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.
“The explosion of interest in streetcars stalled only slightly in 2008,” according to Gloria Ohland of Reconnecting America. Interest in streetcars moderated because of the national economic contraction and because it became evident that streetcars...
The Reburbia contest by Dwell magazine and Inhabitat.com, a design competition for reinventing the suburbs, is one clear case where the people are smarter than the experts. The most online votes, by a wide margin, were cast for the “Urban Sprawl...
As part of its ongoing Emergency Response and Street Design Initiative, The Congress for the New Urbanism is proposing changes to the International Fire Code that will empower local fire code officials to be more flexible on street designs. These...
The University of Utah has established a new professional education program, the Mountain West Planning and Design Academy. Reid Ewing, a well-known researcher in the smart growth field, will guide the program with Chris Arthur and Robert Young. The...
A four-year effort to place the city of Miami under a new urbanist zoning system failed in August when the City Commission deadlocked on the proposal, known as “Miami 21.” However, the code, which was formulated under the guidance of Duany Plater-...
This month, Vancouver, British Columbia, will begin allowing developers to build condominium units that include “secondary suites” — living quarters that can operate independent of the main portion of each condo. A condo owner could use the...
Cornell, once a star new urban undertaking, falls short on retail within walking distance. ��The failings of Cornell, a signature new urban project north of Toronto, were vividly laid out by a Canadian newspaper, the National Post, on March 13. In...
Southport Green, an extraordinarily expensive new urban pocket neighborhood in Fairfield, Connecticut, is again trying to attract homebuyers — two years after the project was foreclosed on by TD Bank. This time, asking prices for the high-quality,...
With a unanimous vote of city council, San Antonio approved a form-based code for optional use citywide. The Form-Based Zoning District (FBZD), based on the SmartCode, began with a Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company charrette and was customized by...
New Urban Free Agents, sponsored by the New Urban Guild, is a network of free-agent planners, architects, and designers who have worked within the New Urbanism. “Almost all architecture and design firms have been laying off employees since the...
The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) accreditation program is gathering momentum. The professional program, announced by CNU in June and managed in partnership with the University of Miami, was established “to recognize the talent within the new...
The Prince’s Foundation uses traditional urbanism to reclaim difficult settings.��A Caribbean version of new urbanist techniques is being relied upon to rebuild an impoverished part of West Kingston, Jamaica, that has been ravaged by 30 years of...