Comment by maxsilver | Hacker News Reader

Comment by maxsilver | Hacker News Reader

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Because most people don't have the luxury of choosing those things.

- I don't have any meaningful control over where I'm allowed to work

- I don't have any meaningful control over where my spouse is allowed to work

- I only have a tiny amount of control over where I'm allowed to live (most of it prices us out, despite being above-average income)

- even if I do exercise some control, it can be changed or stripped from me by others at any time. (You may get laid off and have to find a new office. Or your office may move away from you -- when you are hired, the office might only have been 12 miles away, but later they moved the office so it's now 25 miles away)

- You may not always be allowed to move in response to those changes (you might not be able to afford to move your whole house every two years, when job situations for you/your spouse change. And if you have kids, doing this super disrupts any chance they may have at a social life via school)

- You may not even be allowed to change home or school locations. (Divorced people exist, shared-custody children exist and are in some places, the most common form of parenting in 2023, you might not be allowed to relocate your kids schools ever)

A lot of anti-transportation "15 minute city" idealists like to handwave away how incredibly complicated it is, to magically get your entire life to line up such that you don't ever have to travel medium-sized distances. That is an extreme luxury that most people will never have.

The 15 minute city isn't one you never leave, it is one where basic tasks of life are within 15 minutes. Most people will leave it for work, but they will stop and play within 15 minutes of home.

Otherwise you are spot on. If your company moves offices within the same city's MSA they assume you can get there. If they move office to a different city they will pay to move you.

> Most people will leave it for work, but they will stop and play within 15 minutes of home.

Even that assumes you don't have relatively specific hobbies. Which I guess is true for many people, but it's highly unlikely that (for example) my preferred martial arts instructor and my preferred dance instructor are going to be within 15 minutes of where I live.

And of course, your girlfriend/boyfriend, if you don't live together.

What are you getting at? Are you incapable of nuance? It was already stated that a 15 minute city isn't a place you never leave, it's a place where you can meet your daily needs within 15 minutes. If you want to go to a specific martial arts instructor, then yes, you probably have to leave. But if you just want a place to work out, that will be around. If you want to go to a specific grocer, you will probably have to leave, but there will be a place where you can get your milk and veggies within 15 minutes. If you meet someone from outside your neighborhood, you'll have to visit them, but if you spend more time in your neighborhood, you'll likely make stronger bonds there.

> What are you getting at? Are you incapable of nuance?

Your rudeness aside, what I'm getting at is that I'll likely have to leave once or twice a day even not accounting for work. I live in a European city and get everywhere by car BTW.

Don't assume most people will leave it for work. Oxford, England intends to charge people who drive across a 15 minute zone boundary more than a few times a week. https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23073992.traffic-filters-w...

> I don't have any meaningful control over where I'm allowed to work

And that's exactly why remote work should be the norm (for the professions where it is at all possible)

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