Minneapolis Manufacturer Leaving After Plant Burned During Riots: ‘They Didn’t Protect Our People’
“The fire engine was just sitting there, but they wouldn’t do anything.”
Kris Wyrobek, president and CEO of 7-Sigma, decided to move his business out of Minneapolis after rioters burned his plant to the ground.
Wyrobek does not “trust public officials who allowed his plant to burn.” The city will lose 50 jobs.
7-Sigma is one of the top producers “of precision rollers used in high-speed printing systems used to produce bank statements and social security checks.”
From Star Tribune:
“They don’t care about my business,” said Kris Wyrobek, president and owner of 7-Sigma Inc., which has operated since 1987 at 2843 26th Av. in south Minneapolis. “They didn’t protect our people. We were all on our own.”
Wyrobek said the plant, which usually operates until 11 p.m., shut down about four hours early on the first night of the riots because he wanted to keep his workers out of harm’s way. He said a production supervisor and a maintenance worker who live in the neighborhood became alarmed when fire broke out at the $30 million Midtown Corner affordable housing apartment complex that was under construction next door.
“The fire engine was just sitting there,” Wyrobek said, “but they wouldn’t do anything.”
Two days after the riots began, Gov. Tim Walz described the city’s response as an “abject failure.” Walz ordered the National Guard into Minneapolis to restore order at the request of Mayor Jacob Frey. The violence sometimes overshadowed peaceful protests over the death last month of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.
Other business owners said “their pleas for help went unanswered.”
Rioters damaged about 1,000 commercial properties. The number includes 52 businesses “completely destroyed and 30 other locations that sustained severe damage.”
The damage costs could be more than $300 million, only second to the LA riots in 1992.
Frey is trying to make amends:
To accelerate the recovery, Frey announced Monday the creation of Minneapolis Forward: Community Now Coalition, which includes representatives of local business and community groups. Frey said the group will seek input from black residents and business owners to make sure rebuilding efforts accommodate their needs.
“George Floyd moved to Minneapolis for a fresh start,” Frey said. “In honoring his memory and generations of black people who have been victimized before him, we will rebuild as a stronger, more equitable and more inclusive city.”
Frey said the coalition will seek financial help from a broad range of private and public partners, but he refused to say how much money the city of Minneapolis is willing to commit to the rebuilding effort, saying that would be “premature.” He said the group does not yet have a fundraising goal.
“The city will need to do its part, as well,” said Frey, noting that he will request that any new permits or license be “expedited as much as possible.”
Wyrobek’s mind is already made up. 7-Sigma is leaving Minneapolis no matter what.
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He will be the first of many. The handwriting is on the wall. It says, “Minneapolis in your rear view mirror.”
Adios Minneahellhole.
You know who makes low grade, high speed printer rollers?
The CCP.
The Left built this, brick by brick, match by match.
I was talking over the phone last night, with my best friend. He wondered if Honeywell, also known as Minneapolis-Honeywell, would leave. I pointed out that they make everything in China now, so it makes no real difference.
As for Minneapolis businesses that actually employ Americans, I see a lot picking up and leaving. On other sites, there is speculation Target would relocate. I doubt that.
Grizz, Honeywell has been gone from MPLS for over twenty years. It was bought by Allied Signal (based in New Jersey) near the end of the 90s. I took a terminal layoff from them in 2000. Thanks to changes in its target businesses, it was a shadow of its former self. A-S ported the name over, so now you see air filters, antifreeze, automobile parts, and other things with the HWL name that wouldn’t have been imagined thirty years ago.
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Target is way too woke to realize they are in jeopardy.
They did have a large data center there that 10 years ago used to be full of Sun gear. I don’t know what they have now, but they might have to relocate that. Maybe into the cloud (AWS, Azure, Oracle) and be done with it.
Everyone that CAN leave Minneapolis WILL leave Minneapolis, leaving the poor and destitute to suffer under heavier tax burdons and Leftwing Democratic dumbbells. I feel so sorry for those people, but this business owner has made a very good decision.
Detroit, after the 1967 riots. Never did recover.
Detroit Population, 1950: 1.85 million
Detroit Population, 2020: 667,000
Minneapolis is becoming New Somolia
When slaves were being brought to America, it looks like their average IQ was about 64, today Somoli average IQ is 68, while American descendants of slaves have an average IQ of 85 and their linage is about half caucasian.
Only 49% of Somoli are employed, and Somoli women have a 54% employment rate while men only have 41%.
How long did it take American blacks to reach their current intelligence,hundreds of years?
And while that is happening, taxpayers are footing the bill. We need to toss these people back, like little fish.
Take the racism somewhere else.
Disgusting garbage.
IQ is a relative scale where 100 is considered “average”. If enough people formally test over (or under) 100, the scale is shifted to reflect the new average.
So comparing average IQs from different time periods is very disingenuous, especially when some of those periods predate formal IQ tests.
