater good,’ for the ‘good of society’ and we have to sacrifice, sacrifice and sacrifice and once we are there we will live in this great utopia. Well, no, we won't."