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.
“Lessons From Katrina: What A Major Disaster Can Teach Transportation Planners” is a new paper from Todd Litman, director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute in Victoria, British Columbia. “From a transport planning perspective, the greatest...
By Mary Lynch
The first national standards for green
neighborhoods moved one step closer to completion this fall — and one step closer to becoming a force in the blossoming green segment of the development market — with the release for public...
San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood, which has been bouncing back from years of decay (see Sept. 2005 New Urban News), was featured in the New York Times travel section Sept. 11. The newspaper reported that demolition of freeway ramps “cleared...
To the editor:
In “New urbanists divided on use of eminent domain” [September 2005] you portray a division between those who oppose and support the use of the government’s eminent domain power to seize private property. The debate is actually over...
Two municipalities are showing how communities can restrict “formula retail” businesses that some contend undermine the character of established shopping districts.
Last year San Francisco adopted Planning Code Section 703.3, a provision that...
Peter Swift, who has operated a New Urbanism-oriented transportation planning firm in Longmont, Colorado, is going to Iraq as director of town planning for a firm that will carry out large development efforts in the Kurdish northern section of the...
By Joanna Lombard Rizzoli, 2005, 176 pp., hardcover $49.95. Considering the enormous impact Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk have made on town planning and urban design, it’s curious that so little has been said about the architecture...
The growing municipality of Pike Road outside of Montgomery, Alabama, approved in August a version of the SmartCode that will operate parallel to current zoning. The code was approved pending an annexation of The Waters, a large-scale TND in the...
Peachtree City, a suburban Georgia, municipality with 31,500 residents, has successfully promoted golf carts as an alternative mode of transportation. Founded in 1959, the municipality has 23 square miles and 90 miles of multiuse paths. More than 10...
CNU welcomes the addition of several new task force co-chairs, a group of new leaders with fresh ideas and talents for the task forces.
Real estate consultant William Tucker brings an impressive 20 years of new urbanist development experience to...
An extensive study of 4-lane to 3-lane road conversions in Iowa demonstrated a 25 percent reduction in accident frequency and a 19 percent reduction in crash rate. The 23-year study was by Iowa State University and Iowa DOT. See www.dot.state.ia.us/...
In the works for nearly two years, a manual to help people implement the SmartCode was scheduled for release in early October. Titled SmartCode Manual and subtitled The Complete SmartCode, Annotated Version 7.5, it will be downloadable for free and...