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.
William Lieberman has become program manager in the Transportation Program Division of Carter & Burgess, a national consulting firm in engineering, architecture, and related services. He is based in Oakland, California. Previously Lieberman was...
Developing and managing retail centers remains one of the most risky of all real estate categories. Retailers must respond to ever-changing consumer trends and demands, while constantly fending off new competition. As a result, the retail industry...
By Jay WalljasperNew Society Publishers, 2007, 192 pp., $19.95 paperback.
The 22.5-acre “Downtown Silver Spring” mixed-use project in the Silver Spring section of Montgomery County, Maryland, is expected to get 245 housing units, starting in 2008. Another future component of the project is a civic building that will...
Three new urban neighborhoods were designed in early July for developer Frank Liu in Houston, Texas, according to the Houston Chronicle. The projects were the first planned by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company in Houston. The sites include a 37-acre...
Over the past three years, CNU’s transportation task force has worked hard to reform engineering standards for major thoroughfares. Through a joint project with the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), CNU has been translating the principles...
Howard Blackson is now leading the [RE]Urbanism Group at Chong Partners Architecture, an urban design and architecture consulting office in San Diego. The office has had experience in producing public and private parking structures for infill mixed-...
The Urban Markets Initiative at Brookings Institution is setting up a website aimed at sharing information that will help urban communities function better. The Initiative identifies information gaps that impede business, nonprofit, and government...
The Planning and Zoning Commission of Mansfield, Connecticut, approved the plan for Storrs Center, a mixed-use town center being developed by LeylandAlliance in cooperation with Mansfield Downtown Partnership, a public entity. A special zoning...
The South Main development in Buena Vista, Colorado, is the first new urbanist project in the Rocky Mountains — and perhaps in the entire western US — to start selling Katrina Cottages. In August, South Main Development Inc. began offering four...
Nearly 35 percent of American children live within a mile of their school, but only half of those students regularly get to school on foot or on a bicycle, says a report in the July issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The...
Taos, one of the most historic communities in New Mexico, is sponsoring a charrette the week of September 17 to produce a locally tailored version of the SmartCode and a land-use master plan. Susan Henderson of PlaceMakers says her firm initially...