Seventh Annual Spirit of Red Hill Valley Lecture

The noted urban planner Dr Pamela Blais will deliver this year’s Spirit of Red Hill Valley lecturer on Monday, November 7, at 7:30 pm in First Unitarian Church at 170 Dundurn Street South, Hamilton. Please circulate the attached poster for this annual free event.

Dr Blais 2010 book – Perverse Cities: Hidden Subsidies, Wonky Policy and Urban Sprawl – has won critical praise including being short-listed for the Donner Prize. She suggests that urban planning has focused on curbing sprawl by treating its symptoms and failing to recognize the market distortions and flawed policy that drive sprawl. As a result of crude public policies, a wide range of urban goods and services are subject to inaccurate price signals, including housing, non-residential properties, transportation and utilities. Mis-pricing creates hidden, perverse subsidies and incentives that promote sprawl while discouraging more efficient and sustainable urban forms. More information is available at http://perversecities.ca/.