Page 28 - FDI Alliance International Magazine. Spring 2021 Digital Interactive Issue

It doesn’t seem like so long ago that urbanists is retro in the most cringeworthy way. But for room to grow. Maple Ridge’s West Coast
predicted a handful of metropolitan areas here, the metaphor seems apt. Decades after Express commuter train and new rapid bus
such as Seattle, New York, San Francisco and the construction of the U.S. highway system service both connect commuters with Metro
Toronto would dominate the new economy. allowed high-income families to move from Vancouver’s light rapid transit system, and
These so-called “superstar” cities were not downtowns to the distant suburbs, Zoom are popular with professionals who want to
only successfully attracting major technology, might do the same. Remote work could do continue working downtown while enjoying
finance and new media companies, more to America’s residential geography in the the benefits of living in this smaller, more
importantly, they were winning the war for 2020s what the highway did in the 1950s affordable community.
the young, mobile tech workers who powered and ’60s: spread it out.”
the new economy. Housing prices are approximately 60% of the
The pandemic has caused many workers, Vancouver average, and many professionals
COVID-19, though, seems to be flipping the especially tech workers, to re-evaluate the are drawn by the opportunity to own estate
script on this once conventional wisdom. need to commute, and Maple Ridge, BC is properties and small acreages for the price of a
one community seeing the benefits of this downtown Vancouver apartment. Local realtor
Salesforce offers a prime example of how change of perspective. Ron Antalek notes many of his clients are
quickly a tech company can pivot from making moving from Metro Vancouver communities
major investments in downtown office space Located about 45 minutes from downtown to Maple Ridge looking for larger homes
to committing to a permanent “work from Vancouver, Maple Ridge is a suburban that allow them to work from home. “I have
anywhere” model. According to Bloomberg community popular with young families looking a lot of clients that are specifically looking
News’ CityLab, despite having recently made
a massive investment in a new office tower
in downtown San Francisco, Salesforce’ s
chief “people officer” Brent Hyder says that
his company is now expecting that 65% of
its employees will need to commute to the
office just one to three times a week, and
that the “9-5 work day is dead.” Other
major tech companies including Facebook,
Trulia and Slack are reported to be thinking
of varying degrees of similar “work from
anywhere” policies.

angl THE RISE OF THE SUBURBS

In a recent article in The Atlantic, Derek
Thompson pointed out how the recent move to
“work-from-anywhere” policies could benefit
smaller cities, especially suburbs “Referring to
the internet as an 'information superhighway'

28. FDI ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL