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.
Public officials increasingly are soliciting the construction of traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs). Orlando, Florida, set the standard for encouraging a TND: the city’s efforts generated proposals by leading new urbanists to redevelop a...
The link is getting stronger between new mass transit lines and pedestrian-oriented development. Transit-oriented new urbanist projects recently designed and/or under construction include Orenco Station, Peterkort Station and Portland International...
CNU’s Board of Directors is reaching out to leaders of environmental organizations. At their Board meeting in October, they’ll be meeting with representatives of national and regional environmental advocacy groups. The aim is to initiate a two-way...
The Wealth of Cities, Revitalizing the Centers of American Life By John O. Norquist Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1998. Hardcover, 227 pp., $25.00 U.S.; $34.95 Canada. Milwaukee Mayor John O. Norquist has produced a treatise for...
Nine years after it was designed, Playa Vista, a large-scale new urbanist project in Los Angeles, is under construction. But the legal troubles that have plagued the project are not over. Lawsuits by local environmentalists held Playa Vista up for...
Inner City Task Force members are working with HUD to put together another program to train public housing officials in new urbanist design. It will be modeled after the successful Harvard seminar led by CNU in 1996.
CNU’s Charter Book is up and running, once again. Michael Leccese and Kathleen McCormick of Fountainhead Communications have recently been hired as editors of this forthcoming book elaborating on the Charter of the New Urbanism. We hope to have the...
The Charter of the New Urbanism states that “civic, institutional and commercial activity should be embedded in neighborhoods and districts, not isolated in remote, single-use complexes. Schools should be sized and located to enable children to walk...
As defined by New Urban News, TNDs generally include an interconnected networks of streets and blocks, a clear neighborhood center (or centers, in the case of large projects), a mix of uses and housing types, a compact form, and pedestrian-oriented...
Transit lines are planned for two large traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs): Addison Circle (Addison, Texas) and King Farm (Rockville, Maryland). Both of these TNDs feature high residential density, plus significant retail and office space...
CNU is currently issuing a Call for Presentations at CNU VII. Submittals are due in the CNU office
by November 2, 1998. Look at
our web site for more information: www.cnu.org.
This Congress for the New Urbanism and the movement in general have been getting a lot of media attention, both positive and negative. The good
news is that CNU issues — building real neighborhoods and livable streets, promoting compact regional...