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

Central Avenue Vacant Lot Activation on MLK Weekend in Florence-Firestone

Thanks to everyone who attended our Central Avenue Vacant Lot Activation on January 17th, MLK Weekend. Big shout out to our Second District Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell and our Assemblymember Sade Elhawary for joining us! Much love to all the vendors and performers, especially the Compton Riot dance crew from Kipp Compton Community School.

Florence-Firestone community members will decide the future of this vacant lot.

We have one more activation in February, come through.

Some images from our January 2026 activation:

Host Committee for Architecture + Advocacy’s Deconstructing Engagement: A Conversation about Community-Led Design

We’re building the future of architecture.

I’m on the Host Committee planning the February 7th annual fundraiser for the nonprofit Architecture + Advocacy. This year’s topic is: “Deconstructing “Engagement: A Conversation about Community-Led Design.”

Community leaders, architects, policymakers, developers, and all people who care about the future of our city, will explore ways community engagement can go beyond “checking a box” and empower residents as decision makers. You can look forward to:

  • Meeting other people who care about ending neighborhood inequality
  • Participating in an intergenerational discussion about community-led design
  • Eating delicious food from local chef, The Aisha Life
  • Bidding on (and maybe winning) a wine tasting, task chair, and more!
  • Listening to good tunes

Date: Saturday, Feb 7, 2026
Time: 5:00 – 8:00pm
Location: Western Office Showroom, 515 S. Figueroa Street, Suite 101 Los Angeles, CA 90071
Early Bird Tickets: $40
Early Bird ticket sales end January 22nd! After that, the price increases to $50. Get yours now! Tickets: https://architectureandadvocacy.org/en/events/p/architecture-advocacys-annual-fundraiser

Infographics designed by Julia Chen

In the Spirit of Frank Gehry

Architect Frank Gehry passed away on December 5, 2025 in Santa Monica. He was 96. I wrote about Frank Gehry’s influence on me as a 90s architecture student at East Los Angeles College and SCI-Arc.

Excerpt:

Thirty years later, Gehry’s ideas challenging form, challenging materiality, challenging function, challenging convention, challenging orthodoxy, challenging the architecture establishment, challenging one’s own profession, remain with me as an urban planner.

Gehry was a driving inspiration in my early development. I’m taking time to reflect on his impact and work. Meantime, check out my 1996 three bedroom residence designed in the spirit of Frank Gehry.

Embedded Planning Course at Ball State University

Embedded Planning Praxis BSU Course Dan Baisden
University course image by Ball State University Department of Urban Planning

A course on Embedded Planning praxis is coming to Ball State University Department of Urban Planning!

PLAN 498/598: We Cannot Plan From Our Desks: Embedded Planning Theory and Practice

This is another step forward for our movement.

Huge thank you to Dan Baisden for inaugurating the class. BSU students are learning from the best. Dan leads the City of Fort Wayne Department of Neighborhoods which is literally an Embedded Planning department, as I’ve shared in recent keynotes.

I’m happy to be in dialogue with Dan about the syllabus.

Hey should we implement an Embedded Planning college course in Los Angeles?

Gateway Cities Regional Climate Collaborative in Florence-Firestone

The Florence-Firestone Community Organization recently hosted friends from SELA and South Central LA to discuss a range of urban planning issues. We covered the Gateway Cities Regional Climate Collaborative, the origins and spread of Embedded Planning praxis, emerging on-the-ground partnerships, community advocacy in these tense times, and much more. That 95-degree heat wave underscored the urgency of community preparedness for climate change.

Big thanks to these partners for coming thru:
—Gateway Cities Council of Governments
—Office of LA County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell
—SELA Collaborative
—TreePeople
—GRID Alternatives
—AltaMed Health Services

We sketched out several ideas for action. More to come!

Embedded Planning Shout Out in the Altoona Mirror

I appreciate this shout out in the Altoona Mirror about our work on the Borough of Hollidaysburg Comprehensive Plan 2035.

‘The revised plan relies on the “embedded planning” methodology espoused by California urban planner Jonathan Pacheco Bell, who was a key consultant during several stages of the process, [Andrew] Holodnik said.

Bell’s approach emphasizes planners getting “out of the office into the street,” Holodnik said, which facilitates direct dialogue between municipal leaders and the constituents they serve.

“You’re immersing yourself in the community,” he said.’

Article: https://www.altoonamirror.com/news/local-news/2025/10/hollidaysburg-borough-2035-plan-updated/

Hollidaysburg Comprehensive Plan 2035: https://hb2035.my.canva.site/