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.
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...
Building a balanced neighborhood requires walking a fine line between implementing new urbanist principles and anticipating market demand. An analysis of the mix of housing types in selectednew urbanist communities highlights two aspects of this...
Working in traditional neighbor-hoods pushes two companies to build with an eye on the whole street and to collaborate more closely with planners and developers. Houses built by David WeekleyHomes and Saussy Burbank in new urbanist projects in...
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...
Riverside, a traditional neighborhood development (TND) in Atlanta, Georgia, was entirely leased one and one half years after the project opened. Developed by Post Properties and designed by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, Riverside consists of...
I’On I’On is a 243-acre, 759-unit TND in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Vince Graham and his father, Tom Graham, are codevelopers. Geoff Graham, Vince’s brother, is the project manager. The master plan is by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ...
More than 250 planning and design , educators, and public policy makers gathered in February for the conference “Urbanisms: New and Other.” Hosted by the University of California at Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, the conference was...
In a survey reaching half the town’s households, 63 percent of the residents reported using their cars less than they did in their previous community. Only 8 percent said they drive more, and 29 percent reported no change in their driving habits.
Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening (D) has decided that a new campus for the University System of Maryland be housed in three vacant buildings in downtown Hagerstown instead of in a planned suburban building. Anti-sprawl groups applaud the...