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.
The City of San Gabriel, California, adopted a plan aimed at transforming Valley Boulevard — the community’s major transportation corridor — and the adjacent residential neighborhoods into a vibrant mixed-use area. The Valley Vision Plan calls for...
Douglas Duany is working for the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment and is living in Poundbury, the town in southwest England being developed by Prince Charles. His responsibilities include teaching the Foundation’s urban designers who...
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...
In the six years since the Portland (Oregon) Streetcar began operating, the city’s Pearl District has experienced a remarkable development boom — one that is causing other cities to consider starting streetcar systems of their own.
A $750,000 research project is underway that will evaluate how traditional neighborhoods impact walking patterns, automobile use, and quality of life at locations nationwide. Three new urban communities will be studied: New Town at St. Charles,...