Tag Archives: Student Papers Archive

My 2003 Admissions Essay to UCLA Urban Planning

With my advisor and mentor Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris on graduation day at UCLA Urban Planning, June 17, 2005. [Photo by Jonathan Pacheco Bell]

From my Student Papers Archive on Medium, here is My 2003 Admissions Essay to UCLA Urban Planning: https://medium.com/@c1typlann3r/my-2003-admissions-essay-to-ucla-urban-planning-8af1b1f44f09?sk=6acf3497d606ce72eb6b7577ada72205

I did what I said I was going to do.

Excerpt:

My background in architecture and political science has made me particularly interested in researching issues of equality, justice, and security in the built environment. As an urban planning student, I aim to bridge my previous work in architectural design with my more recent study of politics in order to comprehend the interrelated social, political, economic, and cultural forces that shape the built environment. To this end, I propose to research the following subjects: 1) the process of ghettoization, particularly in the communities of East and South Central Los Angeles; 2) the impact of de facto and de jure segregation on residential housing patterns in Los Angeles; 3) the effectiveness of urban design strategies in revitalizing inner city communities; 4) the privatization and gentrification of downtown public space; 5) the history of Oscar Newman’s Defensible Space crime-prevention theory and the effectiveness of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) methods in reducing crime in inner city communities; and 6) the development of Urban Realism, Richard Carson’s post-New Urbanist theory that calls for increased urban security design in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. I anticipate working with Professors Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Evelyn Blumenberg, and Vinit Mukhija, whose research on privatization and security in inner city communities, spatial structures and economic inequality, and urban design and neighborhood revitalization, respectively, compliments my own interests.

The End of Geography?

Originally written in 2004 and revised in 2026, my piece “The End of Geography?” is published on Medium. I consider claims alleging geography’s demise in the context of territorial space versus cyberspace. This is the latest contribution to my Student Papers Archive.

Read: https://medium.com/@c1typlann3r/the-end-of-geography-69adb0941440?sk=23443ada3bd86b5aa638547cb5f7506e

The End of Geography No Context

No Context-inspired photos from my upcoming publication:

“The End of Geography? An Analysis of Virtual and Physical Spatiality in the 21st Century.”

I wrote the original version of this paper for Professor Edward W. Soja’s course UP 233: Political Economy of Urbanization at UCLA Urban Planning and submitted it on May 5, 2004.

Intended readers were only Professor Soja and TA Miguel Kanai, which, in hindsight, explains my original’s overly academic tone. I’ve overhauled it for a wider audience though the arguments remain intact. The text is a faithful record of my position in 2004.

It’ll be published on Medium as part of my Student Papers Archive.

Photo by Jonathan Pacheco Bell
Photo by Alex Simpson on Unsplash
Photo by Jonathan Laguna
Source: Defense Systems Agency, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Yasen Iliev on Unsplash
Photo by Jonathan Pacheco Bell

Googling New Regionalism

Continuing to release writings from my Student Papers Archive, here is Googling “New Regionalism”.

This analysis was submitted on April 20, 2005 in Edward W. Soja’s UP 230 Intro to Regional Planning course at UCLA Urban Planning. Google was fairly new and better at retrieving information than other search engines. At this point, Soja was writing less about Postmodernism, more about New Regionalism, and always “putting space first.” He asked us to go deep in the search results to uncover definitions of New Regionalism in this digital space.

What’s Theory Got To Do With It?

Originally written in 2004 in my first year at UCLA Urban Planning, unearthed in my mom’s garage in Montebello in 2019, edited in Pasadena and poolside in Las Vegas in June 2022 and June 2023, final edits in Pasadena in July 2023, and now published as the first entry in my overdue Student Papers Archive series on Medium:

“What’s Theory Got to Do With It? An Examination of the Utility of Planning Theory in Planning Practice.”

Article: https://c1typlann3r.medium.com/planning-theory-and-planning-practice-d4bf60a61146

Modernism vs Postmodernism

I’m revising an early essay I wrote interrogating planning theory in practice. It’ll be the first entry in my Student Papers Archive. I needed to do some background research on the two theories under scrutiny: Rational Planning and Postmodern Planning. In addition to peer reviewed journals from the planning realm, I found this exceptionally helpful chart comparing Modernism and Postmodernism.

From the URL cited on page 2, I noted the author is Professor Martin Irvine at Georgetown. But a copy-paste of the URL didn’t take me to the chart; instead it forwarded me to the professor’s homepage. And I couldn’t find the chart there. The last revision is dated 2012, but this side-by-side certainly is relevant 10 years later — and will remain so.

I want this chart to live on. I don’t know if the host site’s future update(s) will retain it. So much web ephemera is lost without us knowing. So, I’m doing my part by sharing Professor Irvine’s Modernism vs Postmodernism resource here. Researchers, check it out and please be sure to cite the original author if using the chart.

Student Papers Archive to Launch

Detail of my original student paper. Photo by Jonathan Pacheco Bell

Eight months after announcement, I’m ready to launch my #StudentPapersArchive series on Medium: c1typlann3r.medium.com.

Coming very soon, the first publication is titled, “What’s Theory Got to Do With It? An Examination of the Utility of Planning Theory in Planning Practice.”

I wrote the original in March 2004 for Professor Evelyn Blumenberg’s course UP 222A Introduction to Planning History and Theory at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

Stay tuned.