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.
More support for the idea that street trees are a civic amenity, not a safety hazard, is offered by the study “Street Trees and Intersection Safety,” by University of California, Berkeley, urban design professor Elizabeth Macdonald. The study notes...
Writer, teacher, and architect Witold Rybczynski is winner of both the 2007 Seaside Prize, to be presented Jan. 27, in Seaside, Florida, and the Vincent Scully Prize, to be awarded Jan. 17 at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC....
Leland Speed has stepped down as executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority, a position in which he worked on the redevelopment of communities damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
The SmartCode cleared a hurdle in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where it was approved by the planning commission in December. Pass Christian was one of the communities on the coast devasted by Hurricane Katrina.
The Whole House Building System is off to a good start, producing complete townhouses and detached dwellings in a traditional neighborhood development (TND) setting.
Urban Design Associates (UDA) has been selected to prepare the rebuilding plan for the Lafitte, Treme, and Tulane-Gravier neighborhoods in New Orleans. Providence Community Housing of New Orleans and Enterprise Homes of Baltimore, commissioned UDA...
Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland is collaborating with two local developers, MRN Limited Partnership and Zaremba Inc., to create a $150 million arts, retail, and residential development on 8.5 acres at University Circle, the city’s...
In Paris, a motorist with a cellphone or a GPS navigation device will soon be able to find out whether there’s a parking garage nearby that has space available. An organization of French parking garages announced in November that approximately 120...
CNU summit in Boulder showcases Project for Transportation Reform. The nearly 200 transportation enthusiasts who gathered in Boulder November 17-18 witnessed the evolution of CNU’s annual transportation summit into a showcase for the organization...
Mary Vogel, principal of PlanGreen in Washington, DC, helped prepare the Green Building Act of 2006, which the DC Council approved in December. If signed by the mayor and approved by the US Congress, the act would require new District-owned projects...
Donovan Scruggs stepped down as planning director of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to do planning-related consulting work for Tolar LeBatard Denmark Architects, the firm that produced a development of Katrina Cottages known as Cottage Square. Scruggs...
Table title: Pedestrian Survival Rates — Vehicle Speeds New urbanists call for changes in ITE guide to “context-sensitive” design.