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.
Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream was published by North Point Press on March 1. This new urbanist manifesto by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck assesses sprawl’s economic, ecological,...
A new urbanist community is far more complex, and therefore more risky to finance, than a conventional subdivision. But with this complexity comes the possibility of creating a much greater long-term value. That’s the conclusion drawn by Tom Low, an...
The New Jersey state plan calls for compact, mixed-use development, but the bureaucracy supports sprawl. Washington Town Center has forced officials to confront this inconsistency.
When Washington Township created its town center plan, it applied...
Even as recent estimates indicate a rise in the amount of money going to TNDs, the conservative financial market still hedges its bets on the New Urbanism.
More than 125 traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs) are under construction, as are...
Under a new ordinance, TND is a development option anywhere within the City of Knoxville, Tennessee. City planners developed the ordinance during the building of Mechanicsville Commons, a Hope VI redevelopment of a public housing project. It applies...
The National Town Builders Association (NTBA) has announced the first item in its planned Town Building Marketplace. Full members of NTBA can now enjoy rebates on the purchase of Windsor Windows, the first line of windows to be made entirely of...
In January, CNU and the Seaside Institute hosted a groundbreaking academic conference in Seaside, Florida. It marked the first time that a multi-disciplinary group of social researchers and practitioners gathered expressly to discuss the issues...
While Walgreen Co. has agreed to follow new urban design guidelines in the construction of 35 stores in the Chicago area (see the January/February 2000 issue), the drug store chain has refused to make substantial changes in the suburban design of...
The City of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was awarded the 1999 White House Joint Center Sustainable Community Award for instigating the redevelopment of the failing Eastgate Mall into a main street retail and office district with a future residential...
Joe Storch is selling his corner store in Southern Village, a traditional neighborhood development (TND) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The 2,000 square foot store, with seating for 75, has already been through several proprietors since it opened...
To ease financing, developers of TNDs need to reduce the risk premium for the lenders who make the initial loans for land acquisition, development, and construction (ADC).
In Michigan, an edge city is trying to become more like a real city.
If ever a place could be classified as a landmark of suburbia, it would be the Northland Mall in Southfield, Michigan. Built in 1954, it was the first enclosed suburban...