• Coding for better places

    Zoning reform tools can enable better places, affordable housing, and complete communities, according to a discussion on CNU's On the Park Bench.
    Overhauling an entire zoning code is an expensive and complicated lift requiring political will that makes it prohibitive to many communities. With the help of CNU’s Project for Code Reform (PCR), more and more places are learning how to make these changes incrementally. PCR says, “if you do...Read more

  • Financial fragility is to blame for Jackson’s water crisis

    Note: This article first appeared on Strong Towns .​ Public Square editor Robert Steuteville is on leave through the last week of October. I’ve spent some time trying to understand what has happened with the water system in Jackson, Mississippi. For locals who have lived through the long unfolding...Read more

  • Santa Barbara awarded for affordable housing design

    The first Gindroz Award is named in honor CNU’s former board chair, a pioneer in applying new urban principles to social housing.
    Santa Barbara’s public and affordable housing looks different from any that you are likely to encounter in any other city. Derived from the city’s Mediterranean and Spanish-revival architecture, the housing serves low-income residents, the formerly homeless, other vulnerable populations, and those...Read more

  • Eye-opening video shows church site reuse

    Creating intimate spaces within blocks could be the answer for some underutilized house of worship sites—as shown by a plan for catholic churches in a midwestern city.
    The US is facing a tremendous and growing number of church properties that are in need of better utilization or reuse . A plan and video for two catholic churches in South Bend, Indiana, shows how such properties might enable new urban placemaking of a high order while preserving the houses of...Read more