Cal Poly Pomona Communications is recording a short video about my creation of Embedded Planning praxis. Students and community members are invited to join! It’s in South Central LA’s Florence-Firestone community, where this street-level praxis was born.
Come through Sunday, July 30, 2023, 9am to 12pm at the Florence-Firestone Community Organization, 6940 Compton Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90001.
From my LinkedIn —
This month marks a new chapter of professional growth. It’s time. I’m #OpenToWork.
With two decades of land use experience, I’m seeking new opportunities to improve communities including: urban planner, senior planner, housing planner, community engagement planner; code compliance or housing inspector; lecturer or adjunct faculty in planning and allied fields; and other similar roles. I’m seeking a collaborative space that prioritizes innovation, service, and people. I’m seeking work that values partnerships and community.
If your organization offers this role, let’s talk!
Support, connections, referrals, and opportunities are indeed appreciated.
Thank you,
JPB
In support of Vision Zero, join us for a community walk in Florence-Firestone Sunday, July 23rd from 10am to 1pm. FFCO’s Ramsey Nicholson and I will highlight landmarks, social history, and community issues on the route. No registration required! Just come through.
Meeting place:
Florence-Firestone Community Organization (501c3)
6940 Compton Avenue, Los Angeles 90001
Route includes:
Compton Avenue, Florence Avenue, Maie Avenue, Graham Avenue, Miramonte Boulevard, E. 66th Street
Florence-Firestone Community Organization in partnership with Estolano Advisors, BikeLA, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, & California Office of Traffic Safety
We cannot plan from our desks!
Join me and APA Los Angeles Young & Emerging Planners on July 14th at 12pm Pacific to learn about Embedded Planning praxis in the contexts of planning education and practice.
Linktree to Google Meets at APA Los Angeles YEP.
In partnership with the Urban Studies Student Association, I’m doing the talk “Embedded Planning is Worth The Struggle” at UC Irvine on June 1, 2023 at 5pm. Attend in person or through Zoom.
Session 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 technocratic 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.
Los Angeles-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 & practice. Embedded Planning means planning from the street, not from a desk. Embedded Planners work in the spaces & 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 this world. Since Bell declared Embedded Planning exists in 2018, it has grown into an international movement among emerging planners. Bell will show how Embedded Planning is being used to transform engagement into lasting community partnerships rooted in trust.
Community members have embraced Embedded Planning because they feel seen and included. 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.
Join our 6/3 pancake + BBQ fundraiser for Jocelyn Borrayo Baltazar, UCLA MURP ‘23! As her master’s capstone client project, Jocelyn prepared “A Strategic Plan for Praxis” for our nonprofit Florence-Firestone Community Organization. 𝘼𝙡𝙡 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙨 𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙜𝙤 𝙩𝙤 𝙅𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙡𝙮𝙣’𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙!
Everyone is invited! Thank you❣️
In community,
Jonathan Pacheco Bell, MAUP+MLIS
Vice President
Florence-Firestone Community Organization (501c3)
6940 Compton Avenue, Los Angeles 90001
Originally developed for Columbia GSAPP’s Lectures in Planning Series, my talk “Embedded Planning is Worth The Struggle” is now home and coming to UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs on Tuesday, May 23, 2023 at 5pm. Attend in person or through Zoom with registration.
Session 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 technocratic 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.
Los Angeles-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 & practice. Embedded Planning means planning from the street, not from a desk. Embedded Planners work in the spaces & 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 this world. Since Bell declared Embedded Planning exists in 2018, it has grown into an international movement among emerging planners. Bell will show how Embedded Planning is being used to transform engagement into lasting community partnerships rooted in trust.
Community members have embraced Embedded Planning because they feel seen and included. 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.
Last month I returned to UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs to deliver my annual talk, “Creating Equitable Public Spaces Through Embedded Planning.”
