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.
EPA and other nonprofit organizations are accepting applications for EPA's Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities program. The program, which began in 2011, provides technical assistance to about 50 communities a year on specific topics related...
Reconnecting America has released an impressively comprehensive survey of every metropolitan region in the US measuring a wide range of characteristics related to livability and smart growth. The survey gives grades from A to D in four areas: Living...
A little over a week ago USA Today reported that two-thirds of new houses on the market in 2011 included porches. That is more than an indication that New Urbanism, which helped to bring about the front porch revival, is having an impact on the...
The Economist came out with a great report on why demographic trends mean that "peak driving" is likely here to stay in the US. Per capita vehicle miles driven peaked in 2007 at something over 28 miles per day. Even with 12 straight quarters of...
New Urbanism, though beneficial, is not enough to solve the world's resource problems, suggests Tigran Haas, a professor in Stockholm and Berkeley who has edited a hefty, illustrated collection of essays called Sustainable Urbanism and Beyond. We...
A 10 percent rise in smart growth leads to a 20 percent drop in vehicle miles traveled (VMT), according to a paper by Dr. Sudip Chattopadhyay of San Francisco State University — published in the B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy....
In Seattle, officials are experimenting with the conversion of a six-block faded industrial street into a "shared-use" thoroughfare where pedestrians and bicyclists could mix freely with automotive traffic. Terry Avenue North is emerging as a social...
Bicycling is on the rise in the US, reports The Economist. Twice as many commuters used bicycles in 2009 compared to 2000. The share of total trips by bicycle has gone up by two thirds since the late 1970s. The trend is linked to bicycle...
An update to the Codes Study by Hazel Borys and Emily Talen finds 420 form-based codes (FBCs) worldwide — 244 have been adopted and another 176 are in the works. Most, 396, are in the US. If US FBCs were all adopted, they would apply to areas with...
Beginning next week, more than 300,000 visitors will come to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to enjoy and judge visual and performance art for the fourth year of that city's ArtPrize. They will spend approximately $15 million, fill downtown with people, and...
Vermillion, a traditional neighborhood development (TND) in Huntersville, North Carolina, posted 90 sales in the 12-month period ending July 2012, the Lake Norman Citizen reported. Not much else in this suburban area north of Charlotte is selling....
Seattle’s City Council recently authorized a 50 percent reduction in off-street parking in areas that are within a quarter-mile of a transit stop where there is generally service at least every 15 minutes. Reductions in parking requirements —...