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.
Sales at Baldwin Park in Orlando, Florida, have continued at a torrid pace. Absorption has averaged 700 units per year, according to a report in Land Development magazine. The project, which began sales in 2002 and opened model homes in April of...
Can Hagerstown and other cities just beyond the sprawl of the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area be strengthened through renovation of their centers and by compact new development? That’s the question that drives Alan Feinberg and Nick Pittas....
James Urban, principal of Urban Trees & Soils in Annapolis, has compiled 10 strategies, of three different kinds, for successful development of trees in cities.
Due to a disagreement over equity financing levels, the City of Lenexa, Kansas, broke off its three-year partnership with the Haile Group, a new urbanist developer based in Gainesville, Florida. The Haile Group drew up plans for, and was planning to...
An organization called “The Students for the New Urbanism at the University of Miami” (SNU Miami) has been formed, with Juan Muller [should be “Mullerat”] as president. The group expects to produce a publication that will be distributed in January...
The Atlanta Regional Commission has allocated $252 million of mainly federal funds toward establishment of a transit line and a linear park on existing railroad rights-of-way that ring Atlanta’s downtown, Midtown, and intown neighborhoods. The...
Leaders in San Jose, California, have begun what could be a momentous overhaul of development policies governing more than a third of the land in the 926,000-population city. The city’s plans could add 70,000 units of housing and increase the city’s...
Nine new chapter organizing committees have joined ranks with CNU’s four existing chapters. These chapters-in-the-making welcome your participation.
Steve Oubre of Architects Southwest reports that a half dozen traditional neighborhood developments have recently been approved and/or begun construction in Louisiana. Watch for more coverage of these projects, designed by Oubre, based in Lafayette...
MLP Investments and Christner Inc. architects won an AIA Merit Award in urban design for their Hanley Station project in St. Louis, Missouri. The 8-acre, transit-oriented development with 150 apartments and 55,000 square feet of retail will begin...
Cleveland and its suburbs are getting a slew of projects that range from retail “lifestyle centers” — generally set apart from their surroundings and lacking housing — to mixed-use new urban developments. The latest project, unveiled in December,...
Avisitor to Gateway Crossing in the West End of Hagerstown, Maryland, might not sense that he has encountered a “project” or “development.” Gateway Crossing appears more like, well, Hagerstown — a small city with streets lined by two-story, single...