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.
Peter Katz has been appointed director of Smart Growth/Urban Planning by Sarasota County, Florida. In his new position, Katz, founding president of the Form-Based Codes Institute, will work on implementing smart growth principles for development and...
Monica Quigley, vice president of sales and marketing for LeylandAlliance, has formed a consulting firm, New Urban Connections, based in Warwick, New York. Quigley will continue to work for LeylandAlliance but will also advise her own clients on...
Mesa, Azizona, one of the nation’s largest suburbs, with a population greater than Miami, Florida, is switching to a new urban strategy for a five-square-mile site that the city annexed for development. The Mesa Proving Grounds were used by General...
Costa Pacific Communities has begun construction of the village center of Villebois, a new urban community in Wilsonville, Oregon, the firm announced. The center includes 650 residential units and buildings with first-floor retail.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has begun awarding grants of up to $400,000 to communities that try to reverse the epidemic of childhood obesity by increasing opportunities for physical activity and by improving access to healthy, affordable...
The Seaside Institute selected author James Howard Kunstler as the recipient of the 2009 Seaside Prize. The honor is awarded to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to the quality and character of our communities....
The Ohio Department of Transportation announced in December that agreements have been reached on a federally funded $50 million series of road, tunnel, and intersection improvements for Cleveland’s West Shoreway, a six-lane limited-access highway,...
New Haven, Connecticut, has taken another step toward turning a short expressway near downtown into a pedestrian-friendly boulevard lined by mixed-use buildings. Nine firms have submitted bids for the task of helping the city devise a plan for...
Andres Duany came up with a creative stimulus proposal that ties into the need to retrofit suburbia. A growing number of malls across the US are “going dark,” yet are in prime locations to build new urban centers. Such sites represent the most...
Large American cities increasingly are trying to improve the aesthetics, environmental performance, or sociability of their alleys. In 2007 the City of Chicago issued “The Chicago Green Alley Handbook,” which is aimed at installing permeable paving...
NorthWest Crossing, a traditional neighborhood development in Bend, Oregon, has found a way to increase its sales despite the sharp drop in real estate activity nationwide. General Manager David Ford says that for several years, developer West Bend...
Wilson and Clarendon Boulevards, two thoroughfares that run through the thriving Metro rail transit corridor in Arlington, Virginia, have been designated as “Great Streets” in the American Planning Association’s award competition for 2008.