James Brasuell, AICP is the former editorial director of Planetizen and is now a senior public affairs specialist at the Southern California Association of Governments. James managed all editorial content and direction for Planetizen from 2014 to 2023, and was promoted from manging editor to editorial director in 2021. After a first career as a class five white water river guide in Trinity County in Northern California, James started his career in Los Angeles as a volunteer at a risk reduction center in Skid Row. Prior to joining Planetizen, James worked at the Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design, as an editor at Curbed LA, as editor of The Planning Report, and as a freelance contributor for The Architect’s Newspaper, the Urban Land Institute – Los Angeles Chapter, FORM, KCET, and the California Planning & Development Report.
San Francisco's Presidio Celebrated for Bridging Nature and Culture
The Presidio is, and will remain, a source of San Francisco's most contentious planning and design proposals. But the reason for the controversy isn't all bad, according to John King: "everyone sees their own potential paradise."
Mapping Income Inequality on D.C.'s Metro Lines
MIT's You Are Here mapping and data visualization project has produced a map of income levels, as tracked by the routes of the Metro subway system in Washington D.C.

Mapping U.S. Highway Intensity
A new map from Mapbox visualizes traffic on all roads eligible for highway safety funds by combining data available through the Highway Performance Monitoring System on OpenStreetMap.

From Times Square: How Many Pedestrians Is Too Many Pedestrians?
Times Square stakeholders have begun to raise the specter of "too much of a good thing," as the crowds flocking to Times Square threaten to squeeze the life out of the place.
Population Declining, Aging in Southwest Virginia
While Washington D.C. and its surrounding counties is in the midst of a population, development, and infrastructure investment boom, the region farther south and west in the state of Virginia is bleeding population.