Author Archives: Jonathan Pacheco Bell, MAUP, MLIS

Creator of Embedded Planning and @C1TYPLANN3R

Speaking on Embedded Planning at East LA College Department of Architecture Spring Lecture Series

Honored to return home to East LA College Department of Architecture as a speaker for the Spring 2024 Lecture Series. I’m doing the talk “Building Embedded Planning Praxis” on May 7 at 12pm: free + open to all.

Bio:
Jonathan Pacheco Bell is a Senior Embedded Planner at 4LEAF, Inc. and a Lecturer at Cal Poly Pomona Department of Urban and Regional Planning. Born in Boyle Heights and raised in East LA and Montebello, Jonathan came up as a graffiti writer in the 90s creating art and culture on the ground.

For nearly 20 years, Jonathan has worked in South Central LA building community partnerships through street-level urban planning. He turned his methods into a new form of practice called Embedded Planning, where the planner works from the street-level to increase equity and participation for historically marginalized communities harmed by inequitable planning.

Jonathan has guest lectured across the U.S. on Embedded Planning. His speaking engagements include Columbia GSAPP, UCLA, University of Utah, Ohio State, Pratt Institute, Stanford Engineering, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Woodbury University; state and national Planning conferences in California, Iowa, and Louisiana; and public forums such as MOCA, City Parks Alliance, and the SF Urban Film Fest.

In addition to teaching and practice, Jonathan serves as Vice President of the Florence-Firestone Community Organization, a 501c3 nonprofit in South Central. He is co-author of the neighborhood history book, A Paseo Through Time in Florence-Firestone.

Jonathan is a first-generation student and proud product of the California public school system from kindergarten to graduate school. He holds a Master’s in Urban Planning from UCLA Luskin, an MLIS from SJSU iSchool, a Bachelor’s in Political Science from Cal State LA, and an Associate’s in Architecture from East LA College.

City of Quartz Panel at LitFest in the Dena 2024

Excavating the Future in Los Angeles: A Discussion of Mike Davis’s City of Quartz
Sunday, May 5, 2024, 2:00-3:00pm
LitFest in the Dena, Mountain View Mausoleum, Altadena, CA
With fellow panelists, Ivan Salinas & Mike The PoeT Sonksen

Bio:
Jonathan Pacheco Bell is a Senior Embedded Planner at 4LEAF, Inc. and Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning at Cal Poly Pomona. Born in Boyle Heights and raised in East LA and Montebello, Jonathan came up as a graffiti writer in the 90s creating art and culture on the ground. For nearly 20 years, Jonathan has worked in South Central LA building community partnerships through street-level urban planning. He turned his methods into a new form of practice called Embedded Planning – where the planner works in and from community spaces. He has guest lectured across the U.S. on bottom-up urban planning and is always searching for the next space to engage community members. In addition to teaching and practice, Jonathan serves as Vice President of the Florence-Firestone Community Organization, a 501c3 nonprofit in South Central. He is co-author of the neighborhood history book, A Paseo Through Time in Florence-Firestone. His writing has been published in Planning Magazine, Cultural Daily, UrbDeZine, and Public Libraries Quarterly. Jonathan holds a Master’s in Urban Planning from UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and proudly represents City of Pasadena as a resident in the city’s vibrant and diverse District 5.

City of Quartz Panel at LitFest in the Dena

I’m joining Iván Salinas and Mike The PoeT Sonksen at LitFest in the Dena on the panel, “Excavating the Future in Los Angeles: A Discussion of Mike Davis’s City of Quartz,” 5/5 in Altadena.

Arguably the late Mike Davis’s best known work, City of Quartz is one of the most significant books detailing the history of urban development in LA. Our panel will discuss passages, answer audience question, engage poetry rooted in place, and reflect on the enduring impact of Mike Davis and City of Quartz.

LitFest in the Dena is FREE and OPEN TO ALL: https://litfestinthedena.org/

Hostile Architecture Interview on KJZZ NPR Phoenix

I spoke with KJZZ NPR Phoenix about Hostile Architecture and public space equity. The story was cross-posted on the Fronteras Desk.

Excerpt:

BRODIE: What are the conversations like about this among your colleagues and other people who do what you do? . . .

PACHECO BELL: A lot of times city planners get blamed for this, but in fact, it’s oftentimes not city planners that are deciding to add hostile architecture. Rather, it’s the absence of mechanisms within city planning to deal with it. One of my longstanding critiques.

So, yes, there are instances where public agencies or the state might support the addition of hostile architecture, but there are also many instances where the private sector is doing this.

You have sometimes groups that form together to create hostile architecture to add in public space, to drive away those who they deem undesirable, and then sometimes you have sort of lone wolf individuals.

