I was a contributing writer for UrbDeZine from 2014 to 2019. UrbDeZine is/was an online magazine covering urban planning, historic preservation, and architecture in seven US cities. Why the slash/verbs? Because the fate of the magazine is unknown. From its aggregator page at Planetizen, we see the last original article published in October 2019. UrbDeZine has been offline since late that year undergoing a “redesign and reorganization” as described on its currently-staticholding page. I write this entry in the waning days of November 2020 noting the relaunch period listed is Summer 2020. I hold out hope it’ll go-live again, but I’ve come to grips with the possibility that UrbDeZine may not come back.
This is dispiriting for a few reasons. First, because UrbDeZine was a passion project of its editor, who always supported the contributing writers, including unpublished and unknown authors, myself included. Second, because the writers added so many original essays, critical reflections, and news stories that advanced conversations on the built environment. Third, and most personally, because I started to find my voice on its pages. My earliest public commentaries on urban planning appeared in UrbDeZine.
My personal attachment wants to see these back online, and there’s interest from some readers, too. The articles pop up in searches but the links don’t work. Now and then, a reader will contact me asking where they’re at. There was enough interest to create a workaround.
Below are my writings from UrbDeZine, in PDF. This list entails works wherein I manually saved the article before it went offline. Most of my articles are accounted for. Some, but not all, of the PDFs retain working hyperlinks in the text. Also, a disclaimer: some of my views have evolved since the original publication of these commentaries (most notably, I’m no longer so stringent about informal housing).
By providing access to these works, I hope to contribute to the public discourse that helped me develop and mature my thinking about today’s vexing urban planning problems.
“We Are a Movement”: Students Advance Embedded Planning at the 2019 National Planning Conference, UrbDeZine. May 14, 2019.
An Open Letter to the Pasadena Planning Commission Urging a Comprehensive Overhaul of the Second Dwelling Unit Ordinance, UrbDeZine. December 12, 2016.
Paragraph from a paper on #EmbeddedPlanning by CPPENV MURP student Gaby Ruiz. Source: @EmbeddedPlanning on Instagram.
I’ve been doing more talks about Embedded Planning in high school and college classes, as well as meeting students for one-on-one conversations about my praxis, all through Zoom during this Coronavirus pandemic. I realized that I was sending lots of follow up emails providing links to my writings. After copy-pasting the same content several times, it became apparent that there was a more efficient way. This is it.
This post serves as the first compilation of my public works (writings, interviews, and more) on Embedded Planning. As my work on this street-level planning praxis evolves, I’ll share updated compilations as new posts on this infrequently updated blog.
Questions about Embedded Planning? Hit me up here.
WRITINGS
We Cannot Plan From Our Desks, Planning. October 2018.
Mike Davis examined the bird flu threat in, “The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu” (2005)
Mike Davis has been commenting extensively about the current global Coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic. I’m sharing his analysis on my social media spaces, as I often do with City of Quartz for urban planning students. For better or worse, Davis avoids social media and has no personal website with links to his work. Fortunately for readers, several outlets are making available without a paywall his works on COVID-19. It just takes some searching.
As I usually do with Davis, I found myself scouring Twitter and Google to find these commentaries. I know others are doing the same. We need his analysis to show us a pathway forward — and we need to get it beyond his faithful readers. So, to help boost readership, I’m aggregating links in this post to Mike Davis’s COVID-19 writings, comments, podcast interviews, etcetera.
There will be cross-posted duplicates from the various publications involved. I’m okay with doubling up. This increases reader access and helps overcome potential link rot. Also there will shorter and longer versions of his articles depending on the publication’s version. All is worth reading.
I’ll update this blog post as often as possible. Readers can recommend relevant works at this Contact page. Thank you. ~JPB
Update: New citations will end on May 31, 2020. This post will stay up as a resource on Mike Davis and COVID-19.
Mike Davis on COVID-19: The Monster Is at the Door
Among the many excellent urban planning programs in the Los Angeles region, UCI MURP has been one of the strongest supporters of advancing #EmbeddedPlanning praxis. To the students, faculty, and staff: THANK YOU!
Looking forward to growing our partnership and developing future critical planners & Embedded Planners.
I was not raised speaking Spanish. When Nana Josephine Pacheco née Ontiveros came to #LosAngeles from #Texas, the school teachers struck her with rulers por hablando Español en clase. So Nana didn’t teach my mom. And nobody taught me. I learned Español in earnest in the last 8 years working as an Embedded Planner on the ground in Florence-Firestone. For real I’m at like 6th grade level, pero sabes que, es mejor que nada!
