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 City of Pittsburgh has unveiled a smaller plan to revitalize the downtown shopping district, known as Fifth and Forbes. The current $363 million plan includes a hotel, offices, retail stores, and 580 apartments. The plan maintains an urban...
David Goldberg, an editorial writer at the Atlanta Journal Constitution and a prominent voice for New Urbanism and smart growth in Atlanta, has joined the national coalition Smart Growth America as national communications director.
Infill projects dominate as three design firms take home multiple awards. Winners of the second annual Charter Awards were selected by a distinguished jury over the weekend of March 16. After spending days perusing more than 200 submissions from...
One of the largest Hope VI redevelopments, City West, is gearing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, near the downtown and neighborhoods affected by last year’s riots. The redevelopment of adjacent public housing projects, Lincoln Court and Laurel Homes, will...
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housing, parking lots, and commercial buildings in the Elliot Park neighborhood in Downtown Minneapolis have been replaced by East Village, a $29.5-million mixed-use, infill development.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...
The argument between real estate developer Silverstein Properties and the Australian-owned shopping mall company Westfield America reportedly centers on whether a restored street grid would be detrimental to future retail development on the Lower...
II. The rural laneway Category: Circulation Subcategory: Thoroughfare types II. The rural laneway Category: Circulation Subcategory: Thoroughfare types The laneway is found towards the other end of the Transect from its city cousin, the...
The real estate investment trust announces a shift back to focusing on conventional suburban retail properties, citing the greater risks and need for patience inherent in urban, mixed-use projects. Under the leadership of chief ex- ecutive...
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...