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.
For the past several years, new urbanist developments — mostly small — have been popping up in the towns of northwest Michigan. Now new urbanist ideas are about to be considered across an entire six-county region, through a two-year “visioning”...
Construction is expected to start this spring on a project to install four modern roundabouts, each with a sculpture in its center, on Routes 62 and 391 in Hamburg, New York, south of Buffalo. The village, the state Department of Transportation, and...
The developer of the Midwest’s biggest and most successful traditional neighborhood development (TND), New Town at St. Charles, has planned an equally ambitious TND in the Kansas City area. Whittaker Builders’ New Town at Liberty will eventually...
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has purchased land around the chain’s Pass Christian, Mississipi, store, which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The purchase has stirred hopes that the company will build a “Wal-Mart village,” as had been proposed by local...
A high-density transit-oriented development (TOD) is being planned on a brownfield site in Union City, California, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Barry Swenson Builders is spearheading the project that includes three residential towers...
The state of Mississippi hopes to start placing “Mississippi Cottages” — a version of the new urbanist Katrina Cottages — in three counties in June. Design specifications are currently being refined for the Mississippi Cottages and for two other...
Looney Ricks Kiss Architects has opened an office in Jacksonville, Florida. See lrk.com for details.
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...
At least 20 retailers have opened in the past three years in the commercial district of Prospect, in Longmont, Colorado, reports developer Kiki Wallace. A restaurant is going to move into a concrete building known as Johnson’s Corner, which is...