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.
In the Town of Islip on Long Island New York the chairman of the Community Development Agency propos
In the Town of Islip on Long Island, New York, the chairman of the Community Development Agency proposed last year that modest houses on the order of Katrina Cottages be built to accommodate townspeople of modest means. In response, Planning and...
Moule & Polyzoides Architects and Urbanists of Pasadena California was selected in late January to l
Moule & Polyzoides Architects and Urbanists of Pasadena, California, was selected in late January to lead the planning and design of 7,000 acres of Fresno, California, the state’s fifth largest city with approximately 500,000 people.
Modular-adaptable designs are seen as a possible solution to Northeastern housing needs.
How do you fit short-term housing for some 60 musical theater people into a 19th-century Connecticut village, the kind of place that tenaciously resists...
Kentlands-based entrepreneur says the time has come for smaller houses and less elaborate developments.
Nearly everyone connected with real estate development has been hurt by the economic calamities of the past two years, publishers included.
It’...
The groundbreaking manual for context-sensitive urban thoroughfares jointly created by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) and the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) is a draft no more.
Jason Miller, former editor of New Towns, succeeded in raising $10,000 to resurrect the Concrete Herald, a community newspaper with a 91-year heritage in the town of Concrete and eastern Skagit County, Washington. In addition to editing and...
The Alley Flat Initiative which encourages the development of small affordable dwellings along under
The Alley Flat Initiative, which encourages the development of small, affordable dwellings along under-used alleys in Austin, Texas, has celebrated the construction of its second house — a 600 sq. ft. unit featuring a “rain screen” clad in terra...
By Andrew M. ShankenAs Shanken’s book warns, a return to business as usual can occur very quickly once a crisis has passed.
Financing from land owner partly offsets the continuing lack of bank lending for real estate development.
Within sight of Interstate 8, which carries nearly 9 million vehicles a year, the Tanimura & Antle Inc. lettuce-farming enterprise has...
Dan Burden, founder of Walkable Communities Inc., has started what he says will be his sixth and final nonprofit organization, the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, in Port Townsend, Washington.
Washington, DC, is considering eliminating its minimum parking requirements for retail establishments, offices, and apartments near Metro stations, according to a report in the Washington Post. The city has discovered that parking requirements based...