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.
See the Charter Awards presented in a lunchtime ceremony at CNU XIII in Pasadena on Friday, June 10, 2005. The awards ceremony is one of the high points of the year in New Urbanism – with jurors and winning project teams sharing the stage to...
Andrew Nash has developed a website called the International City Planners Network, to facilitate exchanges of urban planning ideas among multidisciplinary design and planning professionals. Nash says the Network, a nonprofit organization based in...
Also in Atlanta, a 28-acre infill new urban project called Glenwood Park announced that its first retail tenants — a coffeehouse and a Latin restaurant — are scheduled to open June 1. When completed, Glenwood Park will comprise 325-360 residences,...
By James Howard Kunstler Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005, 307 pp., hardcover $23. Humpty Dumpty sits on a wall, parties, and has a great time. He’s completely oblivious to warnings of danger, and leaning too far back. We all know what happens next...
After lagging behind much of the nation for a dozen years, New England is finally starting to show strong interest in traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs), town centers, new urban brownfield developments, and transit-oriented communities....
Urbanists are directing the planning process for a 12,000-acre addition to the Portland urban growth boundary (UGB). Otak, a Portland-based planning and urban design firm, is leading the project, and the design team included new urbanists Laurence...
Judith A. Corbett, founder of the Local Government Commission, a Sacramento-based group that helps cities and counties plan better, received the “Distinguished Leadership Award for a Citizen Planner” from the American Planning Association March 22...
People in Chittenden County, Vermont, are talking about whether they could use devices such as roundabouts, rather than a proposed Circumferential Highway, to relieve traffic congestion on Rt. 2A in the towns of Williston and Essex. The Vermont...
Public Architecture, a think tank and grassroots organization in San Francisco, has launched “1% Solution,” a program aimed at getting design professionals to commit one percent of their time to pro bono work. The new organization, at www....
With its theme, “The Polycentric City, CNU XIII will explore issues that arise in Southern California and resonate in regions and localities everywhere. After all, regions all over the United States and beyond are facing the reality of connecting,...
Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania, recently adopted comprehensive plan and zoning amendments that will allow a town center, a traditional neighborhood development (TND), and a hospital district influenced by smart growth principles to move forward....
TOD or transit-oriented development is a complex topic that can nevertheless be demystified.
In new urbanist parlance, the “transit” of TOD is often assumed to refer to rail. But rail is merely the most glamorous of various means, including buses,...