1) We have an unprecedented black propaganda campaign promoting disreputable people today. I don’t like it.
2) I have no problem with blacks who earn they way, I am really tired of demands by those who do not. What is going on right now is outrageous. If they are going down this path, then they need to be ready for serious blow back.
3) I agree that comparing historical IQ with contemporary IQ is fraught with difficulty. In general, better nutrition probably means that today’s IQs are higher than they were hundreds of years ago.
4) I would like to see all people achieve their full potential. Where blacks are concerned, that cannot happen as long as they are allowed to lie without being challenged. It does no one any good to try and place people in positions which they are simply incapable of performing.
5) When we have people of other races who are comparatively dull, we advise them based on their actual capabilities. That has not been the case for blacks, and that has caused endless problems.
6) There are a range of capabilities centered on each side any group’s Bell Curve. The lower the average for a given group, the fewer per capita of that group who will be capable of performing more demanding functions. Today, the underlying problem is that people are ignoring these realities.
7) It is interesting that low IQ people, for example under 70, develop large egos, and think they are entitled to what they are incapable of earning.
Are we going to allow dull witted people to rule our roost?
How can people have a high IQ when they don’t exercise their brains?
Fabricated statistics can make for convincing arguments. But that doesn’t belie the fact that they are fictitious. IQ testing is in itself highly cultural, and therefore subject to considerable bias, even were these purportedly real data. But the notion that Hitler was right, which seems to be a subtle thread of this argument, is pretty troubling. Hitler was right about some things. But he was wrong about so much. As is this proponent of unnatural selection.
IQ tests test the ability to take IQ tests, not actual Intelligence.
Given the tests didn’t even exist in the early 1800s, I have no clue how you’re able to cite an accurate number for an already inaccurate measure.
Generally such estimates for people who never took a standardized IQ test are reflections more of the bias of the source more than the IQ of the target. To wit, any list of all US presidents IQs that is meant to.be taken seriously.
Yet another DemoCommie success story.
Wait for the carnage that happens after they disband their police force. It would be unsurprising that the very people they are trying to help will be hurt the most when unchecked crime turns out to be far more dangerous than the police.
“…the very people they are trying to help…”
Democrats try to help themselves gain more power and more money and more control. Other people are to be exploited and used.
What will happen is the same as what happened in the sixties, city riffraff will get all of peoples equity for nothing. That is what happened to my parents, 15 years of equity gone.
Watch for 3M to become 2M.
“Mining & Manufacturing”. M&M. Too bad that one is taken.
“To accelerate the recovery, Frey announced Monday the creation of Minneapolis Forward: Community Now Coalition, which includes representatives of local business and community groups. Frey said the group will seek input from black residents and business owners to make sure rebuilding efforts accommodate their needs.”
Forward! Into the utopian future! Empowering all stakeholders!
What a load of mealymouthed BS. I’m sure the riot-riven businesses will reconsider departing after hearing of this new SJW initiative. Plus there’s the whole no police factor….
Forward – yep, that Communist word again!
Bolding going forward, since looters stole reverse.
I think they already talked to this lady:
https://twitter.com/KarluskaP/status/1269427925239189504
That video is hilarious thanks
She sounds fat
She’s a future founder of a new Illinois chapter of Moms Demand Action.
How about Candace Owens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMC1DkIWvfo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtPfoEvNJ74
https://www.google.com/search?q=Candace+Owens+fundme
Smart young lady, speaks truth, being punished for not toeing the line.
To understand what is going to happen in those areas destroyed by riots, take a look at Flint and Detroit.
“If you see a snake, kill it. Don’t appoint a committee on snakes.”
Don’t remember who said it.
Frey is trying to CYA. He does not care about anything else.
A prime example of why riots only make things worse. It doesn’t just destroy property, it destroys the trust and faith one needs to believe they can succeed if they try to build and develop in an area.
These areas will have sky high insurance rates and a bunch of other costs. Even if there were NO property taxes, all those other costs make these areas uncompetitive.
I can’t begin to imagine how an insurance company figures risk when there is to be no police response and no fire department response. How is it possible to put a number in the mix? One idiot with a match and everything automatically goes to the ground, possibly with death alnong with the destruction.
I live in Florida and a number of insurance companies left the state after the 2004 hurricane season. I’m not seeing high insurance rates for Minneapolis; I am seeing refusal of coverage.
How can any responsible business owner/operator not move from Minneapolis if they have the option as they must act in the interest of their employees, investors and customers. The city council has voted to defund the police, one councilor went so far as to say that the ability to call the police when under threat is a function of “privilege” demonstrating a total disdain for law and order.
If you cannot guarantee the safety of your employees, the security of your assets and the ability to service your customers how can you possible justify staying there.
Security is a huge overhead line item for a business in a ghetto area. Take Buick City in Flint, Mi as an example, now closed. The area around it was a big ghetto. Security and loss due to theft costs were staggering.
