In a letter to the editor of Planning (February 2019), Michigan grad student Nadia Karizat endorsed Embedded Planning praxis.
Nadia and other future planners will lead #EmbeddedPlanning.
Things are underway.
Stay tuned . . .
Author Archives: Jonathan Pacheco Bell, MAUP, MLIS
Creator of Embedded Planning and @C1TYPLANN3R
Virginia Urban Planning Student to Lead Embedded Planning Efforts
In a recent op-ed, Virginia urban planning student Gianna Raggio declared that she will lead Embedded Planning praxis in her community when she’s a practitioner.
As Gianna observed:
“Once I become a planner, I don’t want to be glued to a desk. Nor should I be. In order to make a positive impact on my community, I need to be present. To be an embedded planner, I need to be constantly interacting with residents in the community in which I work. Yes, that means attending community meetings. But it also goes above that. Embedded planners should go beyond what the job requires. Be present at community events, and contribute to neighborhood relationship building. Be a familiar face in the community.”
From #LosAngeles to #Norfolk and beyond, #EmbeddedPlanning is the future.
Public talk on Embedded Planning, Informal Housing, & the Medina Family ADU Story at Stanford Engineering
If you’ve been to my Medina Family ADU Story, or plan to attend an upcoming talk, you’ll see I get choked up. Happens every time. I don’t even try to suppress it anymore. This was a harrowing experience for the Medinas, and for me. My #EmbeddedPlanning praxis rejects the technocratic detachment of Rational Planning orthodoxy. When we shed tears, those tears are earned.
For the Medinas, removing the backyard dwelling built to generate income after the passing of their head of household worsened the stress that started it all. Ordering the removal after knowing the Medinas’ story made me question strict enforcement of #InformalHousing. The dwelling was not substandard—it was simply out of zoning compliance. All of this predated California’s relaxed State ADU Laws, so the only option was to demolish it. This was in 2016. After 10 years on the job, I’d finally realized that “Penalties or Demolition” was a false dilemma fallacy in #ADU enforcement. We’re trying to change this outcome for other folx.
The ending part is emotional for me. I conclude with slides featuring each member of the Medina Fam. I wanted audience members to understand the impact of rigid zoning on real people. I wanted to evoke an emotional response. And every time it works . . . on ME.
The final slide is of little Janelle. Janelle represents the future of #LosAngeles.
This effort is for her.
Gracias Derek Ouyang, Tyler Pullen, and Stanford Engineering Sustainable Urban Systems.
Public talk on Embedded Planning, Informal Housing, & the Medina Family ADU Story at the SF Urban Film Fest
People’s lives are at the heart of Planning. Planners: befriend the community, get to know constituents personally, invest your heart into bettering THEIR lives and you’ll always have a righteous mission.
I could not do this series of public talks on #InformalHousing without permission & support of the Medina Family. My regulatory responsibility resulted in the removal of their informal #ADU but ironically brought us closer together. Theirs was a hard first lesson in Planning & Zoning. They knew others endure the same struggle. The Medinas permitted my public talks because they knew sharing their experience would help other residents & Other Planners understand the street realities of informal housing in working-class communities of color. They entrusted me to tell their story. They granted me a righteous mission.
Planners! We must draw inspiration from The People we serve.
The Medina Family—Flora, Josefina, Maria, and Janelle—they inspire me. Janelle represents the future of #LosAngeles. THIS IS FOR HER ♥️
Gracias Fay Darmawi for including us in the 2018 SF Urban Film Fest, SPUR Urbanist for hosting us, & SPUR’s Amy Thomson for photographing this moment.
