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.
Charter of the New Urbanism: Region/Neighborhood, District, and Corridor/Block, Street, and Building
By the Congress for the New Urbanism McGraw Hill, New York, 1999. Large paperback, 194 pp., $49.95. Contact: 415-495-2255. Every new urbanist should have a copy of the Charter book. Critics should have a copy, too, so that they really know...
According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, approximately 43,000 shopping centers and 1,800 enclosed malls operate in the U.S. Finding prognostications about how many of these are in trouble is not difficult. Ten years ago American...
Elements of walkable neighborhoods are marketing pluses, with the exception of higher density.
Consumers pick new urbanist (NU) community design characteristics over conventional suburban development (CSD) in most categories, according to...
Groundbreaking is underway at San Elijo Ranch, a 640-acre new urbanist project in San Diego, California. The developer will start with a substantial town center, including 224,000 square feet of retail and 767 residential units. The town center will...
NUN: What, in your opinion, are the most important trends in retail at the moment, and which of those have a particular impact on new urbanist retail?
Gibbs: The hottest trend in retailing now is to build what the chains call lifestyle shopping...
Nothing can be built unless it is financed, and that is why it is urgent that lenders become educated about the New Urbanism. A Wharton School study (preliminary findings were reported in the last issue of New Urban News) identified significant...
Garage building is no longer a free-for-all in Portland, Oregon. The City Council unanimously passed an ordinance consisting of five new regulations that limit the amount of garage area allowed on the front and side of single family houses, row...
The General Services Administration, the primary building space provider for federal agencies, seeks to support smart growth.
GSA’s Center for Urban Development and Livability held its first national meeting in Washington, DC, in September....
The former site of a state mental hospital near downtown Northamp-ton, Massachusetts, will become a new urbanist project called The Village at Hospital Hill. The master plan by Calthorpe Associates envisions a commercial district on the project’s...
Albuquerque, New Mexico, has a new plan to revitalize its languishing downtown, where office and retail vacancy rates both top 15 percent. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, the Alvarado project is unusual because it is financed primarily by a...
LUME 4, NUMBERS 1–6 (January/February – November/December, 1999)
Feature articles Issue, page
CITIES/INFILL
Pumping life into a city with urban design Jan/Feb 1, 3-6
Downtowns gaining population nationwide Jan/Feb 6
True urbanists May/Jun 1, 6...
Live/work units, an updated version of the old live-above-the-shop storefront, now are built or under construction in a handful of new urbanist projects. Units are built or under construction at Vermillion in Huntersville, North Carolina, Kentlands...