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.
The 2007 Downtown Specific Plan of Ventura, California, which calls for reconnecting the downtown to the beach and for managing parking better, won approval March 19 from the City Council. Five years in the making, the plan calls for adding more...
Since compiling a list of urban investment funds and publishing it in the March issue, New Urban News has learned of three more sources that invest part or all of their money in developments classified as smart growth, new urbanist, or...
The new CNU tradition of presenting Athena Awards to pioneers who have laid the foundation for New Urbanism will continue at CNU XV in Philadelphia with cast-bronze medals going to Robert A.M. Stern, Denise Scott Brown, and Jonathan Barnett. The...
Redevelopment of Naval center in San Diego is successful as a walkable neighborhood but a media report shows it generates no anticipated profits for the city. Developer cites increased tax revenues.��
Buff Chace and Douglas Storrs have won permission to construct two residential neighborhoods that they have long wanted to build adjoining their Mashpee Commons town center on Cape Cod. Over the next seven years, the developers will build 382 units...
The City of New Orleans is poised to invest at least $1.2 billion in reconstruction, possibly beginning as early as this April, recovery chief Edward Blakely announced March 23. “By September, we want to see cranes on the skyline,” Blakely said. The...
The City of Livermore, California approved Livermore Village, a 5.5-acre mixed-use catalyst project in their downtown. Opticos Design designed the plan and architecture in association with Thomas Dolan Architecture for Anderson Pacific, LLC.
The...
A number of recent books have come out that are of interest to new urbanists, including Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architecture, Urbanism, and the Sacred, published by ISI Books and authored by Philip Bess, professor and director of graduate...
In the current housing downturn, smart growth appears to be performing better than large-lot suburban sprawl on the metropolitan fringe, according to a Reuters report in mid-February. From Washington, DC, to California, close-in suburbs are doing...
New York City is experimenting with two techniques designed to ward off terrorist attacks without draining the streets of their vitality.
Looking for a compact alternative to fuel-consuming taxicabs? Some US cities and towns are beginning to see pedicabs — the modern equivalent of rickshaws — carrying passengers through their downtowns and other high-traffic areas. “I really believe...
About 1,500 attendees once again broke the record for the 2007 New Partners for Smart Growth conference in Los Angeles in mid-February. Last year the figure was over 1,200, and the year before that just under 1,000. New Urbanism was a significant...