#EmbeddedPlanning
Public talk on Embedded Planning, Informal Housing, & the Medina Family ADU Story at UC Irvine School of Social Ecology
I’m honored to serve as UCI MURP Planning Visions Guest Speaker delivering my public talk, “A Matter of Necessity:” Understanding Informal Housing through Embedded Planning, at UC Irvine School of Social Ecology, Department of Urban Planning & Public Policy, Thursday, Oct 25th, 11:30a-1:00p. The event is made possible through the initiative of 2nd year MURP candidate Irene Aceituno. She will introduce me as speaker, discuss UCI’s Diversity in Planning Fellows program, & emphasize the value of mentorships in planning. The talk is Free & Open To All. RSVP at Eventbrite.
SUMMARY: This presentation puts a human face on California’s housing crisis. Jonathan Pacheco Bell, a zoning enforcement planner in Los Angeles County, will tell the story of the Medina Family from the South Central L.A. community of Florence-Firestone, who built an informal backyard dwelling for extra income after the sudden passing of their head of household. An anonymous complaint triggered an inspection & eventual demolition of the dwelling for code violations. It was Jonathan himself who ordered its removal. Audience members will understand the emotional roller coaster the family endured while embroiled in this regulatory process, & Jonathan’s inner conflict with the outcome. Key takeaways for planning policy, practice & pedagogy will be offered. This talk demonstrates that the rules we enforce can have unintended consequences, especially in working class communities of color.
BIO: Jonathan Pacheco Bell (@c1typlann3r) is a public sector Urban Planner in Los Angeles County with over 12 years of experience in zoning enforcement. He is a fierce advocate for the unincorporated areas of South Central Los Angeles. On any given day you will find him in the unincorporated community of Florence-Firestone partnering with stakeholders to improve quality of life.
A field-based planner, Bell researches, writes, & speaks about informal housing, unorthodox community outreach, and South Central L.A. history from his unique, on the ground perspective. He calls his praxis Embedded Planning.
A product of the California public school system from kindergarten to graduate school, Bell holds an MAUP from UCLA Luskin & an MLIS from SJSU iSchool.
“We Cannot Plan From Our Desks”, my op-ed on Embedded Planning praxis published in APA’s Planning Magazine, October 2018
Embedded Planning Op-Ed Publishes in APA’s Planning Magazine, Oct 2018
We Cannot Plan From Our Desks.
Planning practioners, students, and professors: WE CANNOT PLAN FROM OUR DESKS.
We need to get out there and connect.
#EmbeddedPlanning praxis means planning in streets, not from the comfort of your desk.
My op-ed publishes in APA’s Planning Magazine #PlanMag October 2018, just in time for #PlanningMonth.
Eureka moment for Embedded Planning
I’m writing an invited op-ed on Embedded Planning. It’s a challenging but rewarding exercise. This has been an amorphous idea swirling in my head for years. I knew what it was intuitively, but I hadn’t defined it. This op-ed is pushing me to define, outline, & explain the benefits of my #EmbeddedPlanning praxis.
The piece draws on my ideas developed over 12 years doing urban planning on-the-ground, from my #MLIS experience in which I regularly wrote about librarians breaking free from the reference desk to do LIS work out in the neighborhood, & from my speaking tour on the Medina Family #ADU saga.
My most fruitful thinking on this op-ed has been away from a desk. On Thursday morning, stuck in #LosAngeles traffic, I had a eureka! moment about the title of my public talk, “A Matter of Necessity”: Understanding Informal Housing through Storytelling. The reason I can tell the Medina Family story is because I earned their trust, at their doorstep, through my Embedded Planning praxis.
Thus far I’ve delivered the Medina Family ADU talk at CSUN, Woodbury University, Cal Poly Pomona, UCLA Luskin, & the American Planning Association #NPC18 Conference in New Orleans under the “Storytelling” title. It’s high time for an update. It’s time to revise my title to underscore that the lessons learned result from Embedded Planning.
Henceforth the title of my talk on the Medina Family ADU story is:
“A Matter of Necessity”: Understanding Informal Housing through Embedded Planning
Only through Embedded Planning do we arrive at my thesis: “Behind every informal unit there’s a story to tell, a human dimension that needs light.”
