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.
Boston’s Government Center T Station Closed for Access Improvements
Boston recently shut down one of its busiest transit hubs, the Government Center T Station for over-due renovations above and below the ground. The station was originally built in 1898, and without a major renovation since the 1960s.
Offshore Wind Proposal Doesn’t Pencil Out for New Jersey State Regulators
Hopes for New Jersey to be a national leader in offshore wind energy were dealt a setback when the state Board of Public Utilities rejected the financial plan of a 25-megawatt project proposed for a site three miles off the coast near Atlantic City.
‘This is Cleveland’ Rebranding Appeals to Millennials, Hipsters
Positively Cleveland, Northeast Ohio’s tourism bureau, has launched a new campaign, “This is Cleveland,” that takes a new tack in selling the region not for its orchestra and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but rather for its warts and all.
Sow Low-Density Residential; Reap Lack of Retail
The cautionary tale of “a very suburban kerfuffle” in Blaine, Minnesota: residents of a “large, multi-builder housing development” who once opposed a multi-family residential development in the neighborhood now lament a lack of retail.
Which Is the Problem: Affordable Housing or Poverty?
Jonathan Geeting argues that Philadelphia’s recently proposed affordable housing program is focusing on the wrong problem—in Philadelphia, housing is quite affordable, but people are still too poor to afford it.