Next Big Tech Corridor? Between Seattle and Vancouver, Planners Hope
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
For real, crossing into Canada from the US at Vancouver is probably the toughest English speaking border I've dealt with as an American. England, Ireland, the Anzacs, I've never had an issue, but damn, every time I visit Vancouver I budget extra time to deal with immigration. I go through Toronto a lot, too, and never have issues there, but nearly everyone I know gets harassed on both sides of the Canadian/US border up at the Couv.
I got Nexus because the line to get to the booth is sometimes longer than I'd like (and TSA pre-check is nice).
All in all, the day trip wasn't worth the feeling of violation.
On the way back a few times I have encountered surly demeaning behavior. Being a border patrol officer would be a tedious job at times and I don't expect a smile but outward hostility is ridiculous. For non citizen encountering this it is a terrible and lasting bad first impression of the US.
Also a NEXUS / Global Entry card makes them far more nicer.
Especially given the strength of the USD over CAD these days
I suppose that's why I'm not!
There are sometimes customs checks though, you are only allowed to bring really small amounts of meat into the country for example.
Once I was stopped, checked thoroughly for about 40 minutes, in the middle of the night. They did some sort of exercise on me, taking away all my money, put them into envelope, then returning back and so on. Went through whole car, backpack, everything. Not a nice experience
I had a friend who worked at the Canadian border in BC a few years back. According to him, the main reason the border exists is to control goods coming from the states so that they can be taxed. A lot of people go south of the border to go shopping and don't accurately declare what they're bringing back.
Forestry is about the size of tech ($14 billion) which is twice tourism.
To put it into perspective, the BC government spends and collects $50 billion each year.
Financial services, real estate, retail, and other services are big. I doubt tourism is or ever was more than 3% of the economy, except maybe in 1986 and 2010.
My experience was rather different - the return trip was always easy and fast, and I don't recall ever having to even get out of the car at the border; they just asked me a few questions and waved me through. Always very polite and friendly.
Crossing into US was much more daunting: you always had to park the car for them to inspect, and then wait anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple hours in a queue to get interviewed by a CBP agent. More often than not, they were pretty rude (not just to myself; I observed other people getting similar treatment). I think there was exactly one crossing where the treatment that I've got was truly professional.
Note that I wasn't a citizen, or even permanent resident, of either country at the time - I had a work visa in Canada, and a visitor/business visa in US.
No idea if this has changed recently; my experience is from 2009-2010.
Until pot was legalised in WA the border officers were on a mad hunt to find weed on every person crossing. They would do so under the guise of accusing you of going to work illegally and any number of other things.
Then after WA legalised BC decided that they would step up their own reefer madness campaign to keep the WA weed out. As if BC needs to import it, but I digress. They even went as far as staging a "COPS"-style programme on television to showcase all the vagrants they catch. It was eventually cancelled, but not before exposing the world to all of the security theatre of the BC border crossing.
The irony of it all is that weed is everywhere in Canada and the US and the BC/WA border is just a shitshow of angry assholes on both sides. It is very unfortunate for the tourism industry on both sides.
Anyway, the court has no records of my being arrested, but somehow the Canadian border police do.
The last time I went up to Montreal on the train I was pulled aside and asked if I'd ever been arrested. I first said no, but then laughed and said, "Yeah actually. 20 years ago."
Then I was told that they were going to let me through that time but don't come through again unless I can show proof that I wasn't charged with a crime.
I haven't been back. Though I have travelled wide and far since and not caught any slack. Seriously Canada. I like you, but you're not that awesome. Ridiculous.
They asked you to prove a negative? This speaks volumes about the mindset of run-of-the-mill border guards and the sensibility of their policies...
At least in principle you might be able to get a court to write a letter saying you haven't been charged.
I was once asked by a Cypriot border guard to prove I couldn't speak Greek. I still can't think of what I could have said/done that would have convinced them. And yes I did ask at the time. And yes it annoyed them that I asked.
As a point of interest, this is actually possible! There is a well-known effect in cognitive science called the Stroop effect [0], in which the semantic value of a word interferes with the main task of having to declare the color of the font. If the task is performed with Greek words and you don't speak Greek, you will be able to enumerate the color of the "ink" without any penalty in reaction time.
