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.
California New Urbanism pioneer Phil Angelides announced in February that he will head the newly established Canyon-Johnson Urban Communities Fund, which will buy and improve more than $2 billion of urban apartment complexes throughout the US.
Founder and former CEO of Post Properties John Williams has teamed with Cadim, a Quebec firm, on a buyout offer of Atlanta-based Post valued at around $2 billion. “The Cadim/Williams group proposal marks Williams’ latest attempt to regain control of...
A 45-acre town center that draws some of its architectural inspiration from a historic Shaker settlement may be built in Colonie, New York, north of Albany. New Loudon Road Associates, a development firm based in Schenectady, hired the New York...
Newly elected Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker announced in January that he wants to improve the city’s planning operation within six months, create a bikeway system, and revise building codes to conform to LEED standards. Becker, a planning...
Michigan new urbanists will soon have a new CNU chapter to help focus their efforts in creating a more walkable, sustainable, neighborhood-based Michigan. On January 23, fifteen CNU members came together in Lansing, Michigan, for the second meeting...
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Photo 1 caption (on page 1): This streetscape is part of a revitalized downtown for Woodstock, Georgia — one of 15 winners of Charter Awards for 2008. See story on page 6.
Phil Angelides, chairman of the new Canyon-Johnson Urban Communities Fund, says there has been “very substantial progress in changing the thinking about how you design communities” since 1990, when he started developing Laguna West on the southern...
Patrick Square, a traditional neighborhood development, is breaking ground in Clemson, South Carolina, in March. Florida-based developer JMC Communities is seeking EarthCraft Community certification, a standard for sustainable residential...
A New York Times article of February 27 comments on the revival of Downcity Providence, Rhode Island, in the last decade. The article gives substantial credit to new urbanist Buff Chace, a developer who has restored eight buildings at a cost of $80...
Tax subsidies that would help General Growth Properties redevelop the obsolete Cottonwood Mall in Holladay, Utah, into a 57-acre town center won endorsements recently from the local and county governments and school district. The Salt Lake Tribune...
The current woes of the housing market and subprime mortgages are only the beginning of troubles for suburbia, according to an article in The Atlantic by Christopher Leinberger, a developer, visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, and...