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.
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, is a municipality with a whole lot of New Urbanism going on, supported by public officials and developers.
Peter Brown, a planning consultant and advocate of New Urbanism, narrowly lost his race for Houston City Council in November. Running against an incumbent, Brown garnered 48 percent of the vote for an at-large council seat. He intends to try again...
It may cost more to live in the suburbs than the city, when the expenses of commuting and of operating and maintaining a larger suburban house are included. That’s the conclusion of a study in greater Toronto led by Eric Miller of the University of...
Magnolia Square, a 300-acre high-density new urban development in The Colony, Texas , has completed two phases which are appraised at $60 million, according to a report in the Colony Courier-Leader. City officials are pleased at the tax revenues...
Ho-Chunk Village, a 40-acre new urban project in Native American land in Winnebago, Nebraska, has received a $200,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of the Active Living by Design program. Ho-Chunk Village, planned by HRD, 180...
Donald Watson, Alan Plattus, and Robert G. Shibley, Editors Judging by its title, you might think Time-Saver Standards for Urban Design would be a source mainly for street widths, sidewalk dimensions, parking ratios, and other matters than can...
The redevelopment of Far Eastside in Detroit, currently under construction, is a case study of new urban infill techniques on a large scale. There’s a pent-up demand for housing in the city of Detroit, which has resulted in significant interest on...
In a theater block that Moule & Polyzoides Architects designed in downtown Albuquerque (see Dec. 2002 New Urban News), some of the storefront retail extends only 30 feet deep, rather than the 60 feet that Goody, Clancy believed necessary in an...
By one estimate, roughly 1,500 new housing units are needed to build one new block of stores.
Many communities hunger these days for “Main Street retail” or “neighborhood retail.” Few, however, know how many households — and shoppers’ dollars —...
For three years, The Round at Beaverton, Oregon, was a high-profile poster child for the failure of a transit-oriented development (TOD). When opponents of transit wanted to show that the market rejects TOD, they showed pictures of The Round, where...
Widespread opposition to sprawl caused developers John and Leslye Wuerfel to cancel plans for building a 4,000-seat minor-league baseball park on 45 acres of farmland in Elmwood Township, near Traverse City, Michigan. “I think if you’re going to...
Document of core principles may expand to cover New Urbanism’s relationship to the environment and the Transect
The Charter of the New Urbanism is CNU’s proudest single achievement. Ratified at CNU IV in Charleston in 1996, the charter exposes...