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 Greater Minnesota Housing Fund has published “Building Better Neighborhoods,” a 92-page book that lays out many new urban design principles as tools for Minnesota towns to build affordable housing in mixed-income neighborhoods. The book,...
James Howard Kunstler, pessimist extraordinaire, traveled much of the Western world recently, and he’s brought back vivid tales of eight cities, at least three of which are in his view going straight to hell.
The nation’s largest charitable foundation dedicated to health issues, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has funded a new, $24.5-million project that links health and smart growth principles. Active Living Through Design, to be headquartered at...
Yet problems persist with acceptance and service, particularly in greenfield developments. The bus is the most frequently used mode of public transportation in the US today, but in transit-oriented development planning the bus tends to play...
Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, pioneers of the New Urbanism, received the third annual Vincent Scully Prize at the National Building Museum December 16. The first two awards were given to architectural historian Scully and urban critic...
South Street Cerritos, a 76,000 sq. ft., high-end town center opened in December, 2001, in Cerritos, California. Designed as a main street by Perkowitz+Ruth Architects, the project connects to a 155,000 square foot Target which opened in 2000.
One of the nation’s largest new urban brownfield projects, Mission Bay in San Francisco, is facing difficulties with the recession and collapse of the office market in the Bay area, according to the San Francisco Examiner. Catellus Corp. has stopped...
In Provo, Utah, The Village at Riverwoods was recognized with the Envision Utah Governor’s Quality Growth Award for Grand Achievement in Planning and Implementation. The 145-unit development of townhomes, flats, and live/work lofts will be completed...
BotAnica/Sea Plum, two projects designed together as a single new urban neighborhood, received approval recently from the Town of Jupiter, Florida. The 143-acre neighborhood has a total of 526 units and 55,000 square feet of retail. The projects are...
Columnist Neil Peirce writes that labor unions have begun lending support to the national smart growth agenda.
The Environmental Protection Agency has launched a web site with information about smart growth policies, funding sources, networking opportunities, technical tools and resources. See www.epa.gov/smartgrowth.
Peter Swift of Swift and Associates has released a research paper on “AASHTO and the Parisian Boulevard.” The paper examines the mandates of the AASHTO “Green Book” regarding location of arterials, physical design standards, and public transit, and...