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.
Wake up call on the potential impact of sprawl on aquatic ecosystems forges an important link between environmentalism and smart growth.
Current development patterns, if continued for just two more decades, will cause irreversible damage to the...
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...
A growing number of universities are taking action to revitalize the neighborhoods that surround campuses. Duke University has financed the development of traditional infill housing for staff and faculty in the Trinity Heights project in Durham,...
Construction has begun on the 80-acre core of New Town, a 300-acre mixed-use, office, retail, and residential development in Williamsburg, Virginia. The town center, designed by RTKL and Cooper Robertson & Partners, will include 300-400 for-sale...
The Bay Area Council (BAC), a regional, business-sponsored public policy organization, has launched a trio of funds intended to support real estate development, local businesses, and reclamation of small brownfield sites in 46 low- and moderate-...
Asmall traditional neighborhood development (TND) in Lower Moreland, Pennsylvania, that faced stiff public opposition over a two year period, moved forward when supervisors unanimously approved an amendment to the township’s zoning. The vote allows...
Are you ready for a massive increase in suburban sprawl in the next two decades? That’s what were headed for, according to the Pew Oceans Commission report. The study projects show that developed land in the US will rise by 50 to 80 million acres,...
As the New Urbanism rises to the challenge of creating urban places from a suburban mold, two mall conversions and a development — each in different corners of the US — suggest ways to begin.
Parking lots, one-story retail boxes, high-speed...
Jennifer Hurley, a Philadelphia planner who recently concluded her fellowship at the Knight Program for Community Building at the University of Miami, has launched Hurley-Franks & Associates with architect and planner Philip E. Franks. The firm...