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.
Participants in CNU 19 question whether communities are doing enough, and whether bike lanes may worsen conditions for people on foot.
An unusual financial arrangement will provide most of the $1.6 billion needed to redevelop Quincy Center with a design by the architect of Mizner Park.
This year’s winners of the Driehaus Form-Based Codes Awards are the Development Code Rewrite of Livermore, California and the Compact Communities Code of Lee County, Florida.
CNU is proud to announce it has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Greater New Orleans Foundation’s Metropolitan Opportunities Fund.
It’s been just a few months since Rahm Emanuel assumed the mayoralty in Chicago, and already pedestrians are beginning to feel the Mayor’s presence on city streets.
CNU welcomed three new members to the Board of Directors during CNU 19: Sarah Lewis, Marcy McInelly, and Dan Slone.
CNU 19 welcomed over 1100 attendees in Madison, many of whom were overheard saying that this year’s Congress was the best one ever.
A book by Andres Duany offers a blueprint for what he calls the development tool of the future: Agrarian Urbanism.
EPA's Office of Smart Growth, which has been promoting compact, walkable communities and livability for a decade, is facing elimination according to a current House proposal, reports Smart Growth America. 
A review by Doris Goldstein of Beyond Privatopia: Rethinking Residential Private Government. A book by Evan McKenzie. Urban Institute Press, 2011, 164 pp., $26.50 paperback.
But when it comes to paying for these policies through taxes, the support dries up.
After years of advocacy and months of intense pressure on our state officials, the New York State Complete Streets bill has passed, reports Vision Long Island.