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.
An overhaul has begun for one of the most distressed neighborhoods in the New York City inner-ring suburbs.
Providence, Rhode Island, seeks to transform its major plaza — now compromised by buses and other vehicular traffic — into a gateway to the city. Getting to this point required a series of small steps.
Talk of the built environment, sprawl, and the suburbs was prominent in the media in the last week. As economist and The New York Times columnist Paul Krugman argued that spread-out metro areas decrease opportunities for economic mobility, a new...
Nobel Prize winner and Times columnist Paul Krugman examines how the spread-out development patterns of the US are keeping Horatio Alger down.
The nation should curb mortgage interest and real estate tax deductions to expand housing programs, revitalize cities and towns, and cut the deficit, Smart Growth America and Locus say.
Amid all of the anguish over the bankruptcy of Detroit, Richard Florida offers one of the few hopeful analyses: "Detroit's downtown urban core is seeing more investment, economic activity and an influx of talent than it has in decades. This...
As the dog days of summer approach, Atlanta’s apartment sector continues to bring the heat, especially in walkable neighborhoods.
The Sightline Institute in Seattle has published an e-book that offers three policy recommendations for affordable housing: Re-legalizing rooming or boarding houses; uncapping the number of roommates who may share a dwelling; and welcoming accessory...
Much harm was done to cities when the interstate highways were built — especially the interruption of street grids — and fixing the damage can be costly. I-579 plus an urban renewal project involving a large arena separated downtown Pittsburgh from...
Slate publishes the best headline ever for an article against minimum parking requirements, "Out Damned Spot."
Rhode Island’s classic Arcade is to be reactivated with tiny housing units that are becoming popular in cities around the US.
A study recently argued in the Journal of Transport and Land Use that locating a big box store near downtown can reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) significantly in a particular community.