Selected 1990 Census data on comparable demographics for the City of Compton and unincorporated East Compton—now called East Rancho Dominguez
The present post serves as a hyperlinked footnote (“comparable demographics”) from this paragraph in my article titled, “My Afternoon Doing Urban Planning on the Ground in South Central Los Angeles,” to be published shortly in UrbDeZine:
Yet despite familiar appearances, ERD’s renaming was less a matter of “Compton stigma” and more about autonomy. Unlike the five cities who’d whitewashed Compton Boulevard from their maps, ERD reflected comparable demographics for African-American and Latino residents as the City of Compton. ERD wasn’t dissociating from the local populations; rather, it embraced them under a new, shared ethos within its borders. And while some stakeholders saw better economic development potential with the new name, backers argued that the rebrand would establish the autonomous identity rightly owed to this community. “I think we deserve it,” declared ERD leader Margaret Comer. These days, any definitive motivation for the name change remains up for debate – but what’s irrefutable is that this episode in local politics rendered publicly the fiercely independent spirit that defines East Rancho Dominguez.
The below chart includes selected 1990 Census data on those comparable demographics for the City of Compton and unincorporated East Compton—now called East Rancho Dominguez. The data are drawn from social, economic, population, and housing characteristics with the base geographic area of Place and County subdivision, 2,500 person or more.
Sources:
U.S. Census Bureau. 1990 Census of Housing. Detailed Housing Characteristics. California. Retrieved from: https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1990/ch-2/ch-2-6-1.pdf
U.S. Census Bureau. 1990 Census of Population. Social and Economic Characteristics. California. Retrieved from: https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1990/cp-2/cp-2-6-1.pdf
MUTUAL AID AT LUNCHTIME
Read my latest piece, “Mutual Aid at Lunchtime,” published Dec. 6, 2017 in Cultural Weekly.
It’s a concise but expository look at my unorthodox urban planning outreach tactics. I cover planning in plain language, burritos, and the anarchist philosopher Peter Kropotkin in less than 1000 words!
A Street-Level View of Informal Housing in the Context of California’s Housing Crisis: Considerations for Policy & Planning
I’m delivering the talk “A Street-Level View of Informal Housing in the Context of California’s Housing Crisis: Considerations for Policy & Planning” in Dr. Alvaro Huerta’s class Nov. 14 at @calpolypomona.
Alvaro and I were MAUP classmates at @UCLALuskin!
PLACEMAKING THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS IN FLORENCE-FIRESTONE
I am delivering the talk “Placemaking Through Partnerships in Florence-Firestone” at the California Library Association 2017 Conference *New Worlds Emerge*, Nov. 3, 2017 at 3:30 p.m. We will celebrate the history, meaning and future of the unincorporated community of Florence-Firestone in South Central Los Angeles! The talk is sponsored by our friends at the CLA Special Libraries Interest Group. Much love.
OVERVIEW:
South Central Los Angeles evokes many images, associations, and assumptions. For too long, negative portrayals in the media have influenced these notions. The presenter will tell the story of a unique partnership that challenged these stereotypes in the unincorporated community of Florence-Firestone in South Central. Through a creative placemaking project called the Some Place Chronicles, community leaders, artists, and employees from the County of Los Angeles Public Library, Department of Regional Planning, and Arts Commission collaborated to write A Paseo Through Time in Florence-Firestone, the first-ever published history book on this rich and diverse neighborhood. Attendees will learn how the partnership tapped into archival materials, community memory, and lived experience to produce an uplifting representation of Florence-Firestone and South Central L.A. The session will be instructive to librarians, archivists, and other information professionals engaged in local history and neighborhood empowerment initiatives, especially in underserved communities of color.
SESSION URL:
https://www.eventscribe.com/2017/cla/fsPopup.asp?Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=295583
Pasadena’s ADU Ordinance Remains Broken. Here’s How to Fix it.
