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.
Congressional Report on Transit Spending Stops Short of Accountability
Transit advocates were hoping the U.S. Government Accountability Office was finally going to expose the systematic failures of transit spending in the United States by comparing the practices of other countries.
Public Opinion Differs on New Bay Area Road Diet
Some love it; some hate it: The main drag of Downtown Los Gatos, at the southern end of the South Bay Area, got a complete streets makeover.
Et Tu, Portland?
Opinion: The Rose City joins the nationwide attack on neighborhood-scale public involvement—and throws its pioneering model of grassroots democracy under the bus.
Rethinking Downtown Streets in a Revitalizing Pittsburgh
With $5.2 billion of investment in the past 10 years, and another $3.5 billion in the development pipeline, Pittsburgh planning organizations are considering ways to rethink the streets of the city's downtown.
'Community Preference' Housing Policy Under the Microscope on Either Side of the Country
A new study out of New York City reveals the worsening effects of segregation due to the city's "community preference" affordable housing policy, Seattle sets out to craft a policy of its own.