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.
Lawyers Taking the Single-Family Zoning Fight to a Connecticut Town
Open Communities Alliance, along with law students and professors at a fair housing development clinic at Yale Law School, have proposed a development meant to trigger the exclusionary zoning code in the town of Woodbridge, Connecticut.
Transit Sales Tax Hinges on Local Control in Suburban Atlanta
Gwinnett County voters living have rejected proposals to pay taxes for the MARTA transit system before, so the latest proposal for a transit sales tax is going to great lengths to prove its local control bonafides.
Judge Throws Out Plans for New Residential Skyscraper on Manhattan's Upper West Side
A residential skyscraper proposed for Manhattan's Upper West Side included a mechanical void that predated new rules in the city prohibiting the height-enhancing building practice. A judge still rejected the project as planned.
Starting Today: The Idaho Stop Is Legal in Washington State
A law passed in March allowing people on bikes to treat stop signs as yield signs when conditions permit takes effect today in Washington State.
Alamo Master Plan Thrown Into Disarray
Remember that $450 million plan to renovate The Alamo in time for the 300th anniversary of the battle? It's in trouble.