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.
Rising Costs Threaten TxDOT’s $85 Billion Highway-Building Plans
Texas Transportation Commissioners must have a hangover—backing off its highway building ambitions just a few months after approving the $85 billion Unified Transportation Plan in August 2022.
Urban Population Shrinks After Census Definition Change
The U.S. Census Bureau raised the bar for communities to qualify as urban areas.
Complaint Blames Bay Delta Ecological Crisis on Racism
Advocates hope to enlist the federal government in forcing state regulators to set clean water standards for the San Francisco Bay Delta.
New York Subway Surpasses 1 Billion Riders for the First Time Since 2019
There’s still a long way to go for the nation’s busiest transit system to get back to pre-pandemic ridership levels, but New Yorkers crossed at least one symbolic threshold in 2022.
Lawsuit Filed to Halt L.A.’s Mansion Tax
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is among the groups suing to block the city of Los Angeles’ voter-approved ‘mansion tax.’