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 developers of Mashpee Commons transform a lackluster street and balance the mix of local and national retailers.
Over the past 10 years, Mashpee Commons’ pedestrian-oriented shopping district has grown incrementally around an outdated strip...
Several emerging university centers take on new urbanist and smart growth research and education.
Universities in Maryland, Georgia, Florida, and Indiana have opened — or will soon open — centers that focus on smart growth and community building...
An audit of Illinois municipalities shows that while smart growth is a hot topic among planners, few or no towns have regulations allowing compact, mixed-use developments.
Developers and designers of new urbanist neighborhoods have long known how...
“The New Urbanism has sparked renewed interest in the work of urban designers from the late 19th and early 20th Century. In an effort to bring the insights of these generalists to today’s specialized civil engineers, town planner and engineer Peter...
Italian scholar Gabriele Tag-liaventi is producing a major publication of American new urbanist work. Those interested should send material directly to Tagliaventi, at Universita di Bologna, Facolta di Ingegneria, Istituto di Architettura e...
It’s not every day that new construction gets an award for historic preservation. But in North Carolina, the Historic Preservation Society of Durham gave its George and Mary Pyne Historic Preservation Award to the new urbanist infill development in...
The planning director in Charlotte, North Carolina, recently urged the City Council to exert greater control over growth in this rapidly expanding metropolitan area. Martin Cramton recommended that the city create mixed-use zoning districts around...
If CNU has its way, developers of the future will be building mixed-income, mixed-use projects as a matter of course. When that day comes, they may look back at a September 2000 meeting at the Seaside Institute in Seaside, Florida, as a seminal...
CNU recently held a landmark meeting with officials from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). It was the first time that the mall industry has met with advocates and developers over the growing issue of failing shopping centers,...
The Sierra Club’s publication Smart Choices or Sprawling Growth: A 50-State Survey of Development marks the first time the leadership of a major environmental group has endorsed specific development projects and examined not only the location of...
Denver infill development is the first of its kind.
The first cohousing community built as part of a traditional neighborhood development broke ground in Denver, Colorado, in October. Hearthstone, a 33-unit cohousing project on 1.6 acres, will be...
Federal Small Business Administration loans support sprawl, according to a lawsuit filed by environmentalists. Friends of the Earth and the Forest Conservation Council analyzed SBA loans in the Washington, DC, area during the last three years and...