Lost in Spatial Mismatch
All Live and No Work Makes F'haven a Dull Town
Where We Live and Work and Why That Matters
Spatial mismatch is an economic concept that describes the challenges brought about by the geographical separation between low-income people and job opportunities. It’s usually discussed as a phenomenon brought about by residential segregation and its negative impact on Black communities in the U.S.
With the rise of suburbanization and auto-dominated development and the subsequent destruction of and disinvestment in our urban cores (and local downtowns), working people were increasingly separated from job centers. In many areas of the U.S., it continues to be the case that people looking for affordable housing are forced to “drive until they qualify” for a mortgage.
Providence commuters will likely agree at this moment: spatial mismatch is a bad thing. It’s bad for individuals (of all income levels) as well as for municipalities. Lengthy commutes result in people trading hours of their one wild and precious life to be able to live somewhere they like. A lack of jobs in any town means fewer opportunities for its residents (especially lower-income people and those just entering the job market). Lack of housing for people who work in a town means a smaller potential workforce for businesses. The infrastructure required for mass commuting, particularly the highway system, is insanely expensive to build and maintain and its expansion can wreak havoc on existing communities and the environment.
Does Fairhaven have a spatial mismatch problem? Let’s take a look. The Census has a handy tool called On the Map that shares data on the geographic allocation of employment and housing.
Here’s a snapshot of Fairhaven:
What does this mean? It means that 5,663 people commute into Fairhaven to work and 5,103 people who live in Fairhaven commute elsewhere to work1. 852 people both live and work here in Fairhaven. Here’s the handy Venn diagram version:
Our town's overall quality of life and financial health improve when we create more overlap. We want people who live here to have access to nearby job opportunities. We want people who work here to be able to live here if they choose. Right now, only about 14% of the people who live in Fairhaven also work here. That puts Fairhaven in line with a lot of bedroom communities in the U.S. But unlike a lot of commuter suburbs, much of Fairhaven was built before WWII and the subsequent suburban experiment, meaning we have the foundation that could easily allow for continued thickening and growth. While many towns razed their downtowns to make space for surface parking lots, Fairhaven’s downtown centers still stand awaiting investment, despite decades of neglect in favor of short-sighted bets on Route 6 big boxes. Maybe we won’t be NYC anytime soon:
But could our Venn diagram be something like Brattleboro?
I think so. And that would be a really good thing— both in terms of the quality of life for people who live here and for our town’s financial future.
Full(er) Circle
How do we address spatial mismatch? Faithful StrongHaven readers (looking at you, Geoff!) should be able to predict what comes next:
Allow for mixed-use zoning everywhere. This means there will be more jobs near where people live. Remember our dream neighborhood bakery? Places like this provide jobs (without draining town finances like big box land use does).
Allow for more types of housing everywhere. If you bought goods or services in Fairhaven today, there’s a good chance they were provided by someone who does not live here but would like to. We don’t need to chase big shiny projects or state and federal grants to make this happen. We need to allow the next increment of development by right throughout the town.
Provide for Better Transit and Bike Access to and from New Bedford. This is something that would not address spatial mismatch, per se, but would help alleviate its worst effects. Of the people who commute to work in our town, by far the largest percentage (27%) come from New Bedford. Likewise, 21% of people who commute from Fairhaven each day are going to New Bedford. The densest parts of New Bedford, including downtown, are all within about 5 miles of most of Fairhaven. As someone who commutes by bike to New Bedford at least once a week, I can attest that it’s exceedingly doable. Even more so with an e-bike. The Fairhaven SRTA (bus) route out of New Bedford has a ridership well over 100K/year that grew during and after COVID. Improved frequency and/or an expanded route could make the bus a viable option for more commuters between Fairhaven and New Bedford. Encouraging alternatives to car commuting between New Bedford and Fairhaven would make living in either area less expensive, increase the pool of potential employees for area businesses, and expand access to jobs for area residents.
A Note for NIMBYs
I know I probably have neighbors who, faced with the specter of change, would prefer this town remain a bedroom community. But some of those same neighbors (and many others) also have fond memories of the time when kids rode their bikes to Guy’s Pharmacy for coffee frappes. I may be wrong, but my sense is even my NIMBYest neighbors wouldn’t mind a little more life in our town center and a couple more blocks of shops on Main Street. Some mistakenly think that this type of development can’t work because people don’t want it. But the majority of us want it. Countless examples from other towns show that investment in the downtown core is a low-risk bet with the highest returns. A major barrier is that incremental development of our neighborhoods and investment in our downtown areas is mostly illegal. We have zoning codes that prevent any growth where it would do us the most good and that encourage growth along a central stroad that drains the financial and cultural core of our town. These codes, intended to freeze our neighborhoods in time, also chilled the processes of growth and investment that made this town vibrant. Previous generations held too tightly to a snapshot of a place at a moment in time and in so doing prevented the spirit of the place from growing and evolving. They made this bedroom community, but the rest of us ought not to have to lie in it.
What about remote work? This data set, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES), “has no information to determine whether a job is remote work or whether the worker physically travels to this location for the worker's regular duties.”