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.
Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection, a new book by Professor Stephen R. Kellert of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, examines people’s need for elements of nature, whether in cities or in...
Chad Emerson will teach a course on federal, state, and local laws and regulations governing smart-growth planning and development, beginning Jan. 12 at Faulkner University’s Jones School of Law in Montgomery, Alabama. Emerson, a Faulkner professor...
Hammond’s Ferry, a 200-acre traditional neighborhood development (TND) now under construction in North Augusta, South Carolina, builds upon a plan that James U. Jackson, the original developer of North Augusta, set forth in the 1890s and never...
Redwood City, California, intends to become the first city
in the US to use the market-rate pricing system for public parking recommended by UCLA planning professor Donald Shoup. On Feb. 1, downtown Redwood City will introduce pricing ideas...
Transportation II. The pedestrian environment; frontages D. Shopfront and awning; gallery and arcade
Within the urban center and core zones uses mix densely,
and the value of land is such that the setback of facades from property lines often diminishes to zero. Private and public realms abut directly. Consequently the details of their design...
Plans are moving forward in New York’s Borough of Brooklyn for Willoughby Square, a collection of offices, hotel space, and residential condominiums with a new 1.5-acre park at its core. Unlike the nearby MetroTech Center, which was designed some 15...
The population of American downtowns rose 10 percent during the 1990s, reversing 20 years of decline, according to a new study by Eugenie L. Birch of the University of Pennsylvania’s planning school. Birch examined downtown population, household,...
On Providence’s Eastside, homes
with holiday lights slowly pass by my train window. After passing a half-dozen downtown development projects on my walk from the train station to the office, I can’t help but think that “Developing the New...
An article by Andrew Nelson in the November-December National Geographic Traveler pays this tribute to pedestrian-friendly traits, as found in Philadelphia: “One of Philadelphia’s greatest assets is of a low-tech variety — its sidewalks. A city...
New Urban News won in the “General Excellence: Newsletters” category in Utne magazine’s 2005 Independent Press awards. The announcement was made in Utne’s January 2006 issue.
An urban renovator advocates New Urbanism, but the “model project” leaves some cold.
Poor New Orleans. A city full of character, and characters, it’s had continual trouble marshaling a response since Hurricane Katrina.
In mid-November the...
For the first time, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) is proposing building emergency shelters in a neighborhood form that could evolve into permanent settlements over the years. Experience with Hurricane Andrew shows that...