# Only about a quarter of Canadians are living the 15-minute city

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2020-11-26

15-minute-city, alex-bozikovic, amenity-dense-neighborhoods, canadian-cities, danielle-webb, joe-castaldo, montreal, toronto, urbanism, vancouver

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/f491009101aca3c654b914c0d063d143.jpg)

[This is an excellent article](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-when-it-comes-to-liveable-neighbourhoods-theres-a-wide-divide-in/) by Alex Bozikovic, Joe Castaldo and Danielle Webb about the 15-minute city. In it, they do a block-by-block analysis of how many Canadians actually live in what they are calling an "amenity dense" neighborhood.

Their definition of amenity dense:

*   Grocery store, pharmacy, and public transit stop within one kilometer
    
*   Childcare facility, primary school, and a library within 1.5 kilometers
    
*   Healthcare facility within three kilometers
    
*   Place of employment within 10 kilometers
    

Once you apply this filter to Canadian cities, it turns out that only about 23.3% of city dwellers live in this kind of amenity dense neighborhood. It's really only our three largest cities. For the most part, we have built environments that want you to have a car.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/fa337972dd5ddd4f839d82e477764496.jpg)

When it comes Toronto, and also Montreal, it is a tale of two almost equally divided cities. If you live in a central neighborhood, you're probably dense with amenities. But in the inner suburbs, it becomes pretty spotty. And though it can be done, this is not an easy change.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/c538132622fe377f436e06d450a8222f.jpg)

The full article has many more of these city maps and so I would encourage you to [check it out](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-when-it-comes-to-liveable-neighbourhoods-theres-a-wide-divide-in/). It's a great piece of journalism.

_Photo by_ [_Chloe Evans_](https://unsplash.com/@chloeevans?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) _on_ [_Unsplash_](https://unsplash.com/s/photos/vancouver?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/only-about-a-quarter-of-canadians-are-living-the-15-minute-city)*