Never Give Up the Streets

In my recent guest talk, “Critical Public Space Planning: Challenges & Possibilities,” we explored this question:

Is critical public space planning practice possible?

Drawing from my life experience — coming up as a hip hop kid & graffiti writer in the 90s, starting in architecture (buildings) in high school before finding urban planning (community spaces) in college, creating the street-level praxis of Embedded Planning in Florence-Firestone (now worldwide!), working as a street-level community planner-organizer, designing equitable parks and open spaces in LA, leading community walks for 10+ years, continuing a lifelong critique of Hostile Architecture from my graffiti days to today — I argued YES.

Shout out to Professor Catherine Guentert and CPPURP urban design students for the space and debate.

I closed the guest talk with the words of the late Mike Davis in The LAnd (https://thelandmag.com/the-land-interview-mike-davis-jeff-weiss/):

“We must never cede the streets. Never give up the streets.”

Whittier College and Community Members Embrace Embedded Planning Praxis

Big thanks to Professor Cinzia Fissore, environmental science students, and the Hartley House at Whittier College for hosting my guest talk, “The Strength of Street Knowledge: Embedded Planning as Community-Based Praxis.”

And shout out to my community members and former MURP students for coming through! It’s always reassuring to see friendly faces in the audience.

Embedded Planning Praxis is coast-to-coast and well beyond, with practitioners from Mexico and Brasil. This little idea born on the streets of Florence-Firestone in South Central LA is now a worldwide movement.

Florence-Firestone Community Walk with Architecture + Advocacy

Shout out to our friends at the nonprofit Architecture + Advocacy for joining us on a community walk in Florence-Firestone.

We embrace sharing the social history of this unincorporated community, street-level stories of urban planning and architecture, along with local struggles, challenges, and wins.

We see clear mission alignment in A+A’s design justice work, our Embedded Planning advocacy at the Florence-Firestone Community Organization, and A+A/FFCO’s shared goal of community partnerships.

More to come!

Embedded Planning Praxis Returns to Whittier College

The Strength of Street Knowledge: Embedded Planning as Community-Based Praxis

This talk introduces a new method of urban planning called Embedded Planning Praxis. Embedded Planning revolutionizes practice by emphasizing street-level planning within the community rather than traditional desk-based methods. Developed by Jonathan Pacheco Bell in South Central LA as an outgrowth of code enforcement work, Embedded Planning has evolved into a community-based praxis that seeks to rebuild trust and foster meaningful relationships with marginalized communities historically harmed by inequitable planning.

Embedded Planning is working directly from community spaces and places. Embedded planners engage residents in everyday environments, evolving practice from desk-based policy formation to on-the-ground collaboration in and from the neighborhood. This immersive approach helps planners gain a deeper understanding of local needs and aspirations, ensuring that community voices and needs significantly shape planning decisions. Embedded Planning is a timely evolution in the field that aligns with growing calls for more equity-centered, place-based, participatory practices. By embedding themselves into neighborhoods, planners build strong and authentic relationships, moving beyond one-off, transactional consultations to create lasting and impactful partnerships.

Using a reflective practitioner framework, Jonathan will illustrate what Embedded Planning looks like, explain its role as his motivating throughline, highlight embedded planners implementing these inclusive methods coast to coast, while highlighting the challenges and benefits of this praxis. Attendees will learn how this emerging movement represents a crucial shift towards centering planning as an active and continuous process from within the community and represents the future of planning.

SB 79 Debate at UCLA Luskin Summit 2026

I enjoyed today’s UCLA Luskin Summit, especially the debate between the panels opposing and supporting SB 79. Shout out to Professor Michael Storper referencing Peter Hall’s book Great Planning Disasters and Professor Mike Manville working in the term “tautology” into this housing debate. Great to be back at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

Embedded Planning Praxis Workshop at USC Price

Embedded Planning Praxis Workshop: From Concept to Practice in Los Angeles

This interactive workshop builds on the themes introduced in last year’s USC Price talk, “The Strength of Street Knowledge: Embedded Planning as Community-Based Praxis.” Diving deeper, this event is a hands-on exploration of Embedded Planning Praxis itself. Designed as a participatory space, the workshop invites students to collaboratively explore how Embedded Planning can be implemented in LA’s unique contexts.

