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 word from the shopping center industry is that the “Main Street” model for retail development is here to stay. A recent article in the trade magazine Shopping Center World, suggests a groundswell of support for the trend among public officials...
Sales are off to a strong start in WaterColor, a new urbanist resort town in the Florida Panhandle. Located immediately adjacent to Seaside, WaterColor is being developed by Arvida, an arm of the St. Joe Company, Florida’s largest landowner. The...
Hillsborough County, Florida, is moving forward with a plan that could create sites for as many as 17 new urbanist neighborhoods in the county’s northwest sector. The plan by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ) identifies sites for 11 possible...
Is the New Urbanism effective in rebuilding and revitalizing cities? According to academic research presented to the Association of American Geographers this year, the answer is yes.
CNU.org, the on-line face of CNU, is undergoing a massive overhaul. It will soon include a database of all CNU members, a raft of new urbanist projects, and a constantly updated calendar. The website will also serve to keep you up-to-date on the...
Port Wentworth, Georgia, seeks revival through New Urbanism.
Can a small, ailing industrial and port city find new life and new tax revenue by building a 5,000-acre new town? Port Wentworth City Manager David Rutherford is convinced that a new...
In Austin, Texas, planners have created a score card system to determine if a development deserves financial support from the city.
Providing financial incentives in the form of reduced development fees and infrastructure construction is one of...
The Town of Cornelius, North Carolina, signed a letter of intent with Simonini Development Group to develop a 125-acre transit-oriented project. The 950-unit, mixed-use project on the other side of a planned rail line from Cornelius’ town center was...
Multiplex cinemas are becoming a mainstay of urban revitalization projects. Since the bulk of such theaters are not suited to address the street directly, fitting them into urban blocks where the street walls should engage pedestrians is a challenge...
Town Commons in Howell, Michigan, one of four TNDs getting underway in that state, will see its first retail buildings under construction in October 2000. In a reversal of the usual TND order of residential first, commercial second, developer...
The Lakefront Development Corporation (LDC) in Syracuse, New York, is talking with private developers about turning a blighted, 24-acre, brownfield site called Harbor West into a mixed-use, walkable neighborhood. The project was designed by Duany...
CNU is organizing a series of regional training seminars for public housing
officials. The series builds on CNU's longtime partnership with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The conferences are part of HUD's HopeVI program...