Tag Archives: Embedded Planning

Embedded Planning Is Worth The Struggle at UC Irvine

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.

Embedded Planning Is Worth The Struggle at UCLA Luskin

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.

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

Embedded Planning Shout Out at LandWatch Monterey County

Photo: LandWatch Monterey County

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

Why Be An Urban Planner?

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.

Where is the Next Embedded Planning Praxis Struggle Talk?

Image: Columbia GSAPP

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.”

Expert Q & A on Embedded Planning Praxis

Expert Q & A – Embedded Planning: A Practitioner’s Origin Story (full version online): https://www.cpp.edu/cppmag/expert-q-and-a.shtml

Expert Q & A – Embedded Planning: A Practitioner’s Origin Story (short version PDF): https://www.cpp.edu/cppmag/pdf/22fall-cpp-magazine-thats-socalpoly.pdf

Excerpt:

“Like many other professions, planning deals with a theory/practice gap. What we’re taught in our urban planning classes frequently differs from what we do on the job. In the academy, planners learn about theories such as #AdvocacyPlanning and #InsurgentPlanning that were born as challenges to technocratic #RationalPlanning. But in practice, radical approaches require the planner to be political, take a stand, and challenge power structures. That makes some planning traditionalists uncomfortable.

Planning, by convention, is a desk-bound profession, and planners work separately from the communities they serve. #EmbeddedPlanning challenges planners to perform their work at the street-level. I use the phrase “move with intention.” This means you do as much as possible to relocate your work from behind a desk to the spaces and places of the community. Go to the people. Be part of daily community life. Plan in plain language. Make the neighborhood your office. This is how you build trust with community members. Embedded Planning makes traditional city planning more accessible.”

Embedded Planning Is Worth The Struggle

Infographic by Columbia GSAPP students

Honored to close out the 2022 Lectures in Planning Series at Columbia GSAPP with:

“Embedded Planning Is Worth The Struggle”

Tuesday, November 29, 2022 @ 1:15pm NY / 4:15pm LA. We will be live streaming. For details, check out the event page: https://www.arch.columbia.edu/events/2735-jonathan-pacheco-bell

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. And 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 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 this world. Since Bell declared Embedded Planning exists in 2018, it has grown into an international movement among emerging planners. In this talk, 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 this 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.

Embedded Planning at Columbia University

Mark Your Calendars, 11-29-22

“Embedded Planning is Worth The Struggle”

Columbia University, Lectures in Planning Series, in-person & online

By: Jonathan Pacheco Bell, MAUP+MLIS @c1typlann3r

Session excerpt:

In this time of increasing interrogation of planning’s legacies of inequity, planners are moving with intention to be better partners. And 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 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 this world.

Since Bell declared Embedded Planning exists in 2018, it has grown into an international movement among emerging planners. In this talk, Bell will show how #EmbeddedPlanning 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 this 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.

[… is that Kenny Uong on the cover?!]

Embedded Planning Praxis Keynote at APA Iowa Conference

[Collage by @mijacutsdeep on IG]

Feet on the ground in #Ottumwa for the Iowa APA Chapter Conference and my Friday 10/14 keynote:

𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥𝙨 𝙏𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙀𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙙𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜

Community engagement must evolve. We planners engage the public when we need feedback. People are consulted; input is gathered; and plans, for the most part, incorporate public input — then the relationship concludes, only to restart with the next project. Such transactional planning does little to build long-term stakeholder relationships.

In a time of increasing interrogation of planning and its legacies of inequity, planners today are seeking better ways to build and sustain meaningful partnerships. Urban planner Jonathan Pacheco Bell (@c1typlann3r) proposes #EmbeddedPlanning as 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. Embedded Planners build bridges with marginalized communities harmed by past planning practices. 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 embraced by emerging planners.

Through storytelling and personal reflection, Bell will illustrate how Embedded Planning is being used to build lasting community partnerships that center engagement as an ongoing process. Attendees will learn the benefits and challenges of Embedded Planning, including takeaways for implementation, and understand why this #praxis is the future of planning.

[Collage by @mijacutsdeep on IG]