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.
A study by a University of Minnesota researcher adds to the growing evidence that urban places reduce automobile use. The study looked at the travel patterns of households in the Seattle area that moved from urban to suburban locations (defined...
“Stop and stay stopped. It’s that simple.” That’s how America Walks president Ellen Vanderslice sums up Oregon’s new law requiring motorists to yield to pedestrians in intersections with or without traffic signals or crosswalks.
The law, which...
Transportation buffs: read and write, help CNU! Suzahna Poliwka is coordinating CNU’s literature review of materials relevant to context-sensitive design of major streets. (See the article at left for more about this project.) She needs reviewers to...
Saratoga Springs, New York, used its new Transect-based zoning to get a developer to devise a more urban, pedestrian-oriented character for a hotel, retail, office, and residential complex that will be built on Marion Avenue northeast of downtown....
Norfolk, Virginia’s East Beach is at last on its way to becoming a reality. A public/private reclamation of 100 formerly blighted bayshore acres, the plan by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company has been delayed by land acquisition, relocation of...
The Livable Centers Initiative, which aims to encourage walking communities in metropolitan Atlanta, is providing $192,000 for engineering drawings that will be part of a plan for making Emory Village a high-quality mixed-use area serving Emory...
Christopher Leinberger of Arcadia Land Co., a leading new urbanist finance theorist, believes that financial returns from new urban communities lag behind conventional suburban development (CSD) in the first few years. But if done right, those new...
It’s the season for state meetings of the American Planning Association and American Institute of Architects. If you will be speaking at or attending one of these state meetings, and would like to publicize CNU, please contact Sandrine Milanello (...
In late July, the federal government agreed to fund the development of a context-sensitive design guidebook for major streets. The project, funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — brings...
How to revitalize 80 acres in the center of Coatesville, an 8,000-population southeast Pennsylvania steel town that has fallen on hard times, will be the focus of an Oct. 21-27 charrette conducted by Fellows in the Knight Program in Community...
Ferchill Group of Cleveland and Wispark LLC of Milwaukee have teamed up to buy the historic, long- empty Pabst Brewery complex west of downtown Milwaukee and convert it into “Pabst City,” a seven-block complex that will contain 450,000 square feet...
Once the garage placement on the lot has been settled, and the spaces immediately around the garage have been studied for their social and technical performance, it remains to design the garage itself. Two aspects are discussed here. Some are...