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.
By John M. DeGroveLincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2005, 360 pp., paperback $30.
Affluent Americans are increasingly buying or renting second homes in urban centers. “The 2000 Census indicated that the number of apartments in Manhattan used as second homes had increased 141 percent to 21,640 over the previous decade, and the...
The City of Toronto won a significant legal battle in March when the Ontario Municipal Board upheld the city’s right to limit drive-through facilities. The Board ruled that the city was justified in refusing to let Canadian Tire Corporation include...
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has become the first governor to veto legislation curtailing eminent domain. Since the US Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London last June, more than 40 states have passed or considered legislation to cut...
Sandy Sorlien and Jonathan Barnett spoke in a University of Pennsylvania symposium in February on “Rebuilding Urban Places After Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina.” This summer Penn Press will publish a volume of the symposium papers, edited...
A design that Washington, DC, architect Milton Grenfell produced for the Mississippi Renewal Forum last October was the cover illustration for the February issue of Traditional Building. Inside the magazine was a 4,000-word feature by Period Homes...
Since 2002, Albuquerque developer Rob Dickson has completed three phases of converting the long-vacant Albuquerque High School to housing. Now his Paradigm & Company LLC is about to start the fourth and final phase, which calls for building 54...
If economic feasibility studies turn out favorably, there’s a good chance that Wal-Mart will combine its rebuilt store in Pass Christian, Mississippi, with 300 to 500 townhouses and apartments.
Since last October’s Mississippi Renewal Forum, new...
A senior vice president of a real estate financing and development firm, Faison Enterprises, recently criticized the financial returns of new urban town centers. Frank Herring, who is based in Winter Park, Florida, says town centers cost 30 percent...
By John Nolen Introduction by Charles D. Warren University of Massachusetts Press in association with the Library of American Landscape History, 2005, 228 pp., hardcover $35
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Orton Family Foundation will develop new planning tools and processes that coastal communities can use. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation will give the Orton Family Foundation $250,000 to introduce...
The Oregon Supreme Court in February upheld Measure 37, a law that could undo the state’s three-decade-long effort to restrict development outside urban growth boundaries. The law, approved by voters in November 2004, requires governments to let...