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.
Change in land use practice takes time. It is frustrating to watch an innovative development move forward at a glacial pace, or to see a handful of municipalities adopt new urbanist planning codes — while knowing that mixed-use neighborhoods remain...
Facilitated by a number of start-up businesses and organizations, car-sharing is starting to become available in urban centers around the US, according to USA Today. Cooperatives and car-sharing companies now operate in Boston; Seattle; San...
Urban redevelopment continues to gain momentum in Milwaukee. Beer Line B, a project going up on a former brownfield site on the Milwaukee River, now has 480 new homes completed or under construction. “The area has a flavor of San Francisco, with...
Joe Alfandre, former developer of new urbanist projects Kentlands and Belmont Forest, has been chosen as the co- executive director of the National Town Builders Association (NTBA) in Washington, DC. Neil Takemoto, who served as the executive...
The ever-growing new urbanist movement brings in new voices for four days of intense discussion. What does it take to keep the momentum?
CNU 2000, “The Politics of Place,” drew a record 1,500 architects, planners, activists, government officials...
With patience, traditional craftsmanship, and a love for maximizing space, builder and developer Dan Camp has given new life to the dilapidated Cotton District neighborhood in Starkville, Mississippi.
The Cotton District rebirth beganwith one...
The Local Government Commission has published Streets and Sidewalks, People and Cars: The Citizens’ Guide to Traffic Calming, prepared by Dan Burden of Walkable Communities. The 52-page publication is a hands-on guide for residents who want to...
In a region where full-scale new urbanist neighborhoods are rare, town center revitalization projects are picking up steam.
Southern California is still lacking a good model for large traditional neighborhood development (TND). Playa Vista in Los...
Ridenour is one of the few large-scale developments planned in partnership with an environmental group. The goal was to “create a mixed-use community that would adhere to the principles of Georgia Conservancy’s ‘Blueprints for Successful Communities...
An obscure requirement of the 1997 Standard Building Code has temporarily stalled home construction in Longleaf, a TND in Odessa, Florida, reports developer Frank Starkey. Thirteen homes were already out of the ground when the local building...
A new research center on the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) campus in the new urbanist community Abacoa in Jupiter, Florida, will be devoted to studying the physical and social effects of new urbanist design. FAU’s Joint Center for Environmental...
“New Hampshire needs to develop a New Urbanism,” states Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Howard in a position paper on sprawl. Howard’s platform includes calls for reassessing zoning codes, reusing vacant buildings, paying more attention to...