Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is trying a unique strategy to get remote workers to return downtown: insulting them.
“I don’t know if you saw this study the other day,” Frey told an audience of 1,000 at Minneapolis Downtown Council’s annual meeting on Wednesday. “What this study clearly showed … is that when people who have the ability to come downtown to an office don’t — when they stay home sitting on their couch, with their nasty cat blanket, diddling on their laptop — if they do that for a few months, you become a loser!”
The comment was a “complete joke” and the study was made-up, the Minneapolis mayor’s office told Fortune, but there are serious facts to back up Frey’s worry about the impact of remote work on Minneapolis’ downtown economy.
Being a loser sounds pretty great actually.
Yeah, it even comes with a gambling addict cat and horny spider!
Another Hazbin Hotel fan in the wild!
There’s dozens of us! DOZENS!
I can’t read this article, but I’ve seen (and posted) other articles about this. Governor Walz responded with “I guess I’m a nasty cat blanket person then”. The DFL isn’t a sack of shit, but Mayor Frey sure is. And he got re elected last time because he’s about as conservative as can win here and the downtown businesses threw a bunch of money in his campaign.
Maybe they should have used that money to entice workers back into the office…
The whole back to the office argument is stupid. Rather than trying to force people back businesses should realize this is an opportunity to decrease their outgoings. Sell the giant waste of space office in an expensive part of town, and just carry on doing what you’re already doing.
I made them put that I am a permanent homework in my contract so they can’t make me go back into that office. But they still maintain the physical building which is mad. Now they’re just getting the worst of both worlds, their employees are removed yet their paying for a building. About a year before the lockdown they replaced the expensive staffed canteen with vending machines, and that pissed everyone off. They still haven’t undone that yet so why should I go back?
See, that’s the problem most normies don’t know: These offices have LONG leases. They’re basically a home owner that bought on a bubble.
They still deserve to lose the investment, though. That’s what all their money is for, right? Taking risks? Sounds like they should’ve kept more around for a rainy day…
The only “people” who truly are interested in RTO are real estate holding companies desperately trying to stave off financial ruin, and executives/billionaires who have investments therein.
The arm twisting is coming right from the top and isn’t going to work long term.
It’s daft though because at the rate AI development is going this was going to happen anyway even without COVID.
but there are serious facts to back up Frey’s worry about the impact of remote work on Minneapolis’ downtown economy.
Yeah idk what I expected from Fortune
One study showed that at least 72% of remote workers in the area did in fact own a “nasty cat blanket.”
My nasty cat blanket is warm af thank you.
Frey really wants workers downtown proping up the commercial real estate market and paying that 12% - 15% downtown restaurant tax mpls has when we get lunch.
Or maybe he just wants less votes because nearly everyone likes wfh except the owner class, and they like it for themselves, just not for their indentured servants.
Insulting a key demographic of your constituency in a ranked choice system is an interesting strategy.
Yeah but businesses are probably paying him more.
But voting less
Your local businesses have more voting power than you do, by a long shot.
Stop man… You had me at cat blanket, no need to say anything else, I will continue from home.
When it comes to capitalism, I’m happy to be a loser. Proud, even. What you don’t see, very often, however, is people actually firing themselves like this guy just did…
Well sure but it’s hurtful when you say it like that
This just in: mayor of Minneapolis is completely out of touch with modern society
Who even elected him?
Definitely the white centrist boomers living around Minneapolis. It was the time when rent control and replacing the police department with a department of public safety was on the ballot. And Frey was against both of those things. I remember talking with some of my elderly in-laws who all live in south Minneapolis. They all voted for him. Plus with ranked choice voting, people had to specifically take him off the ballot in order to win.
I think it’s more that he runs Minneapolis.
If your business model is being a city that has a bunch of office buildings that workers commute into from surrounding suburbs every day, and then one day, people decide that they don’t need to do that commute, kinda dicks up your business model.
What a fucking tool
minneapolis mayor can foresee the coming commercial real-estate bubble collapsing - they must get a lot of tax dollars from businesses
Wouldn’t be surprised if he himself or any number of people who fronted the money to get them elected are invested in that business
He’s losing money and is furious.
Because of how property tax works in the U.S, denser areas pay more property tax and cost less in relative terms with regards to infrastructure, so it’s a pretty safe bet that he’s going to be losing money here.
