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.
Oklahoma City, which ranked dead last in Prevention magazine’s 2008 assessment of sizable American cities for walkability, commissioned Jeff Speck to tell the city how to improve conditions for pedestrians downtown. Speck says Oklahoma City’s...
Miami, Florida, and St. Paul, Minnesota, decided in March to adopt Complete Streets policies. Enactment of Complete Streets policies, which aim to make the transportation system work for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders as well as for...
Coming to Denver, June 10-13, the 17th Congress for the New Urbanism gathers the resourcefulness and ingenuity of the New Urbanism under one roof.
“Lifelong Communities” charrette spurs a warming of relations between new urbanists and  disability-rights activists.The Atlanta Regional Commission had Andres Duany lead a charrette in February aimed at helping municipal and county governments...
Recently released and soon-to-be released studies show that people who live in cities and near transit generate substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions, both in the US and internationally. A study by the International Institute for Environment...
The current downturn, says a top retail expert, is “shaking out plans and centers that were poorly conceived.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration intends to experiment with closing five blocks of Broadway in Midtown Manhattan to vehicular traffic, possibly as early as this May. “Although it seems counterintuitive, officials believe the move will...
Brent Warr, the mayor of Gulfport, Mississippi, who participated energetically in the Mississippi Renewal Forum after Hurricane Katrina, announced in March that he will not seek reelection. The Sun Herald said Warr “is facing Katrina fraud charges...
DOT and HUD announce a joint effort to merge land use and planning to improve livability.
Photo 1 caption (appears on page 01):The redevelopment of the Columbia Heights Metro station area in Washington, DC, won a Charter Award for 2009. See story on page 5. courtesy of the congress for the new urbanism
By Bernard Zyscovich with Douglas R. PorterUrban Land Institute, 2008, 137 pp., $69.95 hardcoverMiami architect Bernard Zyscovich has done some interesting urban things. He is credited with devising the redevelopment plan for Miami Beach’s Lincoln...
Buoyed by the federal government’s agreement to provide funds for the first phase of Metro rail service to Dulles International Airport, developers are reviving long-dormant plans for hotels, convention centers, shops, and housing on property...