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 national attention, and associated criticism, generated by work in the Gulf Coast region was one of many issues raised at the June Congress for the New Urbanism in Providence, Rhode Island. Other topics included certification of projects,...
The kayaking young developers Katie Selby and her brother Jed Selby expect the first building permits for their South Main mixed-use neighborhood in Buena Vista, Colorado, to be issued by the beginning of July. The 40-acre project along the Arkansas...
Every component of urbanism possesses both technical and social dimensions. While there are always good reasons for a traditional component or relationship of components to assume a standard form, there are also times when some widespread alteration...
A groundbreaking was held in May for the $350 million Pleasant Hill BART transit village in Contra Costa County, California. Lennertz Coyle & Associates (now HDR Town Planning of San Francisco, California) designed the project nearly five years...
Newburgh, New York, has chosen Leyland Alliance LLC to be master developer of 30 acres on the Hudson River waterfront, 55 miles north of New York. Leyland’s president, Steve Maun, said the firm will engage officials and citizens of the 28,000-person...
California State Treasurer Philip Angelides, who developed Laguna West, a dozen miles south of downtown Sacramento, won the Democratic nomination for governor
Earlier this year EPA released a series of long-awaited publications on water resources and development patterns (see the March 2006 New Urban News). A review of one of those publications, Protecting Water Resources with Higher-Density Development,...
Bob Regan, author of The Steps of Pittsburgh (reviewed in the June 2004 New Urban News), has written a companion book, The Bridges of Pittsburgh, published by The Local History Company in Pittsburgh. Like the earlier volume, the new 182-page...
After 10 years as planning director for the City of Fort Pierce, Florida, Ramon Trias has formed Trias & Associates, a firm specializing in town planning and urban design. Based in Fort Pierce, Trias & Associates is working with national...
Steve Schukraft, who led the new urbanist team in Moss Point, Mississippi, beginning with the Mississippi Renewal Forum last October, has left HOK Planning Group in Washington, DC, to direct the Planning & Urban Design Studio of HDR in Tampa,...
The City of Hercules, California, authorized its redevelopment agency in late May to use the power of eminent domain to seize 17 acres owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. rather than let the retail chain build a superstore on the site. The property lies...
People on foot may benefit as the Transect is applied to street design.
Nelson/Nygaard Associates of San Francisco is developing “performance measures” that may help overcome an entrenched problem — the refusal of transportation engineers to pay...