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.
After a 17-year struggle, development is underway in New Amherst in Cobourg, Ontario. The new urban community was designed by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company and is under development by Max LeMarchant and partners. The long saga is recounted by...
The US House of representatives has approved the reauthorization of the HOPE VI public housing redevelopment program, maintaining provisions for mixed-use and mixed-income housing and calling for green building practices. The House bill calls for...
Here’s your opportunity to contribute to CNU’s list of top highway-to-boulevard prospects. America’s highway-building era brought elevated freeways that cut huge swaths through our cities, decimating neighborhoods and reducing quality of life for...
Steven Coyle, a long-time new urbanist, has left HDR Town Planning to form his own firm, Town Green, based in Oakland, California. The firm specializes in green planning and form-based codes. The website is www.town-green.com.
Industry campaign boasts improved color and variety, but critics link vinyl to dioxin and environmental harm.In the past ten months, the Vinyl Siding Institute has co-sponsored a Seaside Institute program in Atlanta, a SmartCode seminar in Miami,...
The City Council in Gulfport, Mississippi voted in January to hire Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. (DPZ) to guide redevelopment of many of its city-owned properties. Before the month was over, Andres Duany arrived and led a 10-day conference on how to...
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...
Developer Robert Daigle, a TND pioneer in Louisiana with the highly successful River Ranch development, has proposed a new neighborhood on 125 acres in Lafayette, Lousiana, called the Boustany Property. Daigle is partnering with Steve Oubre 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...