THE MOVE

I’m not sure if you remember but there was the unpleasantness in late January when Black Box suffered through some substantial layoffs. Costs were being cut in almost every way possible. One of the most painful cuts was the decision to abandon our fantastic home base in downtown Vancouver. To save money, we’d have to retreat to the wilds of Burnaby where we have the “compound” that is otherwise known as EA Canada.

We were initially told that the move wouldn’t happen for months and that it would likely in the summer time. Well, we’ve now been told our move date. The whole move is happening in stages and for us, we’ll be moving on the last weekend in May.

I would say about 99% of the people on my team would prefer to stay in downtown Vancouver. People have built their lives around working downtown. I would say people might have even made home purchases based on where we worked. Downtown for obvious reasons, kicks ass. It’s the transportation hub for nearly all the transit services in the Lower Mainland. It’s so easy to get downtown. It’s also convenient for shopping, food, and entertainment. After work, you go outside and you’re surrounded by everything. When you go outside of EAC, you got nothing. It’s just a huge industrial park.

I feel most sorry for the downtown residents on my team. For months and years, they’ve lived a very urban lifestyle. They use walking in almost every aspect of their lives. They walk to work and they walk to shop. For some of them, they’ll be riding transit for the first time since they’ve arrived in Vancouver.

We’ve got a little over a month before this all ends. I am, for one, going to do a farewell tour of my favourite restaurants for lunch.

Let this be the best month yet.