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.
By James Howard Kunstler Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005, 307 pp., hardcover $23. Humpty Dumpty sits on a wall, parties, and has a great time. He’s completely oblivious to warnings of danger, and leaning too far back. We all know what happens next...
After lagging behind much of the nation for a dozen years, New England is finally starting to show strong interest in traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs), town centers, new urban brownfield developments, and transit-oriented communities....
Urbanists are directing the planning process for a 12,000-acre addition to the Portland urban growth boundary (UGB). Otak, a Portland-based planning and urban design firm, is leading the project, and the design team included new urbanists Laurence...
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. (DPZ) was tapped to create a plan for a 148-acre former State Hospital campus, a major undeveloped site in downtown Columbia, South Carolina. The Central Carolina Community Foundation was selected by Gov. Mark Sanford...
The City of Macon, Georgia, has received federal transportation funds to redevelop the historic Macon Terminal Station as an intermodal facility combining commuter rail, shuttle, and local and regional bus service. The 1916 station, designed by New...
Will Selman has formed a consulting firm, Town Planning and Design Associates, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to serve clients who need assistance with new urban development and code projects. He resigned as staff planner for the Lancaster County...
A new booklet, “Higher-Density Development: Myth and Fact,” tries to dispel negative perceptions about higher-density development. The glossy 32-page booklet published by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) profiles 16 projects across the US — many of...
Atlantic Station, the 138-acre new urban redevelopment of a steel mill near downtown Atlanta, is moving forward very quickly. More than a thousand residents already live in condos and apartments in the development, according to a report in the...
By Joel S. Hirschhorn, Ph.D. Sterling & Ross Publishers, 2005, 400 pp., hardcover $25.95 When a big idea bursts upon the American scene, it often takes two different forms: first a carefully argued book for serious readers, and second, a...
One-bedroom apartments in San Francisco command rents averaging $1,731 a month, and nearly a quarter of the city’s renters pay more than half their income for housing, according to a local real estate source, RentalGuide.com. Consequently the city...
Online requests for the SmartCode rose significantly after DPZ announced that it was dropping the licensing fee (April/May 2005 New Urban News). One of two websites that are allowing the code to be downloaded, www.tnd
townpaper.com, said that 18,...
City planners in Punta Gorda, Florida, won a dispute with the city housing authority over plans to replace public housing destroyed by Hurricane Charley, according to the Herald-Tribune newspaper. The authority originally planned 184 campus-style...