I was unable to attend tonight’s ADU ordinance community meeting hosted by Pasadena Planning Department. In lieu of in-person commentary, I emailed this public comment letter to staff.
My position hasn’t changed from June 19, 2017, when Pasadena City Council voted against a comprehensive ADU ordinance update advanced by our housing coalition.
As it stands today, Pasadena’s ADU ordinance remains broken. But we can fix it. The Pasadena City Council must drop its excessively-cautious, comfy-centrist, shortsighted, nostalgic, legally dubious, “I only wanna maintain votes in my SFR zones” mentality, and instead adopt a comprehensive ADU ordinance update that provides a safe and legal pathway for ADUs for working folks.
We Cannot Plan From Our Desks!
I still have that tagger instinct to leave a mark in conspicuous & faraway places.
#APACA2017 #PlanningMonth #EmbeddedPlanning #Sacramento #LosAngeles
Designing Housing Solutions workshop @ #APACA2017
California’s housing crisis is at a breaking point. We need new ideas and strategies — now! Planners, urbanists, policymakers, designers, students: you’re invited to this innovative workshop where we’ll tap into your memories and experiences to design new housing solutions.
Designing Housing Solutions
2017 APA CA Conference Sacramento
Tuesday, Sept 26, 2017
8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/311978272598475
OVERVIEW: The workshop will tap into the diverse experience and expertise of attending planners to collaborate and design comprehensive housing solutions. The facilitated exercise will bring together a diversity of perspectives to explore new housing typologies that expand choice, encourage affordability, and specifically address the risk of informal dwelling units.
ABSTRACT: The lack of affordable housing in California has reached crisis levels. Among the many consequences is the rash of hazardous incidents happening in unpermitted dwellings. As the tragic warehouse fire in Oakland recently illustrated, unpermitted housing happens across the State at various scales. With no sign of housing demand softening, there is an urgent need to investigate housing supply. While Los Angeles’ recent Proposition JJJ creates a de facto inclusionary zoning policy, no blanket approach exists to address the regulatory, cultural, design, and financing issues associated with housing policy.
The Designing Housing Solutions workshop will facilitate two interactive engagement activities where professionals design and prototype new and diverse housing typologies (co-housing, farm worker housing, artist housing, garage conversions, senior housing, ADUs, etc). The workshop creates a safe space for attending planners to nurture ideas, communicate through storytelling and collaborate. Participants will engage through memory, art and play to better understand themselves and the State’s housing assets, needs and challenges.
This input will launch a conversation that will inform future research, as well as generate ideas that address spatial values impacting housing’s urban design, zoning and planning. The workshop will consider how shared ideas can help create more inclusive spaces.
FACILITATORS:
◦ Gunnar Hand, Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, LLP
◦ Jonathan P. Bell, County of Los Angeles, Dept. of Regional Planning
◦ James Rojas, Place It! & Latino Urban Forum
◦ Fay Darmawi, Affordable Housing Finance and Consulting
◦ Connie Chung, County of Los Angeles, Dept. of Regional Planning
◦ Cathy E. Creswell, Creswell Consulting
#APACA2017
Consider this page 1 of my #manifesto nailed to the Planning Department’s door.
Read my op-ed, “We Cannot Plan From Our Desks”, in APA’s Planning Magazine #PlanMag October 2018 issue. Just in time for #PlanningMonth.
In this editorial I outline the tenets and benefits of #EmbeddedPlanning. This is my opening salvo to the planning field arguing for Embedded Planning praxis, what I describe as planning in the streets, over orthodox, desk-bound practice.
I ground Embedded Planning in the real life example of the Medina Family ADU Saga in the South Central Los Angeles community of Florence-Firestone. In my current speaking tour, “A Matter of Necessity:” Understanding Informal Housing through Embedded Planning, I’m sharing the family’s difficult first lesson in Planning and Zoning, and my inner conflict with the outcome. I can tell the Medinas’ story because I earned their trust, at their doorstep.