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.
An early neotraditional town designed by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, Amelia Park, finally received financing in November, and is scheduled to begin construction in January, 1998.
In the October, 1997, issue of Governing magazine, Alan Ehrenhalt covers the “Asphalt Rebellion,” which he describes as a “full-fledged protest movement” against “a half century of American engineering ideology.” A specific target of this rebellion...
A year after the first book of home plans for neotraditional developments was published, TND Series, Traditional Neighborhood Design Volume 2 is scheduled for a February 1, 1998, publishing date. The new volume will have 132 plans, and more than 100...
After a prolonged drought, lasting from 1989 through 1994, a tidal wave of new money is now crashing into the real estate capital markets. This is happening for four reasons. The sustained economic recovery has allowed the reinvestment of profits....
Early results are encouraging in HUD’s program to build more human-scale, pedestrian-oriented public housing.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which built high-rise, superblock style projects in the 1940s through 1960s...
Post Properties broke ground in December, 1997, on redevelopment of the 27-acre former St. Lukes Hospital site in Denver, Colorado. Post Apartment Homes of Uptown, a high density urban neighborhood, will have 1,000 new residential units, 50,000...
ERE/Yarmouth (formerly Equitable Real Estate), in their recently issued “Emerging Trends in Real Estate: 1998,” calls New Urbanism “the newest phenomenon to catch on in suburbia....” Expanding on ERE/Yar-mouth’s belief that “24-hour markets” are the...
The potential for land preservation makes New Urbanism attractive where low-density zoning prevails.
ne model for New Urbanism outside of the city is to build villages, or towns, surrounded by permanently preserved open space. This “town and...
Case studies are sought for inclusion in a book that will focus on planning and design techniques that contribute to safer, more livable places. Crime prevention/reduction and public safety benefits of New Urbanism-based projects will be illustrated...
But only a tiny percentage of U.S. real estate dollars are now invested in neotraditional developments.
or every dollar that institutions invest in traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs), an estimated $1,400 goes into conventional real...
The Citizen Planner Institute, based in Miami, Florida, offers workshops to help citizens acquire basic town and street design principles. The institute also trains public officials, developers and design professionals. Directed by urban planner and...
Hope 6 projects are planned to replace public housing towers with neighborhoods by using principles of the New Urbanism in many cities around the nation. A few projects are built or under construction, and the early results are promising (see photo...