New Urban News

LEED for Neighborhood Design (LEED-ND) is approved to become a permanent certification program.

New Urban News looks at the growing influence of New Urbanists and their ideas in Washington, from the appointment of former CNU director Shelley Poticha to a HUD position to the new Livable Communities Act proposed by Sen. Christopher Dodd.

Orenco Station in Portland, OR shows that traditional neighborhood development (TND) can decrease car use and encourage walking, according to a new study.

South Broad Street in downtown Philadelphia looks a bit blue at times. But stick around for a few minutes and its complexion changes.

A $276 million mixed-use remake of a 1973-era mall is opening on Interstate 64 in southeastern Virginia. While the retail is trickling in, the housing element is filling up quickly.

After five years of preparation and testing, members of the US Green Building Council (USGBC) and the Congress for the New Urbanism will begin balloting in late July on whether to authorize a full-fledged LEED-Neighborhood Development program.

DOT and HUD announce a joint effort to merge land use and planning to improve livability. CNU's John Norquist comments on the merger.

Disability-rights activists have criticized New Urbanists for raising entrances above ground level, which hampers accessibility. The 'Lifelong Communities' charrette in Atlanta found the two groups mending ways.

Virginia recently announced new rules governing the connectivity and width of streets. Some new urbanists bemoan that they may have muffed an opportunity to make the new standards even better.

New urbanists ponder how they can adapt to the new economic climate and avoid the fate of their predecessors.

The $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that President Obama signed on Feb. 17 left advocates of compact and transit-oriented development practically biting their tongues.

In these austere times, some urbanists are advocating greater use of the traditional rectilinear grid — an efficient, less expensive, but also challenging pattern.

Wes Marshall and Norman Garrick, after a study of data from 130,000 car crashes in California, have determined that cities built since since 1950 have more dangerous roads than those built before 1950.

Planner Andres Duany proposes a plan for Goodbee Square, near Covington, LA, that adds modern light-imprint urbanism to an old Jeffersonian idea.

"Economic troubles spread from housing to other development sectors, including retail and offices."

New Urban News reports that even as housing costs plummet and construction is halted on single-family homes across the country, traditional neighborhood developments and TODs are thriving.

To paraphrase B.F. Skinner, if you want positive behavior, either reward it in return, or remove something unpleasant in response; to paraphrase R. Steuteville's commentary, if we want a green economy, we need to do the same thing with development.

Raised and fortified homes in Beachtown, a community in Galveston, Texas, took a direct hit from Hurricane Ike, and survived, intact.

At a time when motorists have a smorgasbord of distractions to contend with, select US streets take a taste of a Scandinavian recipe for street design, where pedestrians, cyclists, other motorists, and even trees are blended together intuitively.

Philip Langdon comments on the the economy of oil and its effects on urban design in the July/August issue of New Urban News.