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.
“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...
Sarasota County in Florida has hired the Orlando planning and consulting firm Glatting Jackson to lead a team of advisors that will flesh out the details of the county’s Resource Management Area (RMA) approach to future growth. The incentives-based...
Recent developments in the Washington, DC, area demonstrate a variety of techniques for placing a large grocery store in a mixed-use urban environment.
Of all the big box store types, supermarkets are the most common, are used most frequently by...
The Congress for the New Urbanism prefaced its ninth annual congress with a daylong series of lectures and discussions by luminaries in the new urbanist (NU) movement. “New Urbanism 101” was designed to give an overview of NU history and principles...
No hurdles in sight for the passage of a code that 60 of the state’s largest cities and towns must adopt by 2002.
Wisconsin is the first state in the nation to attempt to set statewide standards for traditional neighborhood development (TND).
Jackie Benson of TND Planning and Marketing in Atlanta has opened an office in Rosemary Beach, Florida. She works as a consultant to TND developers and builders on marketing, sales, and builder programs.
Charles Brewer, the founder and former CEO of internet service provider Mindspring Enterprises, has started Green Street Properties, an Atlanta-based development company that will focus on new urbanist infill projects. Brewer’s partners are...
Ground has broken on the Downtown/Fairgrounds Redevelopment in Tupelo, Mississippi. The project, under development by Henry Turley, the Harbor Town developer, extends the city’s downtown street grid. This project packs a lot into a small space: a...
Longleaf, a TND in New Port Richey (near Tampa), Florida, sold 67 homes in the first 11 months, exceeding expectations of 50 homes in year one. Homes include a variety of single houses, townhouses, and stand-alone live/work units. Prices range from...
Dealing with Neighborhood Change: A Primer on Gentrification and Policy Choices is a discussion paper prepared for the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy and PolicyLink and written by Maureen Kennedy and Paul Leonard. The...
A 100-acre TND called Cotton Crossing in New Braunfels, Texas, recently began construction. As of May, six homes were built, three more were under construction, and all lots were sold in the 130-acre first phase. Multifamily dwellings and a 30,000...
Cost of construction, price of real estate, uncertain economy, and lack of design precedent contribute to decision.
Home Depot has pulled back from plans to build a mixed-use, four-story building in Portland, Oregon (see the April/May 2001 issue...