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.
The Mount Dora City Commission in Florida has approved plans by Crosland LLC to build a 162-acre traditional neighborhood called Indian Springs. The development, on the site of an old tree farm and nursery in a town of about 12,000, north of Orlando...
The US Green Building Council and Island Press, both nonprofit, are together starting GreenWorks, a book club that promises to offer “the newest and best books on green building at discounted prices.” The first four books to be featured are Emerald...
Bruce Tolar led a four-day planning session in October that proposed a new zoning code, tree-lined streets, a farmers’ market, a trackside entertainment district, and other ideas for enhancing Flora, Mississippi, a town of about 1,600 people near...
The City Council in Biloxi, Mississippi, voted in late December to allow “Mississippi Cottages” — state-supplied versions of Katrina Cottages — to remain permanently in some parts of the Gulf Coast community. Both Biloxi and the smaller city of Pass...
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...
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...