As Mississippi recovers, new urbanist plans and codes also win approval. ��

President Bush signed legislation in June authorizing $400 million to replace tens of thousands of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailers that displaced families have been occupying since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast last year. Some of the money may be used to built Katrina Cottages — small dwellings that Marianne Cusato and other new urbanists devised in recent months.

After losing a quarter of its population in the past decade, Detroit is now smaller than Austin, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina, or Jacksonville, Florida.