The urban utopia of Anne Hidalgo


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Shops, parks, offices… The socialist mayor wants to make Paris a “quarter-hour city”. So what is this project that appeals to sores so much?




By Kevin Badeau

The socialist town hall of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, on a bike ride on September 18, 2022.
The socialist town hall of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, on a bike ride on September 18, 2022.
© Carine Schmitt/Hans Lucas via AFP

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VAre you tired of those hours lost in transport to get to the office, the supermarket, the doctor, the park or the cinema? If so, close your eyes and imagine a city in which these everyday places would all be within a fifteen-minute walk or bike ride of your home. Now open your eyes: you have traveled, for the time of a dream, in the “quarter-hour city”.

This urban utopia, which seduces intellectual circles, owes its paternity to the Franco-Colombian academic Carlos Moreno. This city expert has imagined a concept to make “time available” to city dwellers, to contribute to “energy sobriety” and to the “fight against global warming”. His idea seduces all over the world. Milan, Du…




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