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 downturn in the high-tech sector hit hard in Austin, Texas, delaying several residential and mixed-use projects. Since 1997, the city has had a traditional neighborhood development ordinance on the books and later launched an innovative smart...
I. The passage
Category: Circulation
Subcategory: Thoroughfare types
Pedestrian paths come in a wide variety and are anything but simple. To understand their variety and complexity, it is useful to begin by noting their relationship to other...
A new study by Kevin Leyden of West Virginia University explores how neighborhood form influences the generation of social capital, i.e., the level of political and social engagement among residents. Leyden’s analysis of a survey of residents in...
In a move that furthers the New Urbanism’s entry into the mainstream of the planning profession, the Board of Directors of the American Planning Association (APA) recently approved the formation of a New Urbanism (NU) division.
The Anacostia Waterfront Initiative continues to gather momentum for the redevelopment of miles of neglected land along the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. The Initiative, a partnership between the District of Columbia and 19 federal and local...
CNU founder Dan Solomon has joined Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT), a national planning and design firm recognized for its interdisciplinary approach. Solomon’s architecture and urban design firm will retain its name, Solomon ETC, yet become part...
A new resource on energy efficient building practices is available from the Rocky Mountain Institute. The CD-ROM Green Developments 2.0 contains more than 200 case studies of green buildings and projects from around the world. Contact: Ben Shepherd...
International Making Cities Livable is hosting its annual conference in Alpbach & Salzburg, Austria, on September 15-19. Conference topics include: New Urban Neighborhoods, Community Participation in Planning & Design, and more. To submit...
The City of Toronto has hired Robert Freedman as its new Director of Urban Design. Prior to his appointment, Freedman was a project manager at Urban Design Associates in Pittsburgh.
Homebuilders in Palm Beach County, Florida, are not thrilled at the prospect of proposed zoning calling for traditional neighborhood design. The Florida county won an award from the American Planning Association in 2001 for its Managed Growth Tier...
The proposal for a five-acre new urban village in Southport, Connecticut, designed during a charrette in October 2000, has been turned down once, but the developer and designers will soon submit a revised plan. “It’s been a raucous public process,”...
The Inner City Christian Federation (ICCF), a nonprofit development company that has built affordable housing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for nearly 30 years, recently joined with new urbanist professionals in a charrette that generated a master plan...