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.
“It [New Urbanism] is currently a boutique market that appeals to a segment of the home-buying market (empty nesters, singles, young professionals). Unfortunately, there are still many government regulatory and community perception hurdles to...
Rep. Mark Udall (CO) recently introduced the Urban Sprawl and Smart Growth Study Act. The Act requires the Council on Environmental Quality to update previous studies of the economic, environmental and land-use
effects of sprawl; make...
In May, Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening appointed Harriet Tregoning as Special Secretary for Smart Growth, establishing a new cabinet post which will focus exclusively on transportation, land-use, and growth issues.
“The governor created the...
Thousands of local codes nationwide prohibit small lots and blocks, narrow streets, shallow setbacks, a mixture of uses, and other elements of pedestrian-scale neighborhoods. This reality makes it difficult for new urbanist developments to gain...
In Lakewood, Colorado, 100 acres of shopping mall and parking lots is about to yield to an urban center.
The Villa Italia Mall is typical of the ailing, greyfield malls that line the nation’s suburban corridors. On the cutting edge of retail...
Van Meter Williams Pollack of San Francisco has hired Kevin Gardiner, an urban designer formerly with Malcom Carpenter Associates.
A new group, Pennsylvania Association of New Urbanists, has begun meeting. Among the members are state Rep. Robert Freeman, who authored a traditional neighborhood development section to the state Municipalities Planning Code, town planners Thomas...
Envision Design of Berkeley, California, won a competition to design the revitalization of Isla Vista, California. Consultants David Sargent of Sargent Town Planning and transportation planners Nelson/Nygaard assisted in the proposal. The team is...
The Local Government Commission in Sacramento, California, has published an expanded and revised edition of Building Livable Communities: A Policymaker’s Guide to Infill Development, first released in 1995. The handbook includes a new chapter on...
McGraw-Hill has published a CD Rom, Architectural Elements: Traditional Construction Details, with 1,300 CAD-compatible traditional standard details by architect Stephen Mouzon. A book version is expected to be released shortly. Contact: (256) 539-...
In its latest report, Driven to Spend, the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) set out to determine how sprawl patterns and public transit choice affect people’s transportation budgets. STPP concluded that residents spend most on...
“Since 1982, while the US population has grown nearly 20 percent, the time Americans spend in traffic has jumped an amazing 236 percent. ... The average driver now spends the equivalent of nearly a full work week each year stuck in traffic. That’s...