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 Center for Livable Communities in Sacramento, California, has a Compact Development Slide Presentation available for rent at $15 or for sale at $50. Contact: (916) 448-1198.
An excellent overview of the New Urbanism trend appeared in the fall 1999 issue of Planning Commissioners Journal, a quarterly newsletter. The article was written by Philip Langdon, a writer and associate editor of the American Enterprise. Langdon...
Seven cities along U.S. Route 1 in southern Florida have pooled their resources to revitalize a 15-mile section of the ailing coastal highway. The cities, Riviera Beach, Lake Park, North Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Juno Beach, Jupiter, and...
A new urbanist town was planned in Ada, Michigan, to be built on a 536-acre farm and former gravel quarry. Most of the 800 units are planned to be built in the former quarry, with the 300-acre farm remaining mostly open space. The project, designed...
Beat Kahli, the developer of Avalon Park, a 1,860-acre TND east of Orlando, Florida, is taking an unusual approach to expanding the project’s fledgling town center. In October, 1999, Kahli announced that he was willing to invest in entrepreneurs who...
The Urban Land Institute (ULI) recently gave its annual Award for Excellence in the Mixed-Use Small Scale category to East Pointe, an eight-block development in Milwaukee. The jury characterized East Pointe as a model for joint public and private...
Architectural firm Robert Orr & Associates (ROA) of New Haven, Connecticut, has completed a vision plan for the improvement of downtown West Hartford, Connecticut. The city administration had been introduced to the New Urbanism by architect...
The development of farmland, forest, and other open space accelerated rapidly in the 1990s, according to recent government figures. The rate of “greenfield” development was more than three million acres a year from 1992 to 1997 – double the rate of...
The New Urbanism looks to defunct malls as possible sites for infill
development
Most cities have at least one “ghost” mall, a once-thriving enclosed mall turned boarded-up eyesore. It may have have been brought down by a bigger and flashier...
The previous millennium saw the design and construction of the world’s great cities and cathedrals. New York City, arguably the greatest metropolis at the end of the second millennium A.D., was a wilderness in 1626 when European settlers purchased...
Walgreen Co. has signed an agreement with the City of Chicago to follow new urban design guidelines in the construction of 35 Walgreens drugstores in the city during the next two years. The guidelines are designed to prevent construction of suburban...
Stephen Roulac, a real estate consultant, economist, and “futurist” frequently covers the New Urbanism on his radio show, Stephen Roulac Property Conversation. The show is broadcast every Tuesday at 12 noon on WALE AM 990, serving 3.5 million...