Except for when the city goes bankrupt, he’s not personally on the hook - the tax payers get to absorb that loss instead.
Property tax in the U.S is pretty dumb in general to be honest. Should probably replace it with LVT tbh
The comment was a “complete joke” and the study was made-up, the Minneapolis mayor’s office told Fortune
Ah yes the typical “what? It was just a joke, why’s everyone mad at me?” reaction to saying something only an asshole would say, fuck this guy. So sorry rich people are going to make less money off of their real estate investments, boo fucking hoo, how about adapting to technological and cultural changes better? 🤷♂️
They hate improving citizens lives so for that they must go
Disclosure: I work from home and enjoy it immensely. I never want to work in an office again.
So sorry rich people are going to make less money off of their real estate investments, boo fucking hoo, how about adapting to technological and cultural changes better?
There is that, and some rich people need to be boiled in their own pudding. But this affects all downtown businesses, even mom and pop shops. People will just flee like urban flight did when people went to the suburbs. What’s left? I hear about “well, turn office buildings into residential space,” but the logistics of that with fire codes, building codes, and urban planning are not drop in replacements. They can be done, but at great cost.
We’re looking at an urban decay beyond what we’ve planned for. Minneapolis is terrified to become another Detroit or Gary Indiana.
but the logistics of that with fire codes, building codes, and urban planning are not drop in replacements. They can be done, but at great cost.
Most of the buildings were talking about are made to accommodate stricter codes already. The problem isn’t really at all the cost of retrofitting them, so much as it is the lower rent/sf price they can charge for it.
Everything else you mentioned is fair, but the only reason people would rather leave urban centers if they don’t need to be there is the cost of living there. No matter how you slice it, the biggest obstacle to dense residential city centers is the established expectation of higher ROI on the space and the over-leveraged building owners who can’t afford to charge less for risk of defaulting on their properties.
In the end, it’s about bailing out the rich. They should have diversified their bets away from commercial real estate.
Covid mashed fast forward, but remote knowledge work was a thing before it. It was a foreseeable risk, even just from guessing normal rich people motivations: once the San Francisco crowd figured out they could cast a bigger net for talent, AND pay lower-cost-of-living city salaries to them, it was going to spread.
It doesn’t have to all be bad. If the city could get the head out of their ass, they could sort out the codes and get it done. Let people who work downtown live downtown. Shrink the driving and parking infrastructure, turn it into a walkable, bikeable area.
Rents/leases could go way down for the mom and pop shops that can survive in the new design.
Other businesses can move further out where the people are, so the suburbs can become more walkable.
If we made the focus on reducing waste, and making things easy for everyone, rather than how to make rich people richer, theres lots of solutions.
It was obkious 30 years ago downtowns were in trouble because busimesses ere moving to suburbs. They still haken’t made serious effort to change the root causese of that.
Good point, but as an aside… is your backspace key broken?
typing on my phone. I have never found a good keyboard for mobile. I turned autocorrect off long ago as it too often was changing what I wrote to something that was completely the opposite, at least without it you know I didn’t mean that can can figure it out (I hope). I’m using thumb-key which overall I like, but there are still issues with it.
I have dysgraphia which means writing is already more difficult for me than most, combine that will small text boxes and random hitting of something I didn’t mean…
I’m on a real computer now so I was able to run spellcheck and get at least the most obvious mistakes fixed.
In addition, increase housing density by removing single family only zoning and adding more missing middle and affordable housing. Make the city a place people want to live (and can afford to live) rather than just a place people commute in and out from in their noisy, polluting cars.
Demand has changed in the market? Bummer. Anyway,
Oh no, we might not need heavily built-up downtown centers any more. But we need to need them! For some reason.
Just like we need crypto.
Oh wait.
He went with the “it was just a prank bro” strategy, which has in the last decade been very successful
I guess making his downtown a good place to live and work might take some effort, while insults are free. Good use of economic resources.
I hope this guy gets stuck in traffic enough that his policies don’t get traction, and someone more capable gets elected next.
People just don’t want to spend what little time we have on this earth commuting, paying $10 for a shitty Subway sandwich for lunch, and listening to Elderly Manager Brian talk about his glory days to a captive audience.
