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.
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...
The first traditional neighborhood development (TND) centered on a historic crossroads will serve as the heart of a sprawling suburb.
Cherry Hill Village in Canton Township, Michigan, could be called a true “second generation” TND because it...
The Board of Supervisors in Albemarle County, Virginia, has unanimously adopted The Neighborhood Model, a framework for development in designated growth areas in the Charlottesville region. New urbanist planning firm Torti Gallas and Partners/CHK...
As rental rates begin to climb, developer jump-starts a nonprofit organization to build and maintain affordable housing and space for arts groups.
Three years ago, Albuquerque’s downtown was almost devoid of housing, the office vacancy rate was...
The Gulch Neighborhood, a high-density mixed-use development Nashville, Tennessee. The $350 million plan, calling for 1,800 residential units and more than a million square feet of retail, was designed by Looney Ricks Kiss of Memphis.
The infill project Media Village combines senior housing, ground-floor retail, and subterranean public parking on a 3-acre block in downtown Burbank, California. Designed by Mark Gangi of Gangi Development, Media Village interacts with the street in...
American Village Properties has designed a site plan for Town Centre West, a 34-acre mixed-use development in the Indianapolis suburb of Carmel, Indiana. The greenfield development site is located in a northwest commercial corridor. The plan...
Cagan Crossings, a town center and apartment development in Orlando, Florida, has gained critical momentum over the last year. The second phase of the project has been completed and the 272 new apartments are 90 percent leased. A newly redesigned...
I’On, a 243-acre new urbanist development in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, was named the Best Community in the Charleston Area for the second year running by the Charleston Trident Home Builders Association.
US Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) of the House’s Livable Communities Taskforce and Wayne Gilchrist (R-MD) recently reintroduced legislation that would provide $50 million to states, regional programs, and tribal governments to assist in...