Archives
Welcome to the archives of Better Cities & Towns, a publication founded by Robert Steuteville as New Urban News in 1996. This archive holds two decades of the best news and analysis on compact, mixed-use growth and development, from 1996 to 2015.
Over the next 12 months, individuals associated with CNU and the Institute of Traffic Engineers (ITE) will work on making refinements to a guide the two organizations have produced: Context Sensitive Solutions in Developing Major Urban Thoroughfares...
n the 1960s, two elevated Interstate highways were built along the edges of an old, mixed-use area north of downtown San Antonio. The result —no surprise, in retrospect — was that the area pretty much languished for the next 40 years. Now, however,...
The Bywater Cottages in New Orleans have more than one floor of living space, contrary to what we reported in the March issue. Diane Dorney, a partner in their development, says the second level contains a large loft with a bathroom.
Brookings Institution’s Urban Markets Initiative and the Center for Neighborhood Technology launched an interactive mapping website April 9 that allows people to calculate the cost of housing and transportation — by neighborhood — in 52 metropolitan...
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley introduced legislation in March to aggressively promote transit-oriented development (TOD). “For decades in our State and in our country, our transportation system has followed land use,” said O’Malley. “Now, we must...
With the walkable, neighborhood-based development favored by new urbanists becoming fast established as a needed remedy to the central threats facing the earth’s environment — and the hazards of oil dependency — the Austin Congress became the place...
Daniel Parolek, Karen Parolek, and Paul Crawford have identified nine errors that people commonly make when designing and applying form-based codes (FBCs).
Fourteen homebuilders are at work in Oshara Village, a New Mexico development that combines New Urbanism and resource-saving features to reduce stress on the environment. Developer Alan Hoffman says his 470-acre project, just south of Santa Fe, uses...
The latest edition of “Emerging Trends in Real Estate” identifies transit-oriented development as a “best bet” for investors. The annual report published by the Urban Land Institute and Pricewaterhouse Coopers says that in light of traffic...
The US Green Building Council has compiled an on-line catalog of green building strategies that have been used in LEED-certified projects. The Innovation & Design Credit Catalog is available at www.usgbc.org.
Hank Dittmar, chief executive of the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, received the Seaside Prize during a ceremony in Seaside, Florida. Dittmar, who stepped down as chairman of the board of CNU this April, was honored for “significant...
After years of finding themselves on opposite sides of disagreements about street design approvals, new urbanists and members of the fire service profession gathered in Austin just before the start of CNU XVI and discovered they have more in common...