Imagining Seattle

Serin D. Houston examines how American cities govern, using Seattle as a case study. Her book traces how environmental goals, questions of privilege and oppression, and the pursuit of economic growth have become tangled together in public debate and in everyday city decisions.

Seattle has built a strong record of attracting the creative class through its amenities. Yet the same efforts to polish the city's progressive image can deepen hardship for low-income residents and people of color, which calls into question the city's claim to progressive politics. Houston studies several recent Seattle initiatives: a new cultural district close to downtown, a proposal to charge for disposable shopping bags, and mandatory training on institutional racism for city employees. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and a geographic approach, she looks at how these policies operate in practice, not just what they promise on paper.

Houston argues that market-driven thinking, along with class and racial bias built into program design, limits the potential for social justice, sustainability, and creative life. She asks readers to consider how values shape urban governance, and she stresses the need to create workable conditions for these goals as cities continue to grow.