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.
The cranky path of a 2,500-year-old canal is the route that architect Bill Dennis has chosen for “Canal Walk,” the narrow main neighborhood street to be built in a Tucson development called Rio Nuevo. “The remains of the canal were found about six...
CNU is planning “a series of think tanks for the next six months” on housing issues, says board member Ray Gindroz, who was involved in formulating the federal HOPE VI program. “I think we need six months to figure out the answer to the question” of...
What can philanthropic foundations best do to revitalize troubled neighborhoods? Living Cities, a national organization based in Harlem, has begun seeking answers to that question. Four foundations involved in Living Cities have launched Pilot...
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...
The New Urbanism trend is taking hold in northwest Indiana, according to an article in the Northwest Indiana Times. The article cites recent downtown redevelopment activity in towns like like Dyer and Highland, as well as new communities like Coffee...
Hellgate Meadows, the first neighborhood to be developed under a Traditional Neighborhood Development ordinance that the City of Missoula, Montana, adopted in February 2002, is rapidly heading toward completion. Developer Bob Brugh says the core of...
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...