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.
Sprawl Watch’s recent report, “Creating a Healthy Environment: the Impact of the Built Environment on Public Health,” cites primary connections between sprawl and health as found by doctors and researchers from the CDC. Contact: allison@sprawlwatch....
“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...
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...
Claymont — an unincorporated village on the Philadelphia Pike in New Castle County, Delaware — has suffered physically from sprawl since the 1960s in the form of too many fast-food franchises, gas stations, and other strip commercial uses with...
Ayrsley, the largest and densest new urban project in Charlotte, North Carolina, to date, is breaking ground on a 140-acre site bounded by Interstate 485 and South Tryon Street. The northern half of the site is planned around a boulevard terminating...
Charlotte City Council voted unanimously to disallow cul-de-sacs, except when geographic barriers prevent street connections. Existing cul-de-sacs won’t be affected. The vote is a significant step toward connectivity of neighborhood design, and was...
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...