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.
“Smart Growth: The Alternative to Suburban Sprawl,” a 23-minute video by William B. Morton, begins by describing the loss of quality of life and environmental degradation caused by suburban sprawl, contrasts current development patterns with those...
The first major round of US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Hope VI grants under the Bush Administration, totaling nearly $500 million, focuses on principles of the New Urbanism.
Begun in 1993, the Hope VI program has...
The number of allies grow, but the principles remain the same.
The support for the New Urbanism and smart growth gets wider all the time.
To the list that includes many environmental groups, governors, mayors, planners, transit advocates, and...
“The bang of the screen door in front of the corner store” is a sound now heard in Lakelands, a neotradi-tional development in Gaithersburg, Maryland, according to Marilyn Greene, of Greene’s Market. Greene, who has an MBA in marketing, is co-owner...
Harborside, a 120-acre neighborhood designed by DPZ, is underway in Northeast Richland, near Columbia, South Carolina. Harborside forms a town center to the sprawling, 1,679-acre Lake Carolina master-planned community, which consists of gated pods...
The Colorado Sprawl Action Center has named The Wellington Neighborhood in Breckenridge (see June 2001 New Urban News) to its first annual “Smart Growth Hall of Fame.” Part of the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG), the Sprawl Action...
A $250 million, five-block project in a former industrial district of Portland, Oregon, combines new urban planning, high-density, mixed-use, contextual design, and adaptive reuse. In short, the Brewery Blocks, billed as Portland’s largest private...
The University of North Carolina’s Center for Urban and Regional Studies launched the Smart Growth and the New Economy Program to examine links between the two topics. Communities that pursue smart growth may have a competitive edge in attracting...
One of the greatest challenges for a developer or public official who wants
to promote New Urbanism is finding the best way to concisely explain the basic principles. New presentations from the CNU help get across the big picture. CNU’s “Tour of...
Editor’s note. This is the second in a series of articles that explore the economic realities behind new urban projects.
Fairview Village packs a lot of complexity into its 93 acres. Located in a suburb east of Portland, Oregon, the project not...
“Smart Growth and Affordable Housing: Making the Connection,” a report by the Smart Growth Network and the National Neighborhood Coalition, identifies a range of policies and approaches that help achieve both smart growth and affordable housing...
In massive Ghonsoli project, new urban planning principles mesh with Indian cultural traditions.
The Ghonsoli Neighborhood plan is one of a series of satellite communities for the expanding city of Bombay, India. These communities, collectively...