Just wrapped a presentation on Embedded Planning praxis with planners and city staff at the City of South Bend in support of the Linden Avenue Greenhouse Project ✔️ Shout out to my South Bend colleagues for the conversation and help growing #EmbeddedPlanning. And huge thank you to Dominique D. Edwards for organizing today’s talk 🙌🏽 💙 🏁
Let’s take planning to the streets.
We Cannot Plan From Our Desks!
Stoked to announce that I’m delivering the keynote address for the Internalizing Equity series at the University of Utah Department of City & Metropolitan Planning:
“𝙒𝙚 𝘾𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙣 𝙁𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙊𝙪𝙧 𝘿𝙚𝙨𝙠𝙨: 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙉𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙀𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙙𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜,” Thursday, April 8, 2021.
Note the different Timezone start times: 11am Los Angeles / 12pm Salt Lake City.
RSVP to join here: http://plan.cap.utah.edu/2021/02/internalizing-equity-series/
️Thanks to Bianca Paulino, Claudia Loayza, and Professor Stacy Harwood!
Bio:
Jonathan Pacheco Bell is a practicing urban planner with over 20 years of experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors spanning the fields of urban planning, architecture, and library/information science. He is the creator of #EmbeddedPlanning, a praxis that situates the work of planners on the ground to advance equity, build authentic relationships, and increase public participation for historically marginalized communities through street-level engagement. Its maxim is: We Cannot Plan From Our Desks! After 14 years as an Embedded Planner in South Central LA for local government and community-based organizations, he recently launched C1TYPLANN3R Company, a workshop to produce new thought and action in his intersecting fields. Jonathan holds an MA in Urban Planning from UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, an MLIS from SJSU iSchool, and undergraduate degrees in political science and architecture.
On February 25th, I launched my new virtual speaking series on #EmbeddedPlanning. It was only right to inaugurate this public talk at UCLA Urban Planning, where I was a student of Edward Soja and Jackie Leavitt in 2003-2005. Much of the DNA of Embedded Planning traces back to their courses.
This talk covered the origins of the idea, defined the praxis, showed what Embedded Planning looks like on the ground, offered some benefits and critiques, and concluded with takeaways for theory and practice. A lively discussion followed, and from there I was able to advance my thinking about the praxis. I also took that opportunity to announce my pivot to freelance practice with the newly launched C1TYPLANN3R Company.
Huge shout outs to our event’s co-sponsors: PRAXIS, Planners of Color for Social Equity, and the UCLA Institute on Inequality and Democracy. Thanks so much for bringing everyone together here. And thank you to everyone who joined from across different time zones, geographies, and hemispheres! The talk was recorded and archived for later viewing. Please contact me if you’d like to see it.
Are you interested in hosting an Embedded Planning talk in your community? Please hit me up.
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.
I trace Embedded Planning back to my high school days as a 90s graffiti writer in LA, and tell the story of Embedded Planning’s origins and evolution, all while situating it within an 11th grade classroom of future planners in East LA, in “Embedded Planning Returns to ELARA.”
Published on December 18, 2020 at c1typlann3r.medium.com.
Big up to my Secret Santa for creating this Embedded Planning portrait for me!
2021 will be a game changer for Embedded Planning.
Stay close.
I started a Ko-fi page. Ko-fi (☕️ but it rhymes with “No Fee”) is a micro-donations platform for creators. Ko-fi enables folks to support my writing passion projects. And, Ko-fi sends 100% of the donations to the creator, me!
I launched this because in 2021, I’m ramping up writing about Embedded Planning, my praxis that situates the work of city planners on the streets, not behind a desk. I’m also writing about Public Space, Los Angeles, and more.
Wanna be a part of these efforts?! Your donations will help fund my process, including research, printing, web and database access, copyediting fees, and of course, the iterative and emotional part of writing. Anything helps!
Please consider supporting my writing and praxis that advances equity in urban planning. Thank you so much.
In solidarity,
JPB @c1typlann3r
Embedded Planning creator
Ko-fi.com/c1typlann3r
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.
We Cannot Plan From Our Desks, Planning. October 2018.
“We Are a Movement”: Students Advance Embedded Planning at the 2019 National Planning Conference, UrbDeZine. May 2019.
The Unforgettable Role of Cal Poly Pomona in the Development of Embedded Planning, Medium. June 2020.
An Urban Planner on the Ground in South Central Los Angeles, UrbDeZine. January 2018.
Mutual Aid at Lunchtime, Cultural Weekly. December 2017.
The Invisibility of Code Enforcement in Planning Praxis: The Case of Informal Housing in Southern California, Focus. 2016.
You Are Planning podcast interview. May 2020.
I published my essay “The Unforgettable Role of Cal Poly Pomona in the Development of Embedded Planning” on June 13th at Medium.
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.
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 👊
Thank you #SouthCentral Shirt Printing and fam 🙏
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.
WE ARE A MOVEMENT 📢💯
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 . . .
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.
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