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.
Adjusted for population, US driving has taken a historic downward turn, as shown in a new graph by Business Insider (see above). Total US miles driven have declined only slightly since the peak in 2007, and they are up a little this year from last....
We reported in October on new Federal Housing Administration (FHA) rules that loosen restrictions on mixed-use. The New York Times now reports on how that rule change, which allows properties with a greater percentage of mixed-use to qualify for FHA...
A quarterly newsletter on transit-oriented development (TOD) in the New York City region — which boasts the nation's biggest transit system — has been launched by the Pace Law Center with support from the One Region Fund in the New York Community...
Civano is a test case for New Urbanism versus sprawl. The former generates more value according to economic, environmental, and social indicators.
Hurricane Sandy tore into the East Coast in late October, and North America’s most densely populated island proved resilient. Despite a direct hit from a 14-foot storm surge, Manhattan suffered minimal loss of life. Seven flooded subway tunnels were...
Urban Out, a Philadelphia-based blog, makes some great points about transit-oriented development (TOD) in cities with existing urban fabric. In some cities like Washington, DC, planners are doing TOD right. When you step out of many DC metro...
Multifamily building owners in the suburbs are having to offer steep discounts on market rents to maintain occupancy, while urban properties are filling up much more easily, according to the National Real Estate Investor. "The commercial real estate...
The CNU's John Norquist says that St. Louis once had a waterfront like the French Quarter in New Orleans, only twice as big. Then Interstate 70 cut the city off from the waterfront. “In St. Louis, traffic specialists had their way,” he told the St....
Richard Florida is fond of saying that historic buildings are irreplaceable treasures for cities and towns, but sometimes turning them into new uses is expensive and requires a boost from government. The City of Baltimore approved a tax break to...
The District of Columbia is "reserving thousands of on-street parking spaces for residents on weekdays in the city’s most crowded neighborhoods, part of an aggressive effort to limit spots for visitors," The Washington Post reports. The effort will...
At New Geography, Joel Kotkin is trumpeting a Wendell Cox study that supposedly reveals Americans still love sprawl. "For all the talk of how the Great Recession has driven people — particularly the 'footloose young' — toward dense urban centers,...
A lot can change in two decades. Eighteen years ago, a charrette was held to design a mixed-use, new urban development in Flower Mound, Texas. The Village of Lakeside plan by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. included a market study by Zimmerman-Volk...