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.
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...
A booklet called “Ten Principles for Rebuilding Neighborhood Retail” was issued by the Urban Land Institute in December. The 23-page booklet is available in packets of 10 for $19.95 by calling ULI at (800) 321-5011 or by going online at www....
The American Dream is ending. Or, more accurately, the version of it that dominated the continent since the end of World War II is now in its baroque final phase. Demographic trends and changes in the prevailing kinds of work are bringing on the now...
After four years of trying to get up
and running, the Institute for Traditional Architecture (ITA) decided to join with the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America rather than remain a freestanding organization.
Congress recently ordered the Federal Transit Administration to pay no more than 60 percent of the capital costs of new mass transit projects. The Bush administration’s proposed budget for the 2004 fiscal year would further reduce the federal match...
Terrabrook Properties recently sold 21 master planned communities to Newland Communities. One of those properties was Clarksburg Town Center, a traditional neighborhood development in Montgomery County, Maryland.
A study in Galway, Ireland, one of the fastest-growing places in Europe, shows that “residents living in walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods are more likely to know their neighbors, to participate politically, to trust others, and to be involved...
The Institute for Justice, a Washington, DC, nonprofit organization that challenges what it sees as widespread misuse of the governmental power of eminent domain, has published Public Power, Private Gain: A Five-Year, State-by-State Report Examining...
Sales are picking up at Mt Laurel in Shelby County, Alabama. The Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) has about 100 homes built and a growing town center. Sales were slow for a couple of years, but increased to five per month and have held...
Atraditional neighborhood design offering affordable housing and other amenities for Navy personnel in San Diego has won a National Award for Smart Growth Achievement from the US Environmental Protection Agency. Torti, Gallas & Partners of...
K Street in downtown Washington, DC, is to be reconfigured for bus rapid transit, which will run down the middle of the roadway. In The Boulevard Book, published in 2002, Allan Jacobs, Elizabeth Macdonald, and Yodan Rofé described K Street as a...