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.
Dilapidated housing, parking lots, and commercial buildings in the Elliot Park neighborhood in Downtown Minneapolis have been replaced by East Village, a $29.5-million mixed-use, infill development. The four- and five-story brick buildings designed...
The City of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is the latest community to adopt a parallel traditional neighborhood development (TND) code. The effort grew out of the proposal for Rarity Ridge, a new urban community designed by Tunnell-Spangler & Associates...
The argument between real estate developer Silverstein Properties and the Australian-owned shopping mall company Westfield America reportedly centers on whether a restored street grid would be detrimental to future retail development on the Lower...
II. The rural laneway Category: Circulation Subcategory: Thoroughfare types II. The rural laneway Category: Circulation Subcategory: Thoroughfare types The laneway is found towards the other end of the Transect from its city cousin, the...
The real estate investment trust announces a shift back to focusing on conventional suburban retail properties, citing the greater risks and need for patience inherent in urban, mixed-use projects. Under the leadership of chief ex- ecutive...
I. The rear alley Category: Circulation Subcategory: Thoroughfare types The practice of having different ways into buildings for different kinds of activities is age-old. Consistent provision of service-ways within an overall urban plan,...
An innovative design to save the Stone Pony — an early Bruce Springsteen venue — is a key part of a massive revitalization effort for Asbury Park, New Jersey. If Hollywood ever decides to create a TV series featuring new urbanists, Asbury Park...
The transformation and densification of suburban business districts could reduce sprawl and traffic congestion and boost quality of life, according to the DC-based developers’ group. One official calls this the “logical next step” for smart growth...
Researchers at the University of Washington have won $5.2 million in grants from the National Science Foundation to create UrbanSim, a software program capable of forecasting the effects of today’s housing, land-use, and transportation decisions 25...
The Century Theater Block, the first phase of the redevelopment of downtown Albuquerque (see July/August 2001 New Urban News) is now open for business. “The movie theater and the retail establishments are all in front of projections,” says Chris...
Active Living by Design, a project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to explore the links between health and community design, is moving its national program office to the town center in Southern Village, a new urban community in Chapel...
The Miami Congress will turn the spotlight on the role the New Urbanism can play in the transformation of suburbs into towns. New membership rates! Renewing members, take note — CNU’s membership rates have changed. Our individual membership is...