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.
Nothing better demonstrates the hardened arteries of the conventional American development system than its lag in understanding and producing true live-work units. Largely oblivious to changes in the character and stability of modern work, and to...
By Howard Husock Ivan R. Dee, 2003, 256 pp., $26. When President Bush proposed eliminating any new money for the HOPE VI program, he was following a recommendation of Myron Magnet, editor of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, and of Howard...
In 1988, civic leaders in Smyrna, Georgia, several miles northwest of Atlanta, realized they needed a town center. The old downtown had practically ceased to exist, becoming not much more than a collection of “antique shops and a few other things,”...
New president/CEO will try to heighten federal encouragement for mixed-use development.
Influencing federal housing policy is going to be a top goal of the Congress for the New Urbanism under its new president and CEO, former Milwaukee Mayor...
Celebration Company, a real estate
development division of the Disney Company, sold the Celebration, Florida, town center Jan. 21 to Lexin Capital, a New York-based private investment firm. Neither party disclosed the price. However, GlobeSt.com...
Homes are under construction in Wabash Crossing, formerly called the Near North Neighborhood, in Decatur, Illinois. The 120-acre project is partly funded by a Hope VI grant of $34.9 million. It includes the demolition of the 20-acre Longview Place...
Planning consultant Randall Arendt has produced a 60-minute video, “Creating Traditional Neighborhoods with Conservation Design Principles: The Greener Aspects of New Urbanism,” which aims at bridging the gaps separating land-use planners,...
Pennsylvania intends to launch an Elm Street Program to revitalize old residential areas near downtown commercial districts. State Rep. Robert Freeman, a Democrat representing the Easton area, proposed the program, which will provide money for trees...
Magnolia Square, a 300-acre high-density new urban development in The Colony, Texas , has completed two phases which are appraised at $60 million, according to a report in the Colony Courier-Leader. City officials are pleased at the tax revenues...
Ho-Chunk Village, a 40-acre new urban project in Native American land in Winnebago, Nebraska, has received a $200,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of the Active Living by Design program. Ho-Chunk Village, planned by HRD, 180...
Donald Watson, Alan Plattus, and Robert G. Shibley, Editors Judging by its title, you might think Time-Saver Standards for Urban Design would be a source mainly for street widths, sidewalk dimensions, parking ratios, and other matters than can...
The redevelopment of Far Eastside in Detroit, currently under construction, is a case study of new urban infill techniques on a large scale. There’s a pent-up demand for housing in the city of Detroit, which has resulted in significant interest on...