Monthly Archives: May 2026

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.