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.
By Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck
From Sprawl to Smart Growth:Successful Legal, Planning, and Environmental Systems, is a new book by lawyer Robert Freilich, the editor of The Urban Lawyer. The book describes how smart growth tools have been used around the country, explains...
Changing Direction, a study by the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STTP), presents both good and bad news about the direction of federal transportation spending in the 1990s. On the positive side, the study says funding increased for repair...
The downtown of Celebration a neotraditional town in Osceola County, Florida, is still going through some growing pains. Although many of the businesses — particularly restaurants — have been successful, about a half dozen have failed, the...
CNU will collaborate with local and federal agencies on the redevelopment of Washington, D.C.’s, underused southern shore.
Between the Southeast Freeway and the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., five short blocks from the U.S. Capitol, is a...
The City of Clearwater near Tampa, Florida, has selected a team of new urbanist developers to head the redevelopment of the city’s downtown. George de Guardiola and Bruce A. Rendina, developers of Abacoa Town Center in Jupiter, Florida, have joined...
Editor’s note: Vince Graham and Robert Turner were interviewed separately. The following are quotes from those interviews on the subject of building human-scale communities.
On the New Urbanism/TND
Vince Graham: “We believe in TND, and we’re...
With their variety of housing types, TNDs potentiallyare able to respond to changes in demographics and market demand better than conventional subdivisions. With that advantage in mind, savvy developers like to keep their plans as flexible as...
North Carolina town is seeking a master developer for a 125-acre transit-oriented project.
It’s difficult to imagine a more complete vision of smart growth in the suburbs than the combination town center and transit- oriented development (TOD)...
Colorado’s Republican Governor Bill Owens has unveiled a proposal to curb growth, “Smart Growth: Colorado’s future.” The plan’s four main objectives are to preserve open space by giving tax credits to landowners who preserve wildlife habitat; to...
Pasadena, California, is the latest city to join the movement to replace dying shopping malls with mixed-use development. Plaza Pasadena, an enclosed mall built in the 1970s, covers a three- block area in the heart of downtown and obliterates one...
Registrations are flowing in for CNU 2000: The Politics of Place. We recommend you register early: Hotels are in hot demand, and inexpensive early registration for the conference ends May 15. If you haven't received your conference brochure, please...