Minneapolis’s empty downtown has struggled due to the continuation of remote work.

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.

  • SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
    75·
    10 months ago

    He seems like an OK mayor for the city tbh but shit has gone downhill under him like the George Floyd thing which Domino’d to chaos over time.

    This is probably a cascade from businesses wanting to end their lease on downtown offices, which is due to remote workers, which is why this dude is spazzing. It’s directly affecting the city income, budget, planning, etc. Just pushing it more towards chaos.

    I see the reasons, but instead of putting everything back maybe try to move forward? I’m no city planner so I have no idea what another solution would be. Cheaper business startup costs to increase local markets?

    A city is sort of like a business because there are budgets, income, expenses, etc. When you have no offices being leased, you will, as the city, lose.

    Addition: he said it was a joke. It could’ve been. It could not have been. As I said before, he’s done an OK job. I’d feel inclined to belive it was a joke in poor taste. Perhaps a half joke. Idk man. It’s not super important in the grand scheme.

    https://youtu.be/rFM2Yso7BGY

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      75·
      10 months ago

      Good god. Thank you for bringing a sane, thoughtful take on the situation.

      A city is sort of like a business because there are budgets, income, expenses, etc. When you have no offices being leased, you will, as the city, lose.

      Yes. There are real monetary issues here and memes aren’t going to change that overnight.

      • skulblaka@startrek.website
        6·
        10 months ago

        And the real monetary issues are that the free market has spoken and the businesses, instead of listening to this Free Market that they worship so much, have instead propped up a failure of a decision for no reason other than they’ve already spent a bunch of money on it.

        If MY business failed because I stuck too hard to a sunk cost fallacy, nobody would give a shit. So why is it a problem here? They should have invested better, or at the very least, seen which way the wind is blowing and adapt appropriately.