James S. Russell

Architecture Critic, Journalist and Consultant

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Cities’ rise from the dead shows why extortion is bad

by James Russell on January 22, 2020 - Get free updates on posts here

New York City, 1980

Among the many distressing aspects of the presidential impeachment now underway is the perception that extorting a foreign leader to investigate the President’s rivals is unsavory but not important enough to merit impeachment. The President’s defenders are pushing this specious line unrelentingly presumably because they think a lot of people will accept it.  This totally outrages me, but paradoxically, our era of far less crime—and far less crime committed by public officials—may have led … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture

It Should Not Be Bad for Cities to be Rich

by James Russell on January 20, 2019 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

  If you missed it, it’s worth catching up on the brilliant Emily Badger’s Upshot column in the New York Times that appealingly focuses on cities scared of becoming Manhattanized, or San Franciscoed, or Seattleified. These cities create a great deal of wealth and tens of thousands of jobs that pay six figures. But they are all unaffordable, afflicted with homelessness, and strangled by traffic. Wealth needn’t come at so high a price. The cities and their high-paying … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture

Can Amazon Be . . . Gasp . . . Good for New York?

by James Russell on December 26, 2018 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

“Stop Amazon!” is increasingly the mantra of activists in New York, referring to the new $5 billion campus the company is slated to develop in Long Island City, Queens. With righteous rage, city council members at a hearing demanded the company stop cooperating with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on facial-recognition software and end their union-resisting stance. Progressives have made stopping Amazon a cause. They're gentrifiers! (Sorry, that ship has sailed...) They exploit … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile City, Architecture, Cities

Questions for Brett Kavanaugh

by James Russell on September 3, 2018 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will no doubt be subjected to detailed questioning this week about his substantial record as a jurist. Kavanaugh has been groomed through the equivalent of a far-right judicial finishing school, and has reliably reflected those very conservative views of the law. Indeed, the farthest he seems to have strayed from Washington, D. C. and Bethesda, where he grew up, is Yale where he obtained both his undergraduate and law degree. I think most of us, whatever … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile City, Cities

Tax Plan to Cities: Drop Dead

by James Russell on December 11, 2017 - Get free updates on posts here

  You may have paid little attention to the  tax plan rushing headlong through Congress. It has been advertised as a middle-class tax break and an inducement to  business to create jobs through a dramatically lowered corporate tax rate. Pay attention, especially if you live in a city or suburb, as most of us do. Media and opponents of the plan have focused on the elimination or possible reduction in the deduction for state and local taxes and a possible $500,000 cap on deduction … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile City, Cities

Disaster Recovery Secret Weapon: Neighborhood Groups

by James Russell on October 3, 2017 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

In a year of extraordinary disasters, the sheer scope of recovery and rebuilding can seem mind boggling. We’re tempted to turn away in horror at buildings  with roofs ripped off in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, the pancaked structures in Mexico City, the piles of debris in Houston front yards. Government and private aid groups are well versed in the delivery of food, blankets, and other donated items, but whether recovery restores neighborhoods to health or leaves them with boarded-up houses … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile City, Architecture, Cities

In a Summer of Subway Hell, Learning from London

by James Russell on August 9, 2017 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

New York subway delays became epidemic this summer and emergency repairs at Penn Station snarled commuter traffic. A recent column by the NYT’s Michael Kimmelman ruminated on these transit woes and . . . Brexit. The column looked at London’s Crossrail—a $20-billion expansion of the city’s crowded transit system that is a heroic feat of engineering and said to be the largest infrastructure project in Europe. It’s an important story for Americans, who simply cannot competently build complex … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture

Housing for Shelter, Not Investors

by James Russell on February 28, 2017 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

First it was billionaires. Now the so-called Creative Class and its Millennial progeny are deemed responsible for The New Urban Crisis, which is what Creative Class guru Richard Florida has dubbed enormous inequality in cities, the concentration of extreme poverty, and the tsunami of gentrification that displaces lower-income people. (His book by that name, which I have read about—but want to read—arrives in April.) Is there a New Urban Crisis? No. Though income inequality permeates the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture

Why You’ll Never Get a Raise under Trump

by James Russell on February 5, 2017 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

I am no labor expert but all the things I know much more about —and usually write about—from climate change to transportation and architecture—were held hostage in this election to voters who wanted a dramatic change in their economic prospects—i.e., a raise in wages to be orchestrated by the self-anointed business genius (but serial bankrupt) Trump. The rage at Trump and his actions is enormously heartening and powerful to a point.  The energy is too scattered and inchoate now. It’s time to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile City, Cities Tagged With: income growth, pay raise, wages

You Can Stop Trump’s Disastrous Cabinet

by James Russell on January 8, 2017 - Get free updates on posts here

James S. Russell

The Republican Senate is attempting to rush hearings for President Trump’s cabinet choices. Everyone has to act now to insist that Congress follow established procedures and law for vetting ethics and conflicts of interest. Several candidates with many interests involving the government have yet to file the paperwork necessary to show how they will separate their businesses from their work in government, led by the President himself who appears determined to skirt rules that should apply to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile City, Cities, Disaster Resilence, Sustainability

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About James Russell

James S. Russell is an architecture critic, journalist, teacher and consultant. He's the author of the book, The Agile City, and has written for publications like Architectural Record, Bloomberg News, NY Times and more. Continue reading

Recent Posts

  • Cities’ rise from the dead shows why extortion is bad
  • It Should Not Be Bad for Cities to be Rich
  • Can Amazon Be . . . Gasp . . . Good for New York?
  • Questions for Brett Kavanaugh
  • Tax Plan to Cities: Drop Dead

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