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.

  • DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    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? 🤷‍♂️

    • Punkie@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • running_ragged@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        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.

        • bluGill@kbin.social
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          9 months ago

          It was obvious 30 years ago downtowns were in trouble because businesses ere moving to suburbs. They still haven’t made serious effort to change the root causes of that.

            • bluGill@kbin.social
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              9 months ago

              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.

        • vividspecter@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          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.

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        9 months ago

        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.

        • HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org
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          9 months ago

          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.

  • TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Oh no, my feelings are so hurt … Hearing a politician teach me about work is like hearing a priest teach me about sex with an adult.

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    9 months ago

    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.

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          As an elder millennial I apparently got exposed to healthy doses myself and I refused to turn into one of those entitled twats. My family has strict instructions to put my ass in a home the second I tell them anything remotely resembling “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”. I refuse to be an emotional burden like so many boomers are on their kids/those around them. I would rather die alone in the cheapest home they can find or even on the streets before that happens

      • kellyaster@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        You’re 100% correct, and it’s kinda sad, really… for so many members of a generation to be so consistently and relentlessly stupid toxic that its name becomes synonymous with “douchebag.” What a fuckin accomplishment.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      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.

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        9 months ago

        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.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        9 months ago

        Dogs are far worse for that. My sister has a dog and nothing in their house will ever be clean again

        • Richard@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Lol okay our dog doesn’t lose any hair, at least not more than a human

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          Eh, they’re just more cleaning than a human when it comes to the big messy ones. Totally managable with full mobility. Though if you have an unfortunate situation like a long-hair shedding dog and no vaccuum or one that hair-wraps easily… it gets rough.

          Other than that, it’s largely staying on top of messes and training them to keep it outside. One bad pee spot a year is easy enough to clean up without a trace, but if it soaks in or it’s all over, it’s a chore and one that needs a shampooer or serious mopping, too.

          Also UV flashlights, the kind with a black (filtered) lense, are your friend. They’re cheap these days and make pee spots flouresce.

          • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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            9 months ago

            Yeah I’m not going to my sister’s house with the black light, that seems to cross a line.

            • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Ha yea don’t snoop…Though they are awesome for finding pee spots. Just let 'em borrow it or buy extras. There are ones for under ten bucks these days.

        • FabledAepitaph@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Because humans evolved to live in a sterile environment 24/7 and to never be exposed to other forms of life, dirt, or literally any sort of adversity physically or emotionally. Or something?

          • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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            9 months ago

            Your home doesn’t need to be sterile, but it does need to be disease free.

            We have known that since the middle ages.

            • FabledAepitaph@lemmy.world
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              Okay, what diseases are my dogs giving me? Also, define “disease free” because you’re already covered in “diseases”. The bacteria that causes strep throat is already hanging out inside of your throat, waiting to proliferate one day when your immune system dips because of something entirely unrelated. If you’ve eaten out, you’ve probably eaten fecal coliform bacteria from the people who made your food, and you never even knew it (and neither did they) because nobody washes their hands for the recommended 30 seconds. Just take it easy, don’t do obviously risky things with your health, and you’ll be fine.

  • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    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.

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      9 months ago

      He probably invested too heavily in real estate. Now, the corporate RIET or REIT (I always forget) aren’t growing to his expectations.

  • XTornado@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    Stop man… You had me at cat blanket, no need to say anything else, I will continue from home.

  • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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    Man, if you become a loser in a few months what does that make me since I’ve been fully remote for six years, and more than 50% remote for eleven years.

    Also, here’s the problem as defined by Minneapolis:

    Gen Z prefers laptop diddling and nasty cat blankets to going out

    What does “going out” entail? Visiting a bar and overpaying for drinks in a noisy bar? Overpaying at a restaurant that doesn’t even have plates?

    Gen Z doesn’t have any money. Going out requires money. So unless they’re gonna subsidize meals at restaurants, people will stay home and diddle on their laptops because at least that doesn’t cost money.

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      It’s the same with a lot of us millennial people.

      I graduated into a job market still largely crushed by the dotcom bubble bursting, had my entire life and career path destroyed by the GFC, then another destroyed by covid.

      Let me just spend a third of my monthly food allowance on food I can make better myself to please the downtown economy god, I guess lmfao.

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        9 months ago

        Studies definitely exist, but they say remote work is vastly more efficient. Buy the lies or do research.

      • unreasonabro@lemmy.world
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        so does corruption in science. once again, you have capitalism to thank for that. Publication pressure everyone’s heard of, but journals don’t like to publish papers that simply refute or fail to reproduce another lab’s results - and without that, it’s not science, it’s just fantasy; without it, there can be no path forward.