Caption: when you want the government to dictate that everyone live in cookie-cutter houses with cookie-cutter lawns and drive cookie-cutter cars

Image below: an image from the miniseries “Chernobyl” of a Soviet officer shaking hands with several people dressed up in protective suits, saying, “I serve the Soviet Union”

Note that this meme is meant to make fun of NIMBYs who spread the conspiracy theories about 15-minute cities being some evil communist plot to take away their freedom

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    evil communist plot to take away their freedom

    This is why I disagree with people who want all or nothing, people who think in binary and expect to perfectly achieve their version of ideal. It doesn’t happen

    It helps that I experienced this directly: lived in a great place where everything was convenient by walking, with an unlimited train and bus pass so I had freedom to go anywhere any time (that the trains were running). I still “needed” my car. The best way to encourage more people like me to go carless is to accept the reality, and include a place to stash cars long term. Feel free to make it inconvenient, even. Just let me keep a car until I’m ready to give it up. Give me the freedom to choose on my own terms.

    I’ve even experienced this in several small towns, where you have a walkable downtown but need to drive everywhere else. My ex in-laws lived in a farming town of a thousand or so (because 400 college kids)and they had these great old fashioned streets with alleys behind. The streets were quiet and walkable, people hung out on their front porches , there were small town shops and restaurants, they seemed to know everyone they passed …. If you needed your car, you walk out back to the garage and drive down the alley. If you were coming from a farm, you’d park in the lot behind a pub or restaurant and walk to other places in town. Great combination of a 15 minute small town, still allowing for cars but out of the way

    • rockhandle@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      People often point to the Netherlands as being a car free utopia and while they definitely have some of the best car independent infrastructure, they haven’t fully given up on car infrastructure either, but rather recognised it’s most prominent use cases and accommodated it appropriately. I believe that this is the best way to pull off this dream. It satisfies everyone.