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 tenth Congress for the New Urbanism is meeting in Miami Beach, and
for good reason. Florida is home to an astounding number and quality of new urbanist projects. Cataloging these projects is a new book, A Guidebook to New Urbanism in Florida,...
Four years ago, the San Diego City Council adopted a reuse plan for the San Diego Naval Training Center, to transform the site into an “urban village,” now called Liberty Station. The first residential neighborhood in the redevelopment area, The...
The first residential units have opened in Paseo Colorado, the mixed-use project replacing an enclosed mall in downtown Pasadena, California. Of the 387 rental units built by Post Properties, more than 100 are lofts, and the remainder are upscale...
The downturn in the high-tech sector hit hard in Austin, Texas, delaying several residential and mixed-use projects. Since 1997, the city has had a traditional neighborhood development ordinance on the books and later launched an innovative smart...
I. The passage
Category: Circulation
Subcategory: Thoroughfare types
Pedestrian paths come in a wide variety and are anything but simple. To understand their variety and complexity, it is useful to begin by noting their relationship to other...
A new study by Kevin Leyden of West Virginia University explores how neighborhood form influences the generation of social capital, i.e., the level of political and social engagement among residents. Leyden’s analysis of a survey of residents in...
In a move that furthers the New Urbanism’s entry into the mainstream of the planning profession, the Board of Directors of the American Planning Association (APA) recently approved the formation of a New Urbanism (NU) division.
The Anacostia Waterfront Initiative continues to gather momentum for the redevelopment of miles of neglected land along the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. The Initiative, a partnership between the District of Columbia and 19 federal and local...
Joe Barnes, recently general manager of I’On, and prior to that development manager and town architect at Celebration, has reestablished his consulting firm, Commonwealth Partnership. Barnes focuses on planning and implementation of traditional...
For exposing the full scope and effect of sprawl, there is no better tool than aerial photography. That is clearly evident from the book Above and Beyond: Visualizing Change in Small Towns and Rural Areas, a fascinating look at traditional and...
New urbanist designers Elizabeth Moule and Stefanos Polyzoides are now developing infill projects in their home city of Pasadena, California. The first, Meridian Court, is a 10-unit, $4-million courtyard project within walking distance of transit...
The Brookings Institution Press has released American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality, by Myron Orfield. The book combines demographic research with state-of-the-art mapping technology to illustrate trends in the nation’s top 25 metropolitan...