1y ago

Minneapolis mayor calls remote workers ‘losers’ who sit at home with a ‘nasty cat blanket, diddling on their laptop’

fortune.com Minneapolis mayor calls remote workers ‘losers’ who sit at home with a ‘nasty cat blanket, diddling on their laptop’

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.

144 comments

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? 🤷‍♂️
- 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.
  
  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.
  
  Demand has changed in the market? Bummer. Anyway,
  
  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.
- He went with the "it was just a prank bro" strategy, which has in the last decade been very successful
- They hate improving citizens lives so for that they must go

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

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.
- Just don't knock anything off the ~~altar~~ desk and you'll be fine.

What the fuck is wrong with this guy.
- This is what happens when your education is CEO-pandering articles on Forbes and Fortune shoving "the workers are the problem and work-from-home is lazy and will kill your business" agenda so they get more views
- Well he's not exactly a great orator is he?
  Presumably he is invested in getting people back into the office, so you would have thought that he would have tried something a little bit more likely to succeed than insulting people.
  Politicians these days are just bad at being corrupt.
- This is the guy who showed up to a protest for the murder of George Floyd and everyone switched to chanting "Go home Jacob, go home" and "shame". Dude just sucks.
- He has more money/power than is healthy for him or the rest of society...
- 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
  
  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.

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.

He sure has a lot of boomer energy for a guy who's only 42.
- Boomerism is more a state of mind than it is an actual age
  
  At least actual boomers have the excuse of being 90% lead for most of their childhood.
  
  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.

This just in: mayor of Minneapolis is completely out of touch with modern society
- 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.
- 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 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.

What the fuck is a "nasty cat blanket"
- Projection.
  
  Nah, it's class contempt. All of us rubes working from our slums, when we should be content to bask in the glory of the Corporate Office...
- A blanket that is 10% cat hair/pee/scratched and 100% nasty
  
  So a picnic rug/baby blanket/couch throw?
  
  Dogs are far worse for that. My sister has a dog and nothing in their house will ever be clean again
- a clear indication that the man is a barbarian

This dude just called every c suite exec a loser ...lol

Shows his desperation. Adapt or die.
- He probably invested too heavily in real estate. Now, the corporate RIET or REIT (I always forget) aren't growing to his expectations.

Yeah.... No. The real losers are the asshats that have to get up, shower, get lunch together, drive to a factory, inhale shit all day, fantasize about unrealistic things like unicorns, homeownership, and retirement, and then drive home.
Source: Me. Am loser, driving, breathing shit, and all with no cat blanket...
- Would you like a cat blanket in these trying times?
  
  That's all I've ever wanted out of life!
  :P

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

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.
- 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.

What a fucking tool

I call politicians scumbags that just lie and steal, but whatever
- I'm pretty sure those studies actually exist though
  
  Studies definitely exist, but they say remote work is vastly more efficient. Buy the lies or do research.
  
  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.

Minor nit pick overall, but 'diddling' is a revealing choice of words
- It's all projection with these types.

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?

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

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!

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."

He is from the Democratic Farmer Labor Party which is an affiliate of the Democratic Party. This is not exactly a labor supporting statement.
- There is a growing resentment from traditional labor which cannot work remotely against the knowledge labor force which is able to work remotely. If the educational divide between GOP and Dems is fleeting, he's betting on his party's historic strength.
  
  Perhaps they'd like office workers to make traffic worse for them again

Fuck you, dude.

Lol. Lmao even.
Working remotely has let me support local businesses more than before. I'm helping out a community I want to live in, not one I'm forced to commute to and just work in.
- Sorry, you aren’t spending your money the right way. Private equity groups such as Blackstone have rigged the economy in their favor through capital investment and regulatory capture. They are entitled to your money and major entirely foreseeable shifts in the way the peasants toil are no excuse for them not getting it.

