Urban sprawl – low-density subdivisions and business parks, big box stores and mega-malls – has increasingly come to define city growth despite decades of planning and policy. In Perverse Cities, Pamela Blais argues that flawed public policies and mis-pricing create 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. She makes the case for accurate pricing and better policy to curb sprawl and shows how this can be achieved in practice through a range of market-oriented tools that promote efficient, sustainable cities.

Pamela Blais' profile page

• Short-listed, Donner Prize for best book in Canadian public policy, The Donner Foundation

Pamela Blais is a city planner and principal of Toronto-based Metropole Consultants.

Analytical and detailed in its approach and consistently daring in challenging accepted views of the causes of and solutions for urban sprawl.

Donner Prize Jury