Category Archives: South Central Los Angeles

Vision Zero Community Bike Ride in Florence-Firestone

In support of Vision Zero, join us for a community bike ride in Florence-Firestone this Sunday, August 6th from 10a-1p. No registration required! Just come thru 🚲

Meeting place:
Florence-Firestone Community Organization (501c3)
6940 Compton Avenue, Los Angeles 90001

Route includes:
E. 70th Street, Makee Avenue, Slauson Avenue, Miramonte Boulevard, Florence Avenue, Compton Avenue

📍 Florence-Firestone Community Organization in partnership with Estolano Advisors, BikeLA, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, & California Office of Traffic Safety

Florence-Firestone Community Organization spotlight by SELA Collaborative

Check out this spotlight video on our nonprofit Florence-Firestone Community Organization (501c3).

We’re honored to be featured by Southeast Los Angeles Collaborative in the #OurSELARegion campaign.

FFCO is a bottom up Embedded Planning organization, a natural progression of the work we started in this community nearly 20 years ago!

Vision Zero Community Walk in Florence-Firestone

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

A Strategic Plan for Praxis Fundraiser

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

Creating Equitable Public Spaces Through Embedded 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

South Central YLEAD

Infographic by South Central YLEAD at CDTech

This week I joined Youth Leaders Empowered Active & Diverse (YLEAD) at CDTech for a conversation on urban planning and gentrification in South Central LA. I shared my story of working on the ground supporting the community with tools and knowledge to preserve South Central history. We shed light on the importance of urban planning for a South Central future without displacement.

MLIS 2012 Thesis Proposal on Libraries in Florence-Firestone

Graham Library in Florence-Firestone on February 18, 2012. Photo by Jonathan Pacheco Bell

I recently stumbled upon the fact that my SJSU bepress page was deleted along with the link to my 2012 MLIS thesis proposal, “Libraries in the ‘Hood: A Social History of the Florence and Graham Branch Libraries in the Community of Florence-Firestone, 1912-2012.”

That’s a damn shame.

This work served as the basis for my 2015 chapter “Library History as Community History: Florence and Graham” in the book, A Paseo Through Time in Florence-Firestone, and it remains a local history resource for those who have it.

But it should be an accessible resource for any community member who goes looking for it. They shouldn’t hit a 404 error.

This was the impetus I needed.

I’ve added my Florence-Firestone MLIS thesis proposal to my Writings section on here.

Reflections of the LA Uprising 30 Years Later

Still image from “Reflections of the LA Uprising” 30 Years Later

The 1992 Los Angeles Uprising began thirty years ago today — April 29, 1992.

I was interviewed for “Reflections of the LA Uprising” 30 years later. This is a collaboration by JOVRNALISM, USC Annenberg, KCET, and LA Times.

I shared how the unrest led me on a path toward urban planning in/for South Central LA. And I testified this path would inspire me to create Embedded Planning as an LA County planner on the ground in Florence-Firestone.

Rightfully, this interview was done at the landmark Roosevelt Park pedestrian bridge over the Blue Line.

Many community voices are part of this project. Check out the immersive video “Echoes of the Uprising” where we share our memories and oral histories.

Three decades later, we still have work to do.

Echoes of the Uprising

Interviewed in the New York Times about LA Informal Housing

I’m interviewed in the New York Times about the human dimensions of informal housing enforcement in South Central Los Angeles. I’m grateful to the family in @FlorenceFirestone who trusted me to share their story.

Conor Dougherty’s December 18, 2021 article is here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/18/business/economy/california-housing.html

We Said Goodbye to Mary Rose Cortese of Florence-Firestone

2015 launch of the “Everyday Heroes” LA County Library project, Florence-Firestone Constituent Service Center, 7807 Compton Avenue, LA 90001. Featured: Mary Rose Cortese, Joseph Titus, and Jonathan Pacheco Bell [Photo by author]

Thank you to AARP Livable Communities Workshop organizers and my fellow panelists for this week’s conversation on engaging older adults.

On September 13th, we lost Ms. Mary Rose Cortese, one of our community elders in South Central LA’s Florence-Firestone community. Mary has joined her brother Joe Titus in the next chapter. I know they’re up there still advocating for Florence-Firestone.

Mary and Joe welcomed me into the community on Day 1 in 2009. They were honorary abuelitos to me and many others. Hug your elders. Ask them to tell you stories. Document their lives. Cherish them every day.

At the end of this #AARP session, I dedicated my presentation to Mary Rose Cortese 🙏🏽💛

Boyz N The Hood Turns 30

The Boyz N The Hood film and years of street reporting on NWA albums helped me become an urban planner in/for South Central LA.

I learned the word “gentrification” from Furious Styles’s speech on the street corner in Compton.

Podcast: Embedded Planning in the Plains of Id

Excerpt of South Central LA Thick Map for “Flatlands: We Cannot Pod From Our Desks”

In November 2020, I was interviewed by grad students from the UCLA Urban Humanities Initiative. Their research methods seminar examined LA urban theory + praxis through the lens of Reyner Banham’s Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies (1971).

I spoke at length about @EmbeddedPlanning praxis, west coast hip hop origins, and South Central LA.

The group distilled our conversation into a dope podcast called, “Flatlands: We Cannot Pod From Our Desks.”

Listen to my podcast interview and view the companion Thick Map of South Central LA — portion of it is this post’s image. Check out all project podcasts and infographics.

Thank you to Samantha Solis, Miranda Hirujo-Rincon, Carrie Gammell, and Celia Sanchez Zelaya.

AARP Coverage of Embedded Planning

My Embedded Planning work at @LANLT is spotlighted in AARP’s Livable Communities Interview Series. I made sure to give a shout out to my hero, Ron Finley, South Central LA’s Gangsta Gardener.

Article link: https://www.aarp.org/livable-communities/livable-in-action/info-2021/jonathan-pacheco-bell-los-angeles.html

Thanks to Danielle Arigoni and Melissa Stanton at AARP, and writer Ken Miller.

Interviewed for book set during 1992 LA Uprising

Yesterday I was interviewed by an author writing a novel set in the time of the 1992 LA Uprising. I shared memories of interpreting the unrest through my eyes at the time, a high school graffiti tagger in Montebello navigating the larger LA hip hop scene. I’ll share the book when it’s published.

Photo: California African American Museum exhibit, “No Justice, No Peace: LA 1992.” https://caamuseum.org/exhibitions/2017/no-justice-no-peace-la-1992