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.
Individuals who have played significant roles in New Urbanism did very well in a recent Planetizen poll aimed at identifying “the top 100 urban thinkers.” Andres Duany came in second, Leon Krier eighth, James Howard Kunstler 12th, and Peter...
Taking down a section of interstate highway is unprecedented — but a similar move is being considered in Syracuse, New York, where elevated portions of I-81 run through downtown, inflicting considerable harm on the urban environment. I-81 in...
CNU’s Board of Directors added four new members earlier this year. In this issue, CNU will briefly profile two of them, Russell Preston and Jack Davis. And then in an upcoming issue, it will profile the two others, Jennifer Hurley and Scott Polikov.
Infrastructure costs are 32 to 47 percent lower in traditional neighborhood development (TND) than in conventional suburban development
The Seattle area’s first light-rail line, Central Link, opened on July 18, carrying passengers from downtown Seattle southward for 14 miles, to just short of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The line passes through a bedraggled, auto-oriented...
By Malcolm MillaisIf you want to know where all of the Modern Movement’s bodies are buried, this is the book.
Town-Green of Oakland California is teaming with the National Charrette Institute NCI of Portland Or
Town-Green of Oakland, California, is teaming with the National Charrette Institute (NCI) of Portland, Oregon, on a $180,000 pilot project called Emerald Cities, designed to help the City of Tracy, California, meet climate, energy, and environmental...
New York City has published its first Street Design Manual, and it’s winning praise from urbanists. In a review on the Design Observer website, Jeff Speck, an urban planning consultant based in Washington, DC, wrote that the 232-page publication “is...
Thanks in part to the work of CNU members acting as advisers to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), the LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) rating system may soon award a special bonus point to projects in Arlington Heights or...
The September New Urban News reported that Vancouver, British Columbia, has started allowing rentable secondary suites to be created in newly constructed condominium buildings but not in existing buildings. Vancouver Senior Planner Neal LaMontagne...
Frank Gruber writes about the town he knows, Santa Monica. The narrative that emerges could be about your town or mine.