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.
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...
The federal Joint Housing Solutions Group announced in late February that it will evaluate “Gulf Coast-type cottages with front porches” for possible use as disaster housing. Ann Daigle, a new urbanist planner who has been involved in housing...
By late this summer, residents will move into the first of 317 apartments in Voorhees Town Center in southern New Jersey. By next January, the first of 108 condominium units should come onto the market. Accompanying the housing will be 195,000...
Developer Robert Shaw, the former CEO of Columbus Realty Trust who was instrumental in the Uptown District renaissance in Dallas, now plans to build 800 units in Frisco Square in Frisco, Texas. Frisco Square is a 140-acre new urban town center...
After a 17-year struggle, development is underway in New Amherst in Cobourg, Ontario. The new urban community was designed by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company and is under development by Max LeMarchant and partners. The long saga is recounted by...
Evening Rose Town Center broke ground in Talahassee in February, combining new urban design with sustainable building practices. The 120,000-square-foot Town Center is being building adjacent to the 132-unit Evening Rose residential community, both...
Taking place in Austin, Texas, during the first week in April, the Congress offers the best in planning and development of walkable neighborhoods.
As conventional development models falter — their stripped-down, single-use formulas proving...
Smart Growth BC, based in British Columbia, is developing a walkability index that the organization hopes municipalities throughout Canada will be interested in using. Cheeying Ho, executive director of Smart Growth BC, said the walkability index...