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.
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housing, parking lots, and commercial buildings in the Elliot Park neighborhood in Downtown Minneapolis have been replaced by East Village, a $29.5-million mixed-use, infill development.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...
New federal legislation to clean up industrial “brownfield” sites, mainly in cities, represents a big step forward, according to columnist Neal Peirce. “The biggest breakthrough isn’t the increased federal money (now up to $250 million a year) in...
I. The rear alley
Category: Circulation
Subcategory: Thoroughfare types
The practice of having different ways into buildings for different kinds of activities is age-old. Consistent provision of service-ways within an overall urban plan,...
An innovative design to save the Stone Pony — an early Bruce Springsteen venue — is a key part of a massive revitalization effort for Asbury Park, New Jersey. If Hollywood ever decides to create a TV series featuring new urbanists, Asbury Park...
The transformation and densification of suburban business districts could reduce sprawl and traffic congestion and boost quality of life, according to the DC-based developers’ group. One official calls this the “logical next step” for smart growth...
Researchers at the University of Washington have won $5.2 million in grants from the National Science Foundation to create UrbanSim, a software program capable of forecasting the effects of today’s housing, land-use, and transportation decisions 25...
The Century Theater Block, the first phase of the redevelopment of downtown Albuquerque (see July/August 2001 New Urban News) is now open for business. “The movie theater and the retail establishments are all in front of projections,” says Chris...
Active Living by Design, a project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to explore the links between health and community design, is moving its national program office to the town center in Southern Village, a new urban community in Chapel...