Marion's Weblog

Stephen O'Grady of Red Monk wrote a great post Thursday titled Home is where the Work is. I'm not just saying that because he had nice things to say about my Work from Home post last Thursday. He posed what is to me a very interesting question; "what impact might widespread mobile workers have on the current population distribution patterns. Meaning, is there the possibility for a slight reversal of the the Industrial Revolution pattern of "move to the city? " "

My initial answer to his question was absolutely yes, but although I believe people will move to where they want to live I am not sure it will be away from the city. Anecdotally I can think of several people I work with who have moved out of the San Francisco Bay area. My boss moved to the central coast, (His house was in the background of one of the scenes in the movie Sideways) Another co-worker bought a house outside of Sacramento, one of the best iWork IT people I know lives outside of Washington DC, and the person who runs our work from home program lives in Atlanta. The interesting point about all these people is that although they don't choose to live in the San Francisco bay area I am not sure they have given up the city. I know my husband and I have discussed the possibility. I think I'll do an informal poll and let you know what I learn. What do other people who work from home think? Have you moved away from the city?

By the way, I really enjoy the discussion aspect of blogging. Thanks for the link Stephen.

Comments:

I'm just waiting for our stock to turn around so I can buy that old bar on the beach in the Florida Keys. I won't be retiring, I'll be iWorking from Margaritaville. Seriously (though that was serious), I, like a handfull of others, iWork 100% from Las Vegas, Nevada. Our iWork program makes me feel as if I'm right on a Sun campus, minus the bad weather and traffic to get their.

Posted by ThinGuy on April 01, 2005 at 12:01 PM PST #

i certainly agree; obviously cities are a draw for many, and i don't expect too many folks to 'return to nature' as it were ;) might we see a slight demphasis on urbanification though? seems possible. population density in areas of the east coast like NJ is really reaching critical mass - the area is either at or nearing maximum load. the question is - where do those people go? i'm not sure, but am looking forward to finding out.

Posted by stephen o'grady on April 01, 2005 at 12:42 PM PST #