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.
Salishan, one of the toughest neighborhoods in Tacoma, Washington, is being turned around by a 188-acre HOPE VI project, The New York Times reported June 24. The 90 market-rate houses in the project’s first phase, some of them priced between $202,...
The Urban Land Institute (ULI) has established a Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing, which will work with other organizations on the design, development, and financing of mixed-income workforce housing in several urban areas. The Center,...
The Cottage Living Idea House was nearing completion in New Orleans in June and will open for tours July 12 through September 2, according to architect Eric Moser. It is scheduled to be published in the October issue of Cottage Living, Moser reports.
Lowe’s stores throughout Mississippi and Louisiana are selling Katrina cottages with four different floor plans. The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, Louisiana, reports that prices start at $29,850 for a 544 sq. ft. unit. The three larger sizes are...
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,...
By Robert E. Lang and Jennifer LeFurgyBrookings Institution Press, 2007, 198 pp., paperback, $26.95.As America’s post-World-War II suburbs become ever larger and more diverse, so do the ways of describing them. In the early 1990s the term “edge...
Planners and citizens in Louisville, Kentucky, are beginning to get businesses to replace aging suburban-style strip-commercial buildings with new buildings that better define the streets and public spaces. The latest example is the planned...
“We are getting some serious interest now,” George R. Grasser says of the public’s response to The Gardens at Oxbow, the first traditional neighborhood development in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area. Three houses have been built in the...
Reconnecting America, a nonprofit organization devoted to transit-oriented development (TOD), has established a Best Practices Clearinghouse — a searchable database on topics such as TOD affordability, funding, finance, zoning, and coding. The...
Louisiana appears to be on the verge of its most ambitious planning in decades.In May the “Louisiana Speaks” process — 18 months of consultation organized by Calthorpe Associates and Fregonese Calthorpe Associates — concluded after more than 27,000...
Arlington County, Virginia, has shown that a suburban county can add plenty of housing, offices, and retail space without placing much additional burden on the roads.
Between 1996 and 2006 Arlington added 8,300 dwellings, 4.14 million sq. ft. of...