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.
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...
One of the basic tenets of new urbanist planning is to establish an open street grid that promotes the free flow of pedestrian and automobile traffic. But what if a closed street has become a haven for pedestrians? Should the need for...
St. Joe Company broke ground in September on Southwood, a 3,200- acre traditional neighborhood development (TND) project near Tallahassee, Florida.
A $115 million federal Hope VI project , the New East Capitol, is moving forward in Washington, DC. The project will consist of the demolition of 1,100 public housing units and construction of a mixed-income community of 555 units, a neighborhood...
Thirty years ago, Snellville, Georgia, was a small farming town at the crossroads of two highways. In the 1970s and 1980s, when US Highway 78 became a major commuter route into metropolitan Atlanta, the city and county governments encouraged...
The American Planning Association now has a New Urbanism Division. Started by CNU members Rick Bernhardt and Gianni Longo, chairs of the Planners Task Force, it will bring New Urbanism into the APA mainstream. Dues for membership are $20 per year....
By Peter Calthorpe and William Fulton Island Press, California, 2001. 302 pp., Hardcover: $55.00; Paperback: $35.00 At the opening of The Regional City, a group of Salt Lake City civic leaders sit down to figure out how best to accommodate the...
Three major new urbanist town centers are opening in the last quarter of 2000 and the first quarter of 2001. Abacoa Town Center in Jupiter, Florida, Pentagon Row in Arlington, Virginia, and King Farm Town Center in Rockville, Maryland, will be the...
In making a case against sprawl, proponents of the New Urbanism (NU) have repeatedly pointed out that low-density, single-use land patterns require automobiles for all trips, eliminate mass transit as an option, and force nearly all traffic onto...