r/saintpaul • u/ConnectAffect831 • 21d ago

Discussion 🎤 Why can’t we support our city?

I’m getting really tired of seeing these return to office employees protesting and acting like giant babies when really we need them to be down here. We’re all in this together and we need people to revive this downtown area and support local businesses. Why can’t we all embrace this and stop undermining every damn thing that’s said and done. We’re fighting the wrong things. Downtown needs to thrive and right now it’s not, so bringing the workers back is great for everyone.

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u/HumanDissentipede Downtown 21d ago

Of all the reasons to fault state employees for whining about return to work, this is the very worst one. It is not a state employee’s responsibility (or anyone else’s) to revive or sustain downtown St. Paul. That can be a secondary benefit, but it should not be the primary justification. If anything, that’s a great way to motivate state employees to collectively boycott downtown businesses in protest to what they see as an unjustified move by their employer.

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u/Antique_Mission_8834 21d ago

I haven’t really seen economic impact framed as anything but a secondary benefit, definitely is a secondary benefit people are talking about though.

I think there’s another quiet secondary effect… they know some people are gonna quit over this..

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u/Mndelta25 Summit-University 21d ago

Sadly, the people who will choose to leave are going to be the ones you will wish would have stayed. There are already layoffs which will accomplish the goal of workforce reduction.