Liveable cities prioritize access

The ability to walk anywhere for the basics of life has become a luxury, not a standard in most American cities. For most of the 20th century, we prioritized speed over the location. Helping people get from point A to B as quickly as possible is antithetical to the fundamentals of making places for people and innovation.

As travel speeds increase, grocery stores relocate. Homes get built further away from jobs. Takers gain the marketplace's priority spot rather than the healthy balance of creators, critics, and tinkerers. The result is swaths of stagnating, declining, and distressed neighborhoods and cities.

Even neighborhoods considered amenity-rich does not necessarily prioritize human development and connection.

Walkable cities prioritize access over speed. Access to skills, products, and gathering places is less isolated in this type of environment. A diversity of creation, production, and services are intermingled, not segregated.

Suppose we want to see a decrease in the number of stagnating and distressed neighborhoods and cities, a better republic, and a functioning democracy. In that case, we must pay attention to the places we are making.

Access, not mobility, is what will get us from here to there.