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.
Cranberry Township, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, approved a traditional neighborhood development (TND) ordinance drawn up by Thomas Comitta Associates of West Chester, Pennsylvania. The Cranberry code allows for three types of TND with gross...
The Congress for the New Urbanism has created a six-minute video on the importance of urban design in fighting climate change. The video, A Convenient Remedy to the Inconvenient Truth, uses examples to show how the choice of a walkable, mixed-use,...
The Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law published a special June issue called “Active Living, the Built Environment, and the Policy Agenda,” which features articles on the impact that biking, trails, land-use policy, school planning, and...
New York City is planning to introduce variable parking meter rates in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, beginning in October. On certain congested corridors, the city will double the rates charged by the meters during heavy traffic periods. The goal...
Arthur C. Nelson, formerly director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, took a new position in July as “presidential professor” at the University of Utah’s College of Architecture + Planning. Nelson’s work on housing supply and demand...
Ocean Springs development runs counter to a spate of bad development in Mississippi.Cottage Square, a model cluster of new urbanist cottages that was planned more than two years ago for Ocean Springs, Mississippi, as a response to Hurricane Katrina...
Some new urbanists are embracing the techniques of a people-oriented firm called Live Work Learn Play.Why do some new urban town centers fail to thrive?Is it because they’re not designed with the right sizes of shops in the right locations? Is it...
A study in Raleigh, North Carolina, area shows why fire response is slower and more costly in the suburbs. The city looked at two fire stations in historic areas with street grids and three stations in the emerging suburbs, examining how many...
The Financial Times reported July 18 on a sure sign that sprawl is on the defensive, at least for now: Some developers are selling outlying land back to agricultural interests, having concluded that the market for constructing houses on it has...
New York designer Marianne Cusato is author of a 52-page publication, The Value of Design, which examines urbanism, traditional architecture, and building materials. Written for general readers, the full-color publication was produced by James...
The Warminster, Pennsylvania, Planning Commission unanimously approved a proposed 16-acre transit-oriented development, according to The Intelligencer newspaper. The plan, by developers J.G. Petrucci Co. of Asbury, New Jersey, will go to the board...
Metropolitan Baltimore is about to try the “Cool Spots” method of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Criterion Planners of Portland, Oregon, will conduct three “digital charrettes” in September and October with the planning directors of the City of...