"impact of remote work on Minneapolis’ downtown economy"
So nothing about the impact of remote work on actual productivity and output, which studies show are greatly improved. F your downtown, man.
- If "downtown" were a carless urban greenscape, it would be thriving, particularly if folks had control over their own busy schedules. Instead, this idiot presides over a traffic-jammed, smog-filled, noisy, ugly, colorless concrete jungle and he's sad it's dying? Yeah, because most cities are hideous blight zones.
  
  Turn downtown back into a walkable space!

Oh, the loser who was on the Minneapolis city council for years before becoming mayor and then doing shit-all for a couple years before multiple cops in his city murdered George Floyd? The city that had so many civil rights violations that they're now operating under a consent decree? Why should I care what that guy says?

My nasty cat blanket is warm af thank you.

- 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.

Well I hope he drops a big glass pitcher full of water on his foot.
- This, except I hope the pitcher is full of crocodile piss.

..and run companies from home, we are nurses, doctors, lawyers, customer service, support techs, and logistics. We work 8, 10, 12+ hours to help build companies we will never benefit from. Jacob, we don't give two fucks about you either. What's your point?
I've been a loser my whole life but so has everyone else. It's time for use to steer the ship. 🚢 ⚓

You mean happy losers that don't let corporations control their lives?
Maybe the world needs more losers then ...

Oh look another politician that doesn't know what work is.

Frey isn’t going to last long here. Lots of Minnesotans dislike him across the political spectrum, for obvious reasons.
- Its a shame, because by and large it looks like his politics don't suck. But the guy just can't help but get sucked in by corporate real estate tycoons because... that's how you get the money to run for Mayor, I guess.

Ways to get me to support your downtown economy: insulting me? Lol. I live in a red state and recently got a remote job... so glad I can spend less money on the local economy by staying at home. Instead of being forced to spend money at local businesses, I spend it on people/businesses near or far away that share my world views, who I -want- to support. No longer who I -have- to support. Screw the conservative economy.

Well I work from home and make $90k MORE than this loser that has to go in to an office. So what does that say about him?
- that his blanket is missing precious cuddly cat hair!

these guys who criticize typically have always had the choice to remote work in their entire careers, have nice corner offices, can just meet with executive all career looking and do fun things. etc

k. brb going to diddle my laptop

I'm more of a dog person, and I'm diddling myself. Besides that I'm still way more productive than my colleague that enjoys excessive socializing at the office coffee machine.
- I go in very rarely but 100% I know when I'm in I won't get any work done because office people just love to talk.

While still a stupid thing to say, I am concerned that this quote was mildly taken out of context. It was made at a business luncheon, where he was addressing downtown business owners. I believe "you" in "you become a loser" meant "if people work from home, you downtown business owners become the losers here." But yeah, "nasty cat blanket" is a classist and elitist statement from someone who has a stereotype image in their head.
Link to that part of the speech, sorry it's from a FOX affiliate.
https://www.fox9.com/news/minneapolis-mayor-says-remote-work-turns-you-into-a-loser.amp

And Minneapolis is probably going to call someone else "Mayor".

Well sure but it's hurtful when you say it like that

I wish I were a loser, but I have to drive to work, use tools, and make my back sore carrying a ladder around.

Why does anyone care what mayor rimron and fortune magazine think?
- I'm sure the people in Minneapolis care.

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.
Really now? It's all bullshit, but its really real too you know!
- The comment was (made by) a “complete joke”
  FTFY

the tax hole is shrinking.

Translation: our tax income is down, because nobody wants to pay office leases, or premium rents to be close to the office. Fixed it for you!

Lol a study showed they became losers

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...

what a shit post.

Man it sure seems like Democrats don't want me to vote for them.
- It sure seems like some people insist on making absolutely everything a Republican-vs.-Democrat issue.
  
  I mean.. He's an elected official in a party that is, well, a branch of the democratic party.
  He's a politically elected official acting in a political capacity making a political statement about labor and work.
  I'm really not sure what you think your point is.
- This guy seems like the type that pretends to be on the left, but will switch to the Republicans at the first sign of trouble. He is absolutely hated by his entire left-leaning constituency. Including by all his city reps you can see in the video, their faces clearly show they think he's an idiot.

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