On arrival Friday in #CDMX, I quickly had to adjust to Español. It was thrilling. I found myself absorbing the spoken word, the unique rhythm, cadence, & dialect of #Chilango, the Spanish of Mexico City. Immediately I found myself translating signs, speech, & writing intuitively. Dormant neurotransmitters began firing. Parts of my brain were trabajando overtime to help situate myself in this new space & culture.
I recognized this feeling. It had been awhile but I’d felt it long before. I told mi esposita that this exhilaration must have been the same stimulating experience of learning Inglés as a child con mi familia on the streets of East Los Angeles y Montebello 40+ years ago.
We’re working on a new way to advance #EmbeddedPlanning praxis. It’s an act of mutual aid by our friends at South Central Shirt Printing.
Embedded Planning was born on the streets of Florence-Firestone in South Central Los Angeles. The founders of South Central Shirt Printing grew up in #FlorenceFirestone. We take care of each other. They help me build community power. I rep their gear at public talks. This is how we do.
Stay tuned for more on this project. Meantime, follow @south_central_shirt_printing on Instagram 👊
Embedded Planning in Hannah Diaz’s MCP thesis Recommendations, MIT 2019
#EmbeddedPlanning has spread into urban planning student projects. One among many examples is Hannah Diaz’s MIT master’s thesis on Accessory Dwelling Unit (#ADU) pilot programs in Los Angeles, titled “Bidding AD(ie)U to Homelessness?”
Originally from California, Hannah wanted to write a thesis addressing the highly personal issue of homelessness back home. Affordable ADUs are part of the solution. Hannah interviewed me and several L.A. planning colleagues for this project. I shared my street-level experience with regulation and legalization of informal ADUs. I was honored to see Embedded Planning mentioned in Hannah’s Recommendations, as it implores planners to understand planning’s technocratic work from a “human perspective and weigh the effects of regulations on real, familiar lives.”
YES!
Congratulations Hannah Diaz on completing your Master in City Planning at MIT Urban Planning#MITDUSP! Onward to professional praxis 🙌
You know you’ve made an impact on the culture when your work becomes a meme 😄
This meme was posted today in the Planning Peeps group on #facebook! It references the #EmbeddedPlanning rallying cry: WE CANNOT PLAN FROM OUR DESKS!
Shout out to the meme creator and colleagues who sent this over today 🙌 Please head over to Planning Peeps on fb, like the meme, and post a comment on Embedded Planning.
The American Planning Association just published the Planning for Equity Policy Guide and #EmbeddedPlanning praxis is featured in the Further Reading section.
Thank you Miguel Angel Vazquez, AICP for your ongoing support and all committee authors for including the #PlanMag op-ed in this important resource for planners.
It’s incredibly humbling to be listed alongside planning luminaries Paul Davidoff, Norm Krumholz, John Forester, and Ruth Glass, who created the term #gentrification.
From Los Angeles to Seattle to Detriot to Boston to Norfolk, VA and back: “WE ARE A MOVEMENT” 📢
TODAY—I’m at @ucimurp delivering the Medina Family ADU Story in Prof. Lynda Hikichi’s class UPPP 275: Site Development. This is the 9th rendition of this public talk and the 2nd time UCI Urban Planning & Public Policy hosts it, thank you! If you’re on campus or nearby, come through: Room 3240 in the SBSG-Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway building, 11:30am—12:30pm.
ABSTRACT: This presentation puts a human face on California’s housing crisis. Through storytelling, reflection and #EmbeddedPlanning praxis, presenter Jonathan Pacheco Bell @c1typlann3r, a zoning enforcement planner in South Central #LosAngeles, presents the story of the Medina Family from the #SouthCentralLA community of @FlorenceFirestone, who built an informal backyard Accessory Dwelling Unit #ADU for extra income after the sudden passing of their head of household. An anonymous complaint triggered inspection and eventual demolition of the dwelling for code violations. Jonathan himself ordered its removal. Attendees will understand the emotional roller coaster the family endured while embroiled in this regulatory process, and Jonathan’s inner conflict with the outcome. To help himself cope emotionally and to spotlight this family’s housing struggle, Jonathan has turned the experience into a speaking tour offering takeaways for planning policy, practice, and pedagogy. Jonathan will explain the @EmbeddedPlanning approach at the story’s core. This talk will inspire emerging planners to adapt and respond to the problem of housing insecurity with empathetic, activist, street-level planning #praxis.
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