Jay Walljasper is a fellow and editor at On the Commons, an
organization devoted to restoring an appreciaton of common purpose
and common assets to contemporary life, and senior fellow at Project
for Public Spaces, a New York-based organization that helps citizens
enliven their communities by improving public places. He writes the
Ecopolitan, a blog about green cities, for the National Geographic
Green Guide and reports on sustainable tourism initiatives for
National Geographic Traveler. Walljasper is also editor-at-large at
Ode magazine

Walljasper is author of The Great Neighborhood Book (2007, New
Society). He was editor of Utne Reader from 1984 to 1995 and 2000 to
2004, during which time the magazine was nominated three times for a
National Magazine Award for General Excellence. He is co-author of the
book Visionaries (New Society, 2001). He has been interviewed and
quoted on contemporary issues in the New York Times, Wall Street
Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and NPR's Morning
Edition.

For more than a decade he was the American columnist for the British
magazine Resurgence, and also wrote a column about American affairs
for the Belgian magazine Enjeux Internationaux. His articles have
appeared in Mother Jones, Preservation, The Nation, the New Statesman
(London), the Chicago Tribune magazine, Philadelphia Inquirer
magazine, Toronto Star, Tikkun, L.A. Weekly, Yes!, E magazine,
Courrier (Paris), Australian Financial Review, Planeta Humano
(Madrid), and New Woman (Australia). Previous to joining Utne he was
Culture Editor at In These Times and a travel editor at Better Homes &
Gardens. He lives in Minneapolis.

For many years he written about urban planning and public place
issues. An extended essay of his appears in the book Toward the
Livable City (Milkweed, 2003) and he writes the Town Square column for
the PPS e-newsletter, Making Places. He examined positive urban
initiatives in places like Portland, inner-city Boston, Copenhagen,
and the Twin Cities for a series, "What Works?" in the Nation magazine
(1997-2000).

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