Excavating the Future in Los Angeles: A Discussion of Mike Davis’s City of Quartz
Sunday, May 5, 2024, 2:00-3:00pm
LitFest in the Dena, Mountain View Mausoleum, Altadena, CA
With fellow panelists, Ivan Salinas & Mike The PoeT Sonksen
Bio:
Jonathan Pacheco Bell is a Senior Embedded Planner at 4LEAF, Inc. and Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning at Cal Poly Pomona. Born in Boyle Heights and raised in East LA and Montebello, Jonathan came up as a graffiti writer in the 90s creating art and culture on the ground. For nearly 20 years, Jonathan has worked in South Central LA building community partnerships through street-level urban planning. He turned his methods into a new form of practice called Embedded Planning – where the planner works in and from community spaces. He has guest lectured across the U.S. on bottom-up urban planning and is always searching for the next space to engage community members. In addition to teaching and practice, Jonathan serves as Vice President of the Florence-Firestone Community Organization, a 501c3 nonprofit in South Central. He is co-author of the neighborhood history book, A Paseo Through Time in Florence-Firestone. His writing has been published in Planning Magazine, Cultural Daily, UrbDeZine, and Public Libraries Quarterly. Jonathan holds a Master’s in Urban Planning from UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and proudly represents City of Pasadena as a resident in the city’s vibrant and diverse District 5.
Tag Archives: Los Angeles
City of Quartz Panel at LitFest in the Dena
I’m joining Iván Salinas and Mike The PoeT Sonksen at LitFest in the Dena on the panel, “Excavating the Future in Los Angeles: A Discussion of Mike Davis’s City of Quartz,” 5/5 in Altadena.
Arguably the late Mike Davis’s best known work, City of Quartz is one of the most significant books detailing the history of urban development in LA. Our panel will discuss passages, answer audience question, engage poetry rooted in place, and reflect on the enduring impact of Mike Davis and City of Quartz.
LitFest in the Dena is FREE and OPEN TO ALL: https://litfestinthedena.org/
Hostile Architecture Interview on KJZZ NPR Phoenix
I spoke with KJZZ NPR Phoenix about Hostile Architecture and public space equity. The story was cross-posted on the Fronteras Desk.
Excerpt:
BRODIE: What are the conversations like about this among your colleagues and other people who do what you do? . . .
PACHECO BELL: A lot of times city planners get blamed for this, but in fact, it’s oftentimes not city planners that are deciding to add hostile architecture. Rather, it’s the absence of mechanisms within city planning to deal with it. One of my longstanding critiques.
So, yes, there are instances where public agencies or the state might support the addition of hostile architecture, but there are also many instances where the private sector is doing this.
You have sometimes groups that form together to create hostile architecture to add in public space, to drive away those who they deem undesirable, and then sometimes you have sort of lone wolf individuals.
So this is a multidimensional issue. This is a multidimensional public space equity issue with a lot of people involved in it. My critique is that the urban planning field has done very little to address it.
The sharpest critiques that are coming out right now about hostile architecture are coming from the citizen journalists, young people on TikTok. And that is giving me hope that we’re going to have a turning point where we can start really talking about this as an international public space equity issue driven by young people on social media.
Reelected as Vice President of the Florence-Firestone Community Organization
My fellow Board Members have reelected me to serve as Vice President of the Florence-Firestone Community Organization (501c3) in South Central LA. I greatly appreciate the Board’s vote of confidence and I’m honored to continue uplifting our neighborhood in this role.
FFCO has many wonderful things planned for community members in 2024. Our resource fairs, community food giveaways, and holiday events will continue, and we’re expanding community education programs with generous funding from our partners.
Building on last year’s Vision Zero advocacy, we’re upping our community engagement and planning service. I’m stoked to work on FFCO’s community planning initiatives, including our new public engagement partnership with Metro for the Rail to River Segment B project, community walks and bike rides, client projects with universities like CPPURP and UCLA Luskin, urban planning workshops, Embedded Planning advocacy, community assistance navigating LA County planning efforts underway, and more.
The Florence-Firestone community welcomed me with open arms when I was a “baby zoning enforcement planner” nearly 17 years ago. I figured out my life’s purpose here — as a planner and a person. I’m humbled to be an adopted FF resident serving my friends and neighbors. Thank you for the boundless support and inspiration!
Cited in Mike Davis Tribute
I thank Professor Genevieve Carpio for citing me in her article on Mike Davis’s enduring impact and City of Quartz. Mike lives on in us.
Dr. Genevieve Carpio. “Mike Davis’s Enduring Impact: A Reflection on Sunshine and Noir in the Junkyard of Dreams.” 105, no. 4, Southern California Quarterly (Winter 2023): 404-408.
Housing Resource Fair
I’m speaking on an ADU, environmental justice, and affordable housing panel reflecting on lessons I learned doing unpermitted ADU enforcement.
Event: Napa Sonoma Collaborative Housing Resource Fair, SMART station depot, 960 E. Cotati Avenue, Cotati, CA 94931
Saturday, December 9, 2023, 9am – 12pm
FREE AND OPEN TO ALL
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
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
Embedded Planning Guest Talk with APA Los Angeles YEP
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.
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 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?!]
Mike Davis Remembered
I joined a chorus of voices sharing the impact of the late urban historian Mike Davis. I mean every word ❤ I’m an LA urban planner because of Mike. Embedded Planning praxis exists because of his teachings.
Read our tributes in this latest piece from his mentee, Mike The PoeT.
Thank you, Mike Davis
South Central YLEAD
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.
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