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.
Redesign for Seattle's Notoriously Unsafe 2nd Avenue Bike Lane
Seattle is hoping to transform the 2nd Avenue bike lane from the cities worst—location of 60 bike collisions in the last four years—to a demonstration of the state-of-the-art in bike infrastructure design.
California Water Districts Might Skirt Prop 13 to Fund $25 Billion Canal Plan
Californians who take low property taxes and high quality drinking water for granted might have reason to rethink both those realities if the state's water districts figure out a way to raise property taxes—the same might be true if they don't.
Does Too-Plentiful Parking Spark Wild Parties at Chicago's Montrose Beach?
Parking is at the center of proposed urban design and planning responses a recent melee at Montrose Beach in Chicago, which followed an un-permitted concert.
Arizona Residents Ditching Cars, Taking Transit
A new report finds that residents of Arizona are driving less—much, much less. Arizonans drive less that they did in the 1990s, in fact. Despite these trends, the state government has not adjusted its traffic forecasting models.
Can Kentucky Compete in an Urbanizing, Global Economy?
Braden Lammers provides a dispatch from the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Business Summit and Annual Meeting, sharing the testimony of one business leader on the state's work force challenges.