Carlos Moreno: The Man Behind the 15-Minute City
"Modern man is a prisoner who thinks he is free because he refrains from touching the walls of his dungeon." — Nicolas Gomez Davila, Colombian writer and philosopher (1913-1994)
By now, the reader is presumably aware – if only after watching the video above – of the WEF’s intention to transform Paris, once lauded as the pinnacle of cultural excellence and highbrow European discernment, into a showpiece for its current flagship proposal: the 15-minute city.
No doubt, their propaganda is on point. Drenched in a languid springtime glow, boulevards tree-lined and dotted with locals dining al fresco, this still yet theoretical utopia is portrayed as trendy, genteel, but above all convenient, its newly partitioned design complementing the native joie de vivre while simultaneously stripping away all the downsides implicit with modern Parisian life. But the French capital is far from alone. In recent months, similarly sanitized depictions of Madrid, Mumbai, and Johannesburg; London, Melbourne, and Seattle have all begun to emerge, each of these emanating from the Schwab-affiliated, Sadiq Khan-led C40 initiative - ‘a network of mayors of nearly 100 world-leading cities collaborating to deliver the urgent action needed right now to confront the climate crisis.’
Suffice to say, this is little more than branding. After all, one need only brush the globalist talking points from atop the WEF’s blueprints in order to see that the 15-minute city is inspired by the same megalomania behind Mao’s so-called “People’s Communes” and the kommunalka of the USSR, tyranny this time given structure by renowned French-Colombian urbanist, Carlos Moreno.
Who is Carlos Moreno?
Professor at Panthéon Sorbonne University and co-founder of Chaire ETI, a Paris-based research collective, it seems fair to say that Carlos Moreno has been at the forefront of Smart Cities even before such concepts became technologically viable. Possessing a background in both robotics and artificial intelligence, the soon-to-be city planner was quick to recognize how advances in these fields might be applied to, and indeed revolutionize authorities’ approach to urban development – a vision that would ultimately manifest in his “Digital and Sustainable City” and later “The Thirty Minute Territory.”
Politicians soon took notice. But although it remains Anne Hidalgo, Paris’s socialist Mayor who was the first and still most high-profile leader to openly embrace Moreno’s ideas, others have listened more covertly, the much sought-after advisor today ranking amongst the most influential voices in Europe’s ever-expanding “green agenda.” Bestowed the Légion d'honneur by France back in 2010, this has been followed by a litany of other accolades, not least the UN HABITAT’s prestigious “Scroll of Honor” as well as the 2021 Obel Award, the video above showing Moreno outline – in his stilted, idiosyncratic English – the three principles which underpin his notion of the 15-minute city: