THE IDEA OF a 20-minute city came out of Portland, Oregon, in the early 2010s. Melbourne added its own twist on the concept later in the decade. With the emergence of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the buzz around 20-minute cities moved beyond urban planning circles to become a hot topic internationally. In 2020, the 15-minute city was famously adopted by Anne Hidalgo as part of her election platform as Mayor of Paris, and the concept is now being explored in multiple cities including Tempe in Arizona, Ottawa and Sydney.