Embedded Planning calls for planners to work from spaces and places of the communities they serve, centering lived experience, co-creation, and long-term partnerships over top-down, technocratic approaches. This workshop asks: “What does it mean for planners to be embedded? How can we practice this approach in our communities? What are the challenges and possibilities?”

Participants will engage in interactive discussions and scenarios focused on local conditions and place-based strategies to apply Embedded Planning Praxis. The workshop also provides a supportive space for us to reflect on professional roles, institutional barriers, and opportunities for transformative planning practices. Whether you’re an experienced planner or new to participatory approaches, this workshop will jumpstart the development of practical steps to apply Embedded Planning in our communities.

Speaker Bio

Jonathan Pacheco Bell (@c1typlann3r) is a Los Angeles-based urban planner with two decades of experience across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. For 14 years, he worked on the ground as a Los Angeles County Zoning Enforcement Planner in South Central LA’s Florence-Firestone community. Witnessing the harms of inequitable zoning inspired him to create a new form of street-level planning advocacy called Embedded Planning Praxis. His street-level praxis has since become a movement spreading across the US and internationally. Today, Jonathan serves as Co-President of the nonprofit Florence-Firestone Community Organization – in the community where Embedded Planning was born.

Pipeline to Planning

Screenshot

Full circle moment at Careers, Capstones, and Conversation 2026, the annual UCLA Luskin MURP poster session.

Three students — Jordan, Diego, and Tanner — from my 2022 Pitzer College course “Community Based Planning Praxis” are now pursuing MURPs at UCLA Urban Planning, my alma mater. Mission accomplished 10X!

I’m encouraging all my fellow planners to talk up urban planning as a career every chance you get and build pipelines to planning practice.

Congrats Jordan James, Diego Tamayo, and Tanner Vandenbosch on this next chapter!

Hostile Architecture Survey

Planners + Community: Zena Al-Beitawi is doing an urban planning senior project examining how public spaces can be designed for inclusivity, safety, and enjoyment versus Hostile Architecture in Pomona, CA.

Please take a few minutes to complete Zena’s survey! Use the QR code or this link: https://bit.ly/HostileDesign2026

Your input will help shape Zena’s policy recommendations for equitable — not hostile — public spaces.

UCLA Network in Action

UCLA network in action! Jordan Grimaldi (MURP ‘26) is doing a master’s client project for City Fabrick analyzing utility right-of-ways in LA.

CF’s Alexander Jung, AICP (MURP ‘15) connected Jordan and me (MAUP ‘05) for deep background on the East 92nd Street utility right-of-way in Florence-Firestone.

Jordan interviewed me at the Florence-Firestone Community Organization office and then we visited the site, which is now the home of the future 92nd Street Linear Park via Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation!

I then connected Jordan with Yanel Sáenz (MPH ‘22) of the Friends of Washington and 92nd Street Park for additional community interviews about transforming this utility right-of-way into a park.

We will continue supporting Jordan’s community-based research and recommendations well after graduation.

Go Bruins!

The End of Geography?

Originally written in 2004 and revised in 2026, my piece “The End of Geography?” is published on Medium. I consider claims alleging geography’s demise in the context of territorial space versus cyberspace. This is the latest contribution to my Student Papers Archive.

Read: https://medium.com/@c1typlann3r/the-end-of-geography-69adb0941440?sk=23443ada3bd86b5aa638547cb5f7506e

The End of Geography No Context

No Context-inspired photos from my upcoming publication:

“The End of Geography? An Analysis of Virtual and Physical Spatiality in the 21st Century.”

I wrote the original version of this paper for Professor Edward W. Soja’s course UP 233: Political Economy of Urbanization at UCLA Urban Planning and submitted it on May 5, 2004.

Intended readers were only Professor Soja and TA Miguel Kanai, which, in hindsight, explains my original’s overly academic tone. I’ve overhauled it for a wider audience though the arguments remain intact. The text is a faithful record of my position in 2004.

It’ll be published on Medium as part of my Student Papers Archive.

Photo by Jonathan Pacheco Bell
Photo by Alex Simpson on Unsplash
Photo by Jonathan Laguna
Source: Defense Systems Agency, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Yasen Iliev on Unsplash
Photo by Jonathan Pacheco Bell