Better! Cities & Towns

Charles Marohn discusses the CNU NextGen initiative "Investment Ready Places" by Street Sense. The new booklet provides strategies for identifying and investing in America’s “new frontier for development.”

October 19, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

Walkable urban places are poised to "put a foundation under the economy as well as government tax revenues," concludes Christopher Leinberger in a new report. Better! Cities & Towns delivers some highlights from his much anticipated study.

September 11, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

In a blog post for Better! Cities & Towns, Susan Henderson compiles a comprehensive list of the types of personalities that must be brought on board to navigate the politics of zoning reform.

September 7, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

Howard Blackson explains the five elements ("five Cs") necessary for planning resilient and lively neighborhoods - complete, compact, connected, complex, and convivial.

August 31, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

A new report details the growing adoption of Complete Streets policies in locales across the United States, despite the removal of a Complete Streets provision from the recent federal transportation bill.

August 27, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

Zoning codes, street standards, parking regulations, and other hidden determinants of the built environment are like regulatory zombies from the distant past, throwing up barriers in the path of human-scale placemaking, writes Robert Steuteville.

August 9, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

Architect Ray Gindroz says that a perfect storm of factors - economic change, crushing policy decisions, and over-reaching ambition - brought about the disaster of public housing in the U.S. like Pruitt-Igoe.

June 25, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

With Los Angeles embarking on the "largest transit expansion in the United States," a new report looks at ways the city can preserve critical affordable housing in areas ripe for transit-oriented economic development.

June 13, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

Ten years after publishing of The Rise of the Creative Class, the prominent city-booster says high-rises are “vertical suburbs” and we need “urban environments that stir the spirit.”

May 19, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

Dan Parolek kicks off a series on recent efforts to revitalize the Queen City based on a strong foundation of coveted resources, including a variety of urban housing types.

May 18, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

"We should not let the lame be the enemy of the perfectly adequate," says one critic of the New Haven mayor's proposal.

May 17, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

As public art proliferates as a strategy to engage disaffected youth and enliven neighborhoods, Philip Langdon argues that an additional standard must be considered when evaluating such projects -- their content.

May 10, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

On the 16th anniversary of the signing of the 27 principles of the Charter of the New Urbanism, many will be pleased to know that a revised edition of the book based on those principles is being developed.

May 7, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

On the anniversary of Jane Jacobs birth 96 years ago, Anthony Flint explores the striking similarities between the planning doyenne and anti-planning agitators.

May 5, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

The most influential planning trend of recent decades began with a small group of urbanists with varied interests who decided to pool their talents. Peter Katz, founding executive director of CNU, recounts their story and airs some dirty laundry.

May 3, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

The mismatch between current US housing stock and the growing demand for walkable urban living can be addressed in part by recovering the skills required for intermediate-density housing, argues Dan Parolek.

April 5, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

In an opinion piece for Better! Cities & Towns, Robert Steuteville argues that the Sanford, Florida, case is partly about what happens to a gated development when residents find themselves on the same side of the gate as people they fear.

March 26, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

Robert Steuteville takes issue with a recent report on NPR's Marketplace by noted Economist Steven Levitt that concluded that driving while drunk is safer than walking while drunk.

January 16, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns