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 the 15 months after the US Census of April 2010, the population of Washington, DC, shot up by more than 16,000, or 2.7 percent. In that short period, the city gained more than half as many residents as it gained in the entire decade from 2000 to...
The teardown and redevelopment of the Park East Freeway in Milwaukee has been criticized for its slow progression. Yet money was saved by not spending up to $80 million to repair the freeway spur, access to downtown Milwaukee has improved, and 26...
Baldwin Park in Orlando, Florida, is one of the nation's better traditional neighborhood developments. Two miles from downtown, it's "Celebration in a real location," as resident and Rollins College professor Bruce Stephenson puts it. The town...
The fast flow of traffic on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, shown above near West 145th Street, has left hundreds injured in vehicular accidents in recent years. So far this year, three people have died, including an 11-year-old girl riding her...
The $120 billion joint transportation bill approved by Congress Friday, which funds federal programs for 27 months, drastically cuts walking and bicycling projects. Formerly 2 percent of the budget, bike-ped projects like sidewalks, crosswalks, and...
Advocates of public transit expressed mixed opinions about Congress's approval of a two-year bill containing $120 billion for transportation. The advocacy group Reconnecting America called the legislation a missed opportunity, but was pleased at the...
Playgrounds geared to adults could help deal with America's fitness problems and at the same time give people an additional place for neighborhood socializing. New York City is testing its first playground for adults—in a park in the Bronx—and plans...
In 1988 in Oakland, California, Thomas Dolan designed what is said to be the first new-construction live-work community created in the US since the Great Depression. It was called South Prescott Village, and was the first of many live-work projects...
The "complete streets" provision that was passed by the Senate with strong bipartisan support was eliminated from the joint transportation bill, reports the Complete Streets Coalition. The bill "was included in the Commerce committee’s freight title...
For the first time in a century, most of America's largest cities are growing at a faster rate than their surrounding suburbs, reports an AP article on census figures from 2011. AP attributes this to a weak job market that is dampening home buying,...
For two centuries, technologies damaged cities, says Simon Kuper, a columnist for the Financial Times. Factories brought dirt and noise. Cars added sprawl. But now technology is becoming a boon to urban living. The Internet, the laptop, and the...
Twenty years ago, you could bowl on West Palm Beach's main street, Clematis, where 80 percent of the shopfronts were empty. Around the Florida downtown blocks and blocks had few or no buildings. Now Clematis and a newish waterfront park are packed...