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.
Emily Talen is leaving the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she has taught planning, to become a professor in the Urban and Metropolitan Studies Program at Arizona State University’s new downtown Phoenix campus, located on a light...
SmartCode Complete, a kit of tools aimed at helping municipalities successfully enact the SmartCode, is being introduced by PlaceMakers. Scott Doyon at PlaceMakers (www.placemakers.com) says the kit deals with individual education on the code, the...
The committee putting together the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development program (LEED-ND) was overwhelmed this spring by the number of applications it received from people wanting their projects included in the...
General Growth Properties, the nation’s second-largest owner of shopping malls, has decided to start redeveloping its more than 200 properties by adding housing, offices, hotels, and other elements — and applying New Urbanism’s techniques in some...
By Julie Campoli and Alex S. MacLeanLincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2007, 160 pp., paperbound $39.95.
Public transit use has jumped by 30 percent since 1995 while the nation’s population has grown 12 percent, according to the American Public Transportation Association. Transit use has grown faster than vehicle miles traveled on the nation’s highways...
“Citified suburbs” are becoming a new development model for the San Francisco Bay area, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “The landscape is changing because Americans are changing,” says Chronicle architecture critic John King. “An...
A form-based redevelopment code was recently approved for Blue Springs, Missouri, a city in the Kansas City area. The code was written by 180 Degrees Design Studio. The new zoning classifications are designed to streamline approval of redevelopment...
Geoff Dyer and Jaydean Boldt have ended their partnership in Civic Design Group in Calgary, Alberta, and established two separate firms. Dyer’s new firm, T|Six Office for Western Urbanism, will work on transit-oriented developments and other new...
A new website for Katrina Cottage-related efforts has been established, providing links to designers, builders, and distributors: www.katrinacottagehousing.org
Redevelopment of Naval center in San Diego is successful as a walkable neighborhood but a media report shows it generates no anticipated profits for the city. Developer cites increased tax revenues.��