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.
CORRECTION: The plan below was misidentified on page 7 of the October/November issue. Called Sasay, it is located in Coban, Guatemala, and the developer is R&R Development. The designers are Seth Harry and Associates and Jaime Correa and...
By Douglas FarrJohn Wiley & Sons, 2007, 304 pp., $75 hardcoverAmericans love to celebrate “our robust range of life choices,” Chicago architect and urban designer Douglas Farr writes in this potentially important book. We express satisfaction...
Toll Brothers, which builds houses and apartments in 22 states, reported in November that customers backed out of purchase contracts at the highest rate the company has ever seen. While most conventional developments received ratings of “F,” “F-...
The Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees the Texas Department of Transportation, appointed an informal urban thoroughfare team that includes John Norquist, CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Scott Polikov of the Gateway Planning...
Three-fourths of Americans believe that being smarter about development and improving public transportation are better long-term solutions for reducing traffic congestion than building new roads, according to a survey sponsored by the National...
James Howard Kunstler appears throughout “Radiant City,” a recently released film that that The New York Times described as “an acerbic position paper on the cultural damage done by postwar architectural fads.” Reviewer Matt Zoller Seitz said the...
Ellen Greenberg has a one-year appointment as visiting practitioner at the University of California-Davis Sustainable Transportation Center. She left Freedman Tung & Bottomley in Berkeley, but remains involved in planning for Ventura, California...
Rendering 1 caption (appears on p. 1): A main street and urban center are proposed on the site of a defunct shopping mall in Utah owned by retail titan General Growth Properties. See story on page 6.
Two Pacific Northwest HOPE VI developments that combine well-connected street networks and natural drainage systems were among the winners of the 2007 National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement presented by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
By Todd W. Mansfield, Ross P. Yockey, and L. Beth YockeyAbecedary Press, 2007, 292 pp., $24.95 hardcover.It’s troubling when the chairman of the Urban Land Institute — Todd Mansfield, who for several years was president of the Disney subsidiary that...
Housing construction and mixed-use development are flourishing near commuter rail stations that carry Long Islanders into New York City, The New York Times reported. Condominiums have been completed or planned within walking distance of stations in...
By a margin of 62 to 38 percent, Oregon voters last month resoundingly rolled back many of the effects of a 2004 ballot measure that had weakened land-use planning. Three years ago, a ballot initiative known as Measure 37 required governments to pay...