James Rojas | An Island Press Author

James Rojas

James Rojas is an urban planner, community activist, educator, and artist who runs the planning, model-building, and community-outreach practice Place It!. Through Place It!, he has developed an interdisciplinary, community-healing, visioning, and outreach process that uses storytelling, objects, art-production, and play to help improve the urban-planning outreach process. He is now an international expert in public engagement and has traveled around the US, Mexico, Canada, Europe, and South America, facilitating over 500 workshops, and building over 100 interactive models. His research has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Dwell, Places, and in numerous books. Relevant areas of expertise include using model-building as a means of community and planning outreach; working with underserved, disadvantaged communities and bringing overlooked voices to the planning discussion; making the physical form of cities relevant to broad audiences; and understanding how immigrants—especially Latino immigrants—see and understand urban and suburban space in the US and why they oftentimes reshape those forms in the ways that they do.

La voz del Duwamish #15- Taller "Sueña, Construye, Juega" con James Rojas

Hola Comunidad, espero que todos estén teniendo un lindo comienzo de Mayo! Para este episodio, acompañenme al taller de "Sueña, Juega, Construye", un taller realizado por James Rojas donde su enfoque es conectar a la comunidad Latina. Van a poder conocer sobre quién es James Rojas, y cómo fue que este taller fue realizado. También, verán un montaje de todo lo que sucedió durante el taller y conocerán algunas historias de nuestros miembros de la comunidad latina. Espero y disfruten!

Equity and Walkability: Improving Pedestrian Infrastructure in Underserved Neighborhoods

National conversations about equity have expanded into the pedestrian realm and have prompted increasing numbers of communities to examine how to improve pedestrian infrastructure in underserved neighborhoods. Nondrivers represent nearly one quarter of the population and yet often are not included in planning and policymaking discussions. This session looked at how nondrivers are organizing to improve pedestrian infrastructure to better serve people of all ages, as well as those who cannot drive, do not have access to a car, or who cannot afford to own or maintain a vehicle.

Dream Play Build: Hands-On Community Engagement for Enduring Spaces and Places

People love their communities and want them to become safer, healthier, more prosperous places. But the standard approach to public meetings somehow makes everyone miserable. Conversations that should be inspiring can become shouting matches. So what would it look like to facilitate truly meaningful discussions between citizens and planners? What if they could be fun?