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.
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...
The Chesapeake & Potomac Regional Alliance has prepared the report “Smart Growth Proposal,” which provides tools for identifying projects that are consistent with smart growth principles. The report includes a project evaluation chart that...
The tenth Congress for the New Urbanism is shaping up to be CNU’s most in-depth Congress in years. The New Urbanism 101 course, after its raging success in at CNU IX in New York, will introduce newcomers to the terms and ideas of the movement....
Leading new urbanist traffic engineers Rick Chellman, Rick Hall, and Peter Swift are collaborating on what could be a groundbreaking manual on urban streets. The manual will provide a theoretical basis for new street types and standards in the urban...
Civitas and Leyland Development, both new urbanist developers, are moving forward with a 200-acre extension of downtown North Augusta, South Carolina. Dover Kohl & Partners was hired to do the planning. The project will connect the downtown to...
The Knight Program in Community Building at the University of Miami has chosen its 2002 roster of fellows.
Staffing at the CNU office is going through a major transition. Andy Shafer, who was CNU’s second employee, is now working independently. CNU thanks him gratefully for his seven years handling CNU’s finances, visual identity, and day-to- day...
SMARTRAQ (Strategies for Metropolitan Atlanta’s Regional Transportation and Air Quality), a five-year, $4.3-million investigation into the links between land use, transportation policy, air quality, and public health, has completed its first phase,...
Dilapidated housing, parking lots, and commercial buildings in the Elliot Park neighborhood in Downtown Minneapolis have been replaced by East Village, a $29.5-million mixed-use, infill development. The four- and five-story brick buildings designed...
The City of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is the latest community to adopt a parallel traditional neighborhood development (TND) code. The effort grew out of the proposal for Rarity Ridge, a new urban community designed by Tunnell-Spangler & Associates...