Shaughnessy? Arbutus? Kerrisdale? Point Grey? Nope.
Welcome to South Surrey.
As Surrey transforms into a major metropolitan hub, it is cultivating its own upper-crust milieu.
Patrick Blennerhassett explores the gentrification of South Surrey in Business in Vancouver.
Though I’m not sure you can technically gentrify something brand new on a greenfield site, the upscaling of the southern part of the region is not limited to Surrey. Last year, I explored High Point in Langley in Shaughnessy in the Exurbs – a cultivated ruralism nonetheless dependent on the services of the city:
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Which brings us to the problem identified at the end of the article:
… there’s one aspect of South Surrey that is failing to keep pace with the rapid growth – transportation. Werger said South Surrey is almost growing too fast for its own good.
“You need the [population] numbers for public transportation,” he added. “That’s the biggest thing. If you talk to TransLink, it’s kind of like a chicken-and-egg thing. You’d love to have it right away, but you need the numbers to support the cost of it because it’s so costly.”
Either way, Werger said when he’s driving his car through South Surrey, whether in bumper-to-bumper rush-hour traffic or not, one thing’s for certain.
“What I’m surprised with is just how rapid the growth seems to be. Even as a working realtor, just driving around – which I’m doing all the time – you drive into a neighbourhood down there and go, ‘Holy geez, when did that happen? That wasn’t there last year.’”
Once the wording (and tax choice) for the referendum is determined, a poll in the southern tier of the region should give a good indication of its outcome – and the future of these “affulent enclaves.”
