![](https://www.cnu.org/sites/default/files/styles/user_head_shot/public/Mehaffy%20Head%20Shot.jpg?itok=q7IRvpO0)
Michael Mehaffy
Michael Mehaffy, Ph.D. is a development consultant, planner, designer, author, educator, researcher, and executive director of the International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference series as well as the Oregon-based Sustasis Foundation. He was the first Director of Education for The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment in London, and an advisor to the then-Prince of Wales. His education program developed there later evolved into Master’s and Ph.D. programs in sustainable urbanism at the University of Oxford.
Public space, identity politics, and civic collaboration
All politics is local—and to that we could add, all politics is rooted in the public spaces we share at the local level.
Why we need ‘sociable distancing’
The false duality between dense public spaces and isolated private ones misses the complexity of all the diverse—and relatively safe—urban places in between.