Apparently this was used in the 50's to root out Russian spies in the CIA.
(But the absurdity of the border-guard's demands are not lost on me, of course!)
Fascinating though, thanks for the link.
That said, there are electrophysiological markers of semantic incongruency (e.g. table + fork = congruent, cat + rag = incongruent) that work in the auditory modality. If you're interested, the component in question is called the N400 and you should be able to find plenty of references on google shcolar.
Also, back in 1998, I went to Canada with my uncle to get a toilet (he wanted a larger liter-per-flush unit than you could get in the US) and the Canadian crossing guards thought that was hilarious when we declared it as a reason for entry. Coming home, it warranted a complete search of our persons and vehicle. Even though we had a receipt.
The treatment has been similar in my 20 or so trips up there: coming in to my home takes significantly longer than visiting a foreign land. I find it exasperating.
It is far cheaper and easier to import their labour force or offshore more jobs than it is to try to hire and pay "qualified tech grads" in the US.
The tech corridor has nothing to do with a tech corridor per say, and more to do with Canada's lax immigration policies. They used up whatever h1b they were alotted in the US and now want to use Canada's more lax immigration equivalent.
I've ridden the Amtrak to Seattle and Portland a few times. It's a much longer trip but its so convenient to not need to bring down a car and be able to use wifi the whole way. If there was a faster rail link I'd go down to Seattle all the time.
Other than that I love taking the Cascade train, customs is much easier and faster than traveling by road and I get way more work done.
Pretty much everyone agrees Vancouver is needlessly expensive. I mean it's not Tokyo, Hong Kong, NYC, SF, etc where there's an inherent justification for paying lots of money to live there. I've heard the nightlife is nothing to look forward to nor is it known for it's culture.
The problem could easily be solved by simply building more. Unlike SF or Manhattan, Vancouver doesn't even have artificial land growth limitations for being on an inlet/island to rationalize the lack of growth.
You must be kidding. Vancouver has mountains to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west and an international border to the south. Throw in the fact that the city was built entirely on a peninsula + river delta and you have major chokepoint problems.
Eastward expansion is a possibility but that is occupied by some of the best farmland in the country.
I've heard the nightlife is nothing to look forward to nor is it known for it's culture.
If that's your criteria then there's no question Vancouver isn't right for you. But it does have some of the best climate in the country and is one of the premiere meccas for outdoor activities. Different strokes I guess.
Not having to deal with months of winter (I don't mind BC's rain) and a 1-2hr ferry to Seattle/Vancouver does sound alluring though.
You should check it out :D
See https://github.com/sendwithus/vic-startup-jobs for local startup jobs.
It could be considered more of a Salish Sea triangle for startups, with Victoria, Vancouver, and Seattle all being close and each having advantages and disadvantages.
This is particularly important for a couple having kids. Also Canada guarantees a year of mandatory* family leave at partial salary split between both parents.
If you're gonna pay taxes, might as well pay them for good benefits.
edit: *clarification: it's mandatory to allow leave, not mandatory to take it. But most people take most of it.
This isn't good for startups.
Please explain to me why the ability to choose what parent gets to raise their child for the first year so the other can persue their executive (or whatever) career while the government pays for it is a "harm" to your business?
This is good for startups.
And even without an employer top-up, the right to keep your job for a year is very valuable.
https://www.google.nl/maps/@49.0021485,-122.7413957,3a,46.4y...
Kids could lose a ball in the bushes and become illegal aliens running to pick it up.
1) freight has right-of-way and if they are having problems then you are having problems
2) you pretty much need a car in seattle since everything is so spread out. (not so much in vancouver).
Mind you, I was coming from Atlanta, GA.
- 65% bus - 25% bike - 10% car
No car needed if you're located near a regular bus route and don't work anywhere requiring multiple bridge crossings.
It generally has a mid-level UV index, so you feel warm in direct sunlight, but the humidity is very low so the 'breeze' feels cold. Some may find this unpleasant.