City Lab Daily

So close, yet so far: Imagine a city where all your essentials are just a short walk or bike ride from your doorstep: the doctor, your local boulangerie, even your office job. That’s the vision behind a 15-minute city, which is at the center of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s re-election bid. The plan calls for creating a more thoroughly integrated urban fabric, where stores mix with homes, bars with health centers, and schools with office buildings.  It's a bold plan that counters the planning orthodoxy of separating residential areas from retail, manufacturing, and office districts, and would require reversing car-centric, suburban-style zoning, writes Feargus O'Sullivan. But Paris isn't the first city to explore the concept. Cities from Barcelona to Portland, Oregon, are taking steps to curb car dependency and boost hyper-local development. The question is: Can a city like Paris expand neighborhood amenities without leaving people behind? Today on CityLab:  What It Would Take to Make Paris a ‘15-Minute City’ -Linda Poon More on CityLab What 4 Years of Trump’s Transportation Budgets Add Up To In his 2021 budget request, President Trump sends mixed messages about federal funding for highways, bridges, and railways. Sound familiar? -LAURA BLISS Inside a Pedestrian-First ‘Superblock’ A short film reveals the inner workings of Barcelona’s celebrated—and controversial—street revamps. -LAURA BLISS Lots of Cities Set Climate Goals. These Cities Are Meeting Them Palo Alto is ahead of the pack, while Oslo and New York are falling behind. -JEREMY HODGES, LAURA MILLAN LOMBRANA, AND DEMETRIOS POGKAS (BLOOMBERG) What We're Reading Why D.C.’s mayor endorsed Michael Bloomberg (New Yorker) How Ring and Nest helped normalize American surveillance — and turned us into a nation of voyeurs (Washington Post) Refugee docents help bring a museum's global collection to life (NPR) Is a world without trash possible? (National Geographic—paywall)