How will telecommuting change cities? (metro, suburban, downtown, schools)

[gottaq]

What impact will telecommuting have on cities? Down the road many jobs can be done from home, and people may not have to report to work. What will this mean for economic hubs such as NYC and Chicago? They may lose some of their dominance, as people don't need to live in these cities for jobs anymore, they can live anywhere. and will small cities make a comeback, as people move in to these places while working from home?

[spenna]

Many young people will probably still prefer to live in cities. So, I'm not sure about a comeback for smaller cities and towns, but maybe technology will at least allow these places to hold their own population-wise.

[wburg]

Exactly--telecommuting means that people's housing choice can be dictated by their personal preferences rather than the job site. So if someone really likes the hustle and bustle of cities and their job center is located in a suburban office park, as so many employers are, they can live in a downtown studio in a walkable community and still "commute" electronically to their exurban jobsite without having to own a car.

[flyonpa]

I think Telecommuting would work both way, Some will go to urban environment, But most will go to low cost of living areas.

When my NYC based company started it Telecommuting program 20?+ years ago, we saw a trend of the at home programmers moving further out, Since they almost never had to come into the office, NY, NJ based programmers started to wind up in Maine, NH, VT, PA, Way Upstate NY. Few were way far away, (MO, CO, MT, WY, CA), Most moved to lower cost of living area, or family commitments, Spouse job had them move far away from there Base Cubicles.

Few years ago they change the telecommuting program to a One Year Renewable, So you did not know if you signed up for it that in year or two they might say, come back to your cube. And if you physically moved far away from the office, you are then in situation of moving back (or getting apt locally), or trying to find a job, but unlikely in the rural environments where many moved to. Many have done well taking the "city" pay scale out of urban area, where they could live a much higher standard of living.

I saw a "magazine" article few years ago where a bunch of small (somewhat rural) town were putting in WiMax high speed internet access to attract young, well payed telecommuters to settle in town, (also they were giving (tax, home buyers credits??) to help attract telecommutes .

Many of these town were getting to the point where the current local population could not support the population to have schools, and other services.

[Gardyloo]

And how many of the telecommuters will live in low-cost areas like Bangladesh? Quite a few, I'll wager. Increasingly, national boundaries and oceans mean as little as city limits.

It's a fascinating question, and IMO the jury is still out - way out.

But here's a counterpoint. A friend works for a firm that designs, builds and operates major data centers. These generally are going in rural areas where infrastructure, particularly electricity, is cheap; however one of their newest and biggest projects is located in lower Manhattan, serving Wall Street. The reason for there as opposed to someplace in rural Oregon? Because the micro- or milliseconds of lag time between signal transmission, travel, processing and return, represent millions - maybe billions - of dollars in terms of computerized stock trades. The speed of light is the limiting factor.

So the centrifugal forces of "telecommuting" (including outsourcing) sometimes have gravitational counterparts in the current age. All your old models need rebuilding, economists.

[ALackOfCreativity]

Telecommuting also helps big cities like NYC because the metro is so large and congested that getting from far ends of it to another can take a couple hours door-to-door during rush hour. Partial-telecommuting (a mix of days spent telecommuting and in the office) is becoming a thing too, and it lets people take jobs anywhere in the metro-area, so you have reasonable access to many more jobs than just what is a sane commute from where you live. This is especially useful to people with families or owned homes who don't want to move around too often.

[VA Yankee]

Telecommuting is a great option when available but when you really look at it most people are in jobs/careers that must be accomplished at their place of work. Even if more widespread than it currently is I don't see where telecommuting will have a significant effect on a cities morning rush hour, especially in NYC.

[Mini-apple-less]

Probably not that much. Employers want physical interaction with the people they work with, I don't think it will ever have a massive impact beyond some workers having the luxury of working from home once a week or something.

Then again I also pooh-pooed e-books and look what happened.

[Mini-apple-less]

Originally Posted by Gardyloo

And how many of the telecommuters will live in low-cost areas like Bangladesh? Quite a few, I'll wager. Increasingly, national boundaries and oceans mean as little as city limits.
.

Hardly. Do you know how extremely hard it is to live in a foreign country without a college degree? Shacking up with someone is often the only way in. Sometimes even that isn't enough.

[flyonpa]

Originally Posted by valsteele

Hardly. Do you know how extremely hard it is to live in a foreign country without a college degree? Shacking up with someone is often the only way in. Sometimes even that isn't enough.

Gardyloo is referring to outsourced workers, Not the same as telecommuting, But close, Most of the Offshore programmers work in cubicles, not from home.

Mostly the power and Data networks don't really support the environment to enable at home workers. Most of the outsourced programmers work in power back'ed up (Gen Sets) Buildings , Fiber Optic backbones available, something you will not get at someone home.