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.
National Geographic now offers a new urbanism primer online that compares the effects of urban and suburban design. An interactive tour allows the user to select images within a main street scene while text explains advantages of transportation,...
The Brookings Institution’s discussion paper “Exposing Urban Legends: The Real Purchasing Power of Central City Neighborhoods” dissects and disproves private marketing data fed to the public about inner city neighborhoods. See www. brookings.edu.
Town Planning Studio is a new joint venture of new urbanist practitioners from the Midwest and the West. The venture is made up of R. John Anderson from Chico, California; Peter Swift from Longmont, Colorado; and Patti Banks, Brian Hendrickson,...
Transit-oriented development makes inroads in a conservative region.
In July, organizations in Idaho's Treasure Valley joined CNU in kicking off
a series of workshops to create a deep local consensus around the New Urbanism. The Treasure Valley...
Norton Commons, a TND in Louisville, Kentucky, has broken ground after four years of design and approval. The 600-acre site will include 2,800 new residences, retail, and a 20-acre commercial office campus. Triad Development Co. of Louisville is the...
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) takes a new urbanist approach with its planned Santa Monica, California, workplace.
The NRDC wants to make its 15,000 sq. ft. building a showcase — not just environmentally, but also in terms of...
The new economy may have foundered, but most new urbanists report that they are as busy as ever.
Though growth has slowed in the national economy, internet firms have crashed, industrial output has declined, and the stock market has floundered,...
New urbanist developer Vince Graham, a partner in acclaimed TNDs I’On and Newpoint, has run into political interference in Norfolk, Virginia. Graham’s firm, Civitas, was chosen as the developer of East Beach, a 100-acre project designed in 1994 by...
Federal Realty Investment Trust appears to be succeeding with its new urbanist projects in the Washington, DC, area. Bethesda Row, which includes 340,000 square feet of shops, offices, and restaurants in downtown Bethesda, Maryland, is 99.6 percent...
With appeals, litigation could continue for several years over Miles Point, an 89-acre TND denied by the town of St. Michaels, Maryland. At issue, according to developer George Valanos of the Midland Companies, is an inherent conflict between the...
A bill to create 1.5 million units of affordable housing during the next 10 years through a National Housing Trust Fund was introduced by US Sen. John Kerry. The bill was endorsed by the Sierra Club.
Category: public open space. Subcategory: plazas and squares.
In understanding the components of urbanism at any point along the Transect, it is useful to differentiate between the organization of movement and the organization of spatial...