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.
Officers of the American Planning Association’s New Urbanism Division are chair Terry Wendt, vice chair Ray Chiaramonte, secretary-treasurer Murphy Antoine, newsletter editor Suzanne Rhees, assistant newsletter editor Craig Lewis, webmaster Nathan...
The Eleventh Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU XI) went off in grand style in Washington, D.C., June 19 to 22. The curriculum was perhaps the most advanced since Congresses began in 1993. The 1,200 participants paid rapt attention through every...
Hank Dittmar has assumed the role of chair of the board at CNU, replacing John Norquist. Norquist stepped down to apply for the leadership post he received. Dittmar had been vice-chair, and Dan Solomon has stepped into that position. Norquist will...
Arcadia Land Co. received planning commission approval to build the first two parts of a development in Independence, Missouri. The land is being purchased from the Community of Christ, otherwise known as the Mormon Church. The project, planned as a...
Bend, Oregon, TND Northwest Crossing is measuring its development progress these days in “leaps and bounds,” according to broker Jeanne Turner. Sales began in the summer of 2002. As of June 2003, the first three phases were underway, and new sites...
A recently published nationwide survey confirms what many planners have suspected: The majority of Americans would prefer to walk more and drive less, if only their environment could be made safer and more convenient for pedestrians.• Asked if,...
First a 2,300-acre nature preserve — the Anne Springs Close Greenway — was established to protect the old farming and textile town of Fort Mill, South Carolina, from the encroaching sprawl of metropolitan Charlotte, North Carolina. Then crews...
The merger of Don Simon Homes and Midland Builders — announced in June — has created Wisconsin’s largest homebuilder and one of the top 150 nationally. The new company, Veridian Homes, is headquartered in Madison, WI, and will focus on green design...
Palo Alto, California, a 59,000-population city between San Francisco and San Jose, illustrates the trend toward context-sensitive design and the role that painstaking highway safety studies play in attaining attractive roads. Bicyclists, civic-...
The ten parking spaces being set aside for Zipcars in Boston’s Columbus Center project will be yet another addition to a system of rental cars scattered through neighborhoods in the Boston, New York, and Washington metropolitan areas. Since 2000,...
The new Center for Transit Oriented Development will perform a similar function as the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), but focused solely on TOD, according to Shelley Poticha, the director. “The center was set up to increase the number of TODs...
New urbanist designer and writer Jeff Speck has been named director of design for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), with responsibility for supervising the panel selection and grant making process in design and overseeing the Mayors...