Work: Labor Geographies of Smart(er) Mobility

Abstract

The smart growth literature has not engaged questions of labor, in general, and the spatialities of work, in particular. Although smart growth theory, as discussed originally in Chap. 2, makes much of “mixed-use” landscapes and transit-oriented development, both addressed at some length in Chap. 6, urban researchers have not sufficiently explored the many new empirical relationships between smart growth interventions and extant labor geographies, particularly as these implicate wider questions of urban sustainability. After providing context in the introduction, this chapter describes contemporary patterns of wealth and poverty across the city-region with respect to major industrial sectors. It then maps key commuting linkages and functional interrelationships. The chapter ultimately highlights efforts to grow mobility choices within transit communities, an inter-scalar state strategy that ostensibly seeks to strengthen local growth plans, regional sprawl containment, and the general search for an improved metropolitan functionality across Greater Seattle that is, somehow, more supportive of urban sustainability.