Guest Lecture Pamela Blais

Urban planning as stated by Pamela Blais has focused on curbing sprawl by treating its symptoms — aiming to regulate more compact, livable urban forms into being. While most urbanists view sprawl as an expensive and unsustainable pattern of development causing land consumption and costs for infrastructure only a few defend it as the natural expression of the capitalistic market neutrally responding to consumer demand and as a reflection of consumers’ lifestyle preferences. In Perverse Cities, Pamela Blais argues that both views fail to recognize market distortions and flawed policy that drive sprawl. She proves that mis-pricing creates hidden, “perverse” subsidies and incentives that promote sprawl while discouraging more efficient and sustainable urban forms — clearly not what most planners and environmentalists have in mind.

During this session Pamela Blais will present her publication and we will discuss how the phenomenon of mis-pricing applies to the growth pattern of Toronto. All interested graduate students are invited to join this session.

More information under   http://perversecities.ca

NETWORKED CITIES // 648 Graduate Seminar SP14 //  Assoc. Prof. M. El Khafif //  Room 2026