Michael Dobbins

I'm a planner, urban designer, architect, and teacher who has practiced mainly in the public sector over the last 40 years. I have come to believe that ordinary citizens can and will be the ones who make a difference in improving the shape of our urban environment. Every development initiative involves the government, the private sector and the citizenry. It's a struggle sometimes, but worth it, to assure community leaders fair representation at the table where the plans get approved. Citizens in the end are the judge of whether we're making our places better or not. We live in a time when citizens' knowledge and access to knowledge - not to mention commonsense - about the shape and condition of their communities is rapidly revving up - and the truisms of experts are unraveling. I dedicate my book and my work to assist this transformation.(google urbandesign.pro for blog)

I have directed planning and urban design agencies in New York City (Staten Island planning), New Orleans (technical director of the Comprehensive River Area Study), Birmimgham (planning director), UC Berkeley (campus planning director), and Atlanta (commissioner of planning, development and neighborhood conservation). Presently, I am a professor of practice in the schools of architecture and city and regional planning at the Georgia Tech College of Architecture.