So this is a multidimensional issue. This is a multidimensional public space equity issue with a lot of people involved in it. My critique is that the urban planning field has done very little to address it.

The sharpest critiques that are coming out right now about hostile architecture are coming from the citizen journalists, young people on TikTok. And that is giving me hope that we’re going to have a turning point where we can start really talking about this as an international public space equity issue driven by young people on social media.

Informal ADUs Webinar

Join me this Friday, March 29th at 11:00am PST for an update on the important topic of unpermitted or informal ADUs and efforts to make the process of legalization easier and less costly, hosted by Casita Coalition, a statewide nonprofit. Our panel will cover:

– The current process for legalizing an unpermitted unit under state law
– How a safety-first legalization process can help preserve existing homes
– Designing an ADU amnesty program that addresses common barriers for homeowners
– AB 2533 (Carrillo)—a bill Casita Coalition is supporting to improve current ADU amnesty provisions

This webinar is generously sponsored by the City of Piedmont.

Register: https://www.casitacoalition.org/webinar-calendar/adu-amnesty

Planners Network Disorientation Guide 2nd Edition Launch

Excited for the launch of the 2nd edition of the Planners Network Disorientation Guide. I wrote a new article on Embedded Planning Praxis for it.

Our updated Guide comes 20 years after publication of the 1st edition in 2004-05, which I read closely during my MAUP studies at UCLA Urban Planning.

Big up to editors Cara Chellew, Dr. Norma Rantisi, and peer reviewers! Stay tuned.

Reelected as Vice President of the Florence-Firestone Community Organization

With my fellow FFCO Board Members Ramsey Nicholson and Art Jones. Photo by Aditi Peyush

My fellow Board Members have reelected me to serve as Vice President of the Florence-Firestone Community Organization (501c3) in South Central LA. I greatly appreciate the Board’s vote of confidence and I’m honored to continue uplifting our neighborhood in this role.

FFCO has many wonderful things planned for community members in 2024. Our resource fairs, community food giveaways, and holiday events will continue, and we’re expanding community education programs with generous funding from our partners.

Building on last year’s Vision Zero advocacy, we’re upping our community engagement and planning service. I’m stoked to work on FFCO’s community planning initiatives, including our new public engagement partnership with Metro for the Rail to River Segment B project, community walks and bike rides, client projects with universities like CPPURP and UCLA Luskin, urban planning workshops, Embedded Planning advocacy, community assistance navigating LA County planning efforts underway, and more.

The Florence-Firestone community welcomed me with open arms when I was a “baby zoning enforcement planner” nearly 17 years ago. I figured out my life’s purpose here — as a planner and a person. I’m humbled to be an adopted FF resident serving my friends and neighbors. Thank you for the boundless support and inspiration!

Senior Project 2024 at Cal Poly Pomona

Infographic by Jonathan Pacheco Bell

I’m back this semester teaching URP 4620 Senior Project. Building on research proposals developed in 4600A, this course is independent and student-driven. I’ll be guiding the student’s research process leading to an undergraduate capstone paper, project, or design.

Check out past Senior Projects here: https://c1typlann3r.blog/category/mentee-research-and-projects/

[ Background photo by Misty Fong. A view of Downtown LA and South Central taken from the iconic pedestrian bridge over the Metro Blue Line in Florence-Firestone ]

Cited in Mike Davis Tribute

I thank Professor Genevieve Carpio for citing me in her article on Mike Davis’s enduring impact and City of Quartz. Mike lives on in us.

“Now, as a teacher, I introduce his work to my own students. As one example, with Davis’s words, I try to open my students’ eyes to how our built environment shapes what is possible and what is unlikely, or at least discouraged. I ask them to look for what he calls “Carceral Architecture”: the Twin Towers or dividers on park benches or glass smashed into walls. In this way, I’m among other educators, like Jonathan Pacheco Bell and his work on hostile architecture, who continue to draw on Davis for our pedagogical interventions, especially among future urban planners, architects, and even developers. Indeed, I think one of Davis’s greatest contributions is the ways he underscores the power of the built environment in urban processes, his attention to which has shaped a generation of urban planners and urban historians.”

Dr. Genevieve Carpio. “Mike Davis’s Enduring Impact: A Reflection on Sunshine and Noir in the Junkyard of Dreams.” 105, no. 4, Southern California Quarterly (Winter 2023): 404-408.

