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.
A 45-acre town center that draws some of its architectural inspiration from a historic Shaker settlement may be built in Colonie, New York, north of Albany. New Loudon Road Associates, a development firm based in Schenectady, hired the New York...
Newly elected Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker announced in January that he wants to improve the city’s planning operation within six months, create a bikeway system, and revise building codes to conform to LEED standards. Becker, a planning...
Michigan new urbanists will soon have a new CNU chapter to help focus their efforts in creating a more walkable, sustainable, neighborhood-based Michigan. On January 23, fifteen CNU members came together in Lansing, Michigan, for the second meeting...
Back-to-back cottages — a model that could be used on small lots in many towns and cities — are under construction in the Bywater section of New Orleans. Corner Markers/Bywater LLC, a partnership of architect Andres Duany, New Towns publisher...
Redevelopment of 711-acre Mueller Airport combines New Urbanism, green features, and affordable housing.By early March, the first 50 families will have moved onto the site of the former Robert Mueller Municipal Airport, about three miles northeast...
Edited by Paul Stanton KibelThe MIT Press, 2007, 216 pp., $22 paperbackOf the six riverfronts carefully examined in this book, the one with the most exciting prospects is the Anacostia — sometimes referred to as Washington, DC’s “other river.” Much...
The redevelopment of an Old Sawmill District into a neighborhood has received approval from the City of Missoula, Montana. The 46-acre site will provide housing, common areas, commercial uses, and access to the existing riverfront trail and park...
A New York Times article of February 27 comments on the revival of Downcity Providence, Rhode Island, in the last decade. The article gives substantial credit to new urbanist Buff Chace, a developer who has restored eight buildings at a cost of $80...
Tax subsidies that would help General Growth Properties redevelop the obsolete Cottonwood Mall in Holladay, Utah, into a 57-acre town center won endorsements recently from the local and county governments and school district. The Salt Lake Tribune...
The current woes of the housing market and subprime mortgages are only the beginning of troubles for suburbia, according to an article in The Atlantic by Christopher Leinberger, a developer, visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, and...
Samuel Sherman Jr., cochair of the CNU XV local host committee, and a former suburban housing developer who has become a major force in Philadelphia’s development community since adopting New Urbanism as a guiding philosophy, joined the CNU Board in...
The Smart Growth Leadership Institute has released a toolkit to “help communities untangle the thicket of policies and procedures that get in the way of implementing smart growth strategies and sustainable urban development.” The tools were put...