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.
In January, CNU and the Seaside Institute hosted a groundbreaking academic conference in Seaside, Florida. It marked the first time that a multi-disciplinary group of social researchers and practitioners gathered expressly to discuss the issues...
While Walgreen Co. has agreed to follow new urban design guidelines in the construction of 35 stores in the Chicago area (see the January/February 2000 issue), the drug store chain has refused to make substantial changes in the suburban design of...
The City of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was awarded the 1999 White House Joint Center Sustainable Community Award for instigating the redevelopment of the failing Eastgate Mall into a main street retail and office district with a future residential...
Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream was published by North Point Press on March 1. This new urbanist manifesto by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck assesses sprawl’s economic, ecological,...
A new urbanist community is far more complex, and therefore more risky to finance, than a conventional subdivision. But with this complexity comes the possibility of creating a much greater long-term value. That’s the conclusion drawn by Tom Low, an...
In Michigan, an edge city is trying to become more like a real city.
If ever a place could be classified as a landmark of suburbia, it would be the Northland Mall in Southfield, Michigan. Built in 1954, it was the first enclosed suburban...
A new smart growth law in Wisconsin, passed by the state legislature in October 1999, contains two components that specifically promote new urbanist development. The law was written by 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, and requires the University of...
Homestyles.com (formerly Homestyles Pub-
lishing), the people behind the TND Series of neotraditional home plans, has launched TNDhomes.com, an electronic gateway to home plans and traditional neighborhood development. The web site includes most of...
The Round, a transit-oriented development in Beaverton, Oregon, remains in development limbo (see July/August 1999 issue). Developer BCB Group has not been able to secure financing, and the City of Beaverton now has taken legal measures to force BCB...
Abacoa has sold 525 homes since it opened in the summer of 1997. “Our home sales have picked up, because all of our amenities are falling into place,” says Nader Salour, president of Abacoa Development Company. In a large- scale TND like Abacoa, all...
A 300,000 square foot retail and entertainment center is now under construction as part of Peabody Place, an eight-block revitalization project in downtown Memphis, Tennessee. Master planned by Baltimore-based design firm RTKL for developer Belz...
Joe Storch is selling his corner store in Southern Village, a traditional neighborhood development (TND) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The 2,000 square foot store, with seating for 75, has already been through several proprietors since it opened...