Let Them Eat Cake: Utilizing UBI to Empower and Preserve Local Culture

Let Them Eat Cake: Utilizing UBI to Empower and Preserve Local Culture. By: Cole Correa

Celebrating the graduates in my 2023 Senior Projects class at Cal Poly Pomona Department of Urban and Regional Planning. Today we big up this researcher:

Let Them Eat Cake: Utilizing UBI to Empower and Preserve Local Culture

By: Cole Correa

This study examines the potential role of universal basic income (UBI) in maintaining local culture and identity within cities as a response to the negative effects of supermodernity. A descriptive and correlational research design was used to collect data through an online survey of randomly selected individuals in California. The survey gathered information on respondents’ income, connection to their communities, and attitudes toward the use of UBI as a means of preserving local culture. The data was analyzed to identify correlations between these variables and to draw conclusions about the potential effectiveness of using #UBI for this purpose.

The findings suggest that there is a positive correlation between income and connection to local culture and identity, and that UBI has the potential to empower communities and support local culture. However, the study also highlights some potential limitations of using UBI in this way, including the need for careful program design and implementation to avoid unintended consequences. The study concludes by suggesting that further research is needed to explore the potential of UBI to support local culture and identity, and to identify best practices for program design and implementation. This study provides important insights into the potential role of UBI in maintaining local culture and identity within cities. The findings can inform policy and practice in this area and contribute to the growing literature on UBI as a means of addressing broader social and economic issues.

Researcher presenting at the 2023 Cal Poly Pomona Urban & Regional Planning Senior Projects Day. Photo: Jonathan Pacheco Bell

Housing Resource Fair

I’m speaking on an ADU, environmental justice, and affordable housing panel reflecting on lessons I learned doing unpermitted ADU enforcement.

Event: Napa Sonoma Collaborative Housing Resource Fair, SMART station depot, 960 E. Cotati Avenue, Cotati, CA 94931

Saturday, December 9, 2023, 9am – 12pm

FREE AND OPEN TO ALL

Embedded Planning Infographic

Shout out to Pitzer College students in Community-Based Planning Praxis for creating this infographic on Embedded Planning! This is a new way to share the idea of street-level praxis.

I designed and taught the inaugural version of this course in Spring 2022. It continues under the leadership of Dr. Susan Phillips at Pitzer’s Environmental Analysis Field Group. As with my original version, the learning on Embedded Planning is core to Community-Based Planning Praxis.

Embedded Planning Is Worth The Struggle at CSUN

I’m doing the talk “Embedded Planning Is Worth The Struggle” at CSUN, Friday 12/1 at 11am in Dr. Brettany Shannon’s course URBS 380: LA Past, Present, & Future

Description:

Planning is political. Decisions about the built environment inherently impact people’s lives. Everything planners do involves a struggle over “who gets what, when, where, how, and why?” Planners respond to this debate but many of our practices have resulted in unjust planning.

In this time of increasing interrogation of planning’s legacies of inequity, planners are moving with intention to be better partners. As part of repair and healing, planners are seeking more ways to build meaningful community partnerships. No longer is Rational Planning the default. But while the pivot to participatory methods helped democratize the planning process, professional practice still prefers project-based, one-off, transactional engagement.

Orthodox planning must evolve.

A better way is possible.

LA-based urban planner Jonathan Pacheco Bell urges practitioners to consider Embedded Planning praxis. Developed by Bell on the ground in South Central LA, Embedded Planning is a way to fundamentally restructure community engagement and practice. Embedded Planning means planning from the street, not from a desk. Embedded Planners work in the spaces and places of community members, building bridges with marginalized communities harmed by inequitable planning. Embedded Planning is a praxis that puts theory into action to better the world. Since Bell declared Embedded Planning exists in 2018, it has grown into an international movement among emerging planners.

Community members have embraced Embedded Planning because they feel seen and included as partners. Yet despite the praxis bringing ignored voices to the table, Bell encountered blatant hostility from planning figureheads who judged Embedded Planning as “too political.” Through storytelling and personal reflection, Bell will illustrate the struggle to carry out Embedded Planning in the face of power. Attendees will learn the challenges and benefits of this unorthodox approach and understand why this praxis is the future of planning.

Mike The PoeT in URP 5120

Shout out to Mike The PoeT for being our Week 13 guest speaker in URP 5120: Planning Ideas and Action. Mike taught us writing exercises as community engagement. These are ways to get ideas on the page without overthinking. Take a few minutes and just write. For example, we all did the 5-line quick write for these prompts:

  • My style is . . .
  • I believe in . . .
  • I value . . .

Here’s mine:

My style is Embedded Planning

My style is the street

My style is Montebello

My style is more chill today than before

My style is mine

I believe in community

I believe in solidarity

I believe in organizing

I believe in LA

I believe in grass roots

I value partnerships
I value work/life balance
I value friendships
I value education
I value coming together