This new version of the talk traces my trajectory in planning that has always included having feet on the street. With my background as a high school 90s graffiti writer as the jumping off point, the story follows my path after UCLA Urban Planning: creating #EmbeddedPlanning praxis in Florence-Firestone as an LA County Planner, advancing park equity at the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, returning to South Central LA to help launch the Florence-Firestone Community Organization (501c3), continuing my 20+ years of critiquing #HostileArchitecture, and now educating emerging critical planners at Cal Poly Pomona Department of Urban and Regional Planning.
My talk concludes with this message: Critical practice is possible. Move with intention to do it as a planner. How?
1/ Develop your own praxis
2/ Embed yourself in communities
3/ Reclaim public space
I wouldn’t be here without public school teachers in the Montebello Unified School District who had my back.
Shout out to Mr. Perez at Montebello High School who taught me the word “meticulous” and trained us little foolios to be #architects.
Shout out to Ms. Georgino at Montebello Intermediate who encouraged my writing on bizarro #futurism in 1989.
Shout out to Ms. Peterson at Washington Elementary who taught me how to #write my very long name which used to have a confusing hyphen.
This is #TeacherAppreciationWeek
Thank a teacher 🍎 ✏️ 🌏 ♥️ 🙏🏽
I appreciated the invitation to lead an Embedded Planning walking tour of Uptown Whittier with the Whittier College Sustainability Club.
I appreciate the invitation to speak virtually about #EmbeddedPlanning praxis in Dr. Ashley Hernandez’s class Diversity & Inequality in Cities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — Carolina Planning.
Thank you, Professor Ashley Hernandez!
I’m celebrating Jose M. Torres on his new role as Housing Advocate at LandWatch Monterey County, congrats! And I’m celebrating that Jose cites #EmbeddedPlanning praxis as an inspiration in his bio:
“My approach will rely on my experience in public health, geography, and community planning. I truly believe that good planning involves making small, strategic interventions. I love the book Urban Acupuncture which explores this concept. I’m a big advocate of #EmbeddedPlanning – a community-focused approach to urban planning that emphasizes collaboration, engagement, and meeting people where they are in order to achieve positive outcomes. I will work with LandWatch’s partners and stakeholders to create policies that support these objectives.”
WE CANNOT PLAN FROM OUR DESKS.
For more on LandWatch Monterey County, check out: https://landwatch.org
I appreciated speaking at Whittier College in the Jobs For Justice series.
Titled, “Why be an Urban Planner?,” the talk explored my route to planning through hip hop, graffiti, and architecture; what urban planning is; careers in public, private, nonprofit planning & allied fields; and my thesis that the future of planning is #EmbeddedPlanning praxis.
Shout out to Dr. Rebecca Overmeyer-Velazquez for the invitation.
I appreciate the shout out from Katelynn Wintz, PP, AICP on community art rocks at the APA National Planning Conference #NPC23.
I’m not in Philly but #EmbeddingPlanning is.
We are a movement.
I enjoyed launching my new talk “Embedded Planning is Worth The Struggle” at Columbia GSAPP last November. I’m now working on scheduling in-person venues for 2023. Where should we go next?
I appreciate the shout out from the GSAPP Urban Planning Program Council in the Fall 2022 semester in review:
“Urban Planning Program Council welcomed Andrew Cronson (M.S. UP and M.S. HP ‘25), Shannon Hui (M.S. UP ’24), Ethan Floyd (M.S. UP ’24) and Ted Lim (M.S. UP ’24) who were selected as the First-Year Program Council Representatives. They joined Victoria Lin (M.S. UP ’23) and Matthew Shore (M.S. UP ’23) who are the Second-Year Program Council Representatives. For the first time we hosted the Urban Planning Welcome Back Picnic in Central Park as well as a Campus Secrets Tour that allowed students access to lesser known locations in Columbia University. We also hosted the annual Thanksgiving Dinner and a Jonathan Pacheco Bell LiPs Lecture + Lunch so students have opportunities to speak to embedded planners who work in the field.”
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