The lesson is that cities need to make sure that major employers facilities are not surrounded by riff raff.
What is the incentive for staying in these democrat cities? The high taxes? Insane mayors/city councils? The constant threat of riots, looting and vandalism accompanied by stand down orders to the police? Being extorted by violent, leftist organizations for protection money? Big cities under democrat control are obsolete. Non-viable. Deadly. Get out while you can.
The incentive is presumably that their homes, their families, their friends, their communities, are all there, and it’s not an simple thing for them to simply pull up stakes and move somewhere else. Not to mention any real estate and plant they’d have to sell at bargain basement prices or just abandon, and pay for again wherever they go. That incentive is strong, but not infinite.
nah- it’s easy to go to a neighboring area. Downtown with notable exceptions Olympia is a cesspool. The vast majority of business owners are right in line with this. In the past decade urban sprawl has made it easy for business to relocate elsewhere. Watch as developers get wise and design and redesign riot / loot proof developments. Out here, Costco, Walmart, Cabelas all have anchors set far away from the cray-cray.
Milhouse, that’s a fair position. But we also had settlers, pioneers, explorers and individuals who risked EVERYTHING for a better life. Tamsen Donner and everyone in the Donner party for example.
Here are two websites documenting some history I stumbled across one day while aimlessly riding my motorcycle.
https://noehill.com/shasta/cal0377.asp
https://tbiredding.org/pioneer-babys-grave/
It isn’t exactly an “Our baby died while we pioneered from east to west” story. But many of those exact stories exist. I only mention it as a story I personally discovered by accident, which I feel is emblematic of the American pioneering experience.
There are many historical and contemporary examples of people willing to risk it all for a better life. For themselves and for their children.
Some succeeded, some failed. My point is, tying oneself to the ground may not be the best option, and history is FULL of examples where people gambled it all for a better life. Our country is full of promise and opportunities, from coast to coast.
Well, in this case, the business property has been destroyed by arson, so he has to rebuild. Therefore, he has a wide variety of choices. Given that the city council seeks to dissolve the police force and seems at least sympathetic to looters, he has incentive to move. The key factor will be the desires of key employees. They are probably worried about the long-term viability and sustainment of property values and quality of life in the area, and could be thinking it’s better to go now than latter. In addition, a real problem is that NEW businesses will be deterred from locating in the area, and as the current businesses go out of business or need new facilities because of growth and leave, new businesses are less likely to take their place. As leases run out, there is likely a slow migration away and slow death to the city as its poverty spirals.
A huge incentive to move. He should move to a rural area, buy a farm pending approval of rezoning, and rebuild there. He will pull employees from a fifty mile radius.
The city should be waiving all fees for businesses that are being repaired
They can’t afford it since their tax revenue was probably already down due to the lock downs.
They’ll be just like Cuomo who stated that NY could not afford to waive income taxes for the health care workers who came to assist NYC for the C19 crisis.
All they know is tax and spend as well as ask for the feds to help meeting their budget.
Just like New York waived the income tax bill for medics who flew in from out-of-state to hep they survive their deadly pandemic.
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BREAKING: Donations from Hollyweird celebs are pouring in to help the reconstruction efforts.
/snark
Want to bet those insurance policies specifically excludes payouts in the even the damages are caused by a civil disturbance (ie riots) and that any claims against the policies are going to be summarily denied?
Source:
https://www.startribune.com/manufacturer-that-burned-during-mpls-riots-plans-to-move-out-of-the-city/571104922/?refresh=true
And… the ones that don’t have that civil disturbance clause will have it in the next policy document. You’ll have to pay extra for that coverage as well as higher costs.
Of course, the company may decide to pull out of the state. I lost home insurance even though I had never made a claim on that policy. There were just too many F4-5 tornadoes and major hail storms in the state for them to survive. For those companies remaining, the wind damage deductible increased a lot.
I guarantee you that any insurance company worth the business will always have the “civil disturbance” clause in the policy from the beginning along with a laundry list of other exceptions to the policy (eg. arson). Hell, my auto insurance even excludes damages/destruction of my automobile in the event the damages/destruction occurred due to a civil disturbance, terrorist action, armed insurrection, war, or radiological event. I’m sure that’s just a standard clause added to all policies not matter the type.
And no, the insurance companies can’t pick up and leave. That doesn’t absolve them in dealing with the claims that are sure to be made under policies that were in force at the time of the incidents. Even if they pull out now they are still legally on the hook. But I’m more than sure at this point they’ve instructed all of their agents not to initiate new business policies (especially in Minneapolis) or renew old policies under the same premium scale and will eventually leave the state.
Actually, insurance companies CAN stop writing policies in many states. It happened in Florida in 1992-94, following Hurricane Andrew. All the majors left the real estate insurance market and most never came back to any significant degree.
Never said they couldn’t. But just because they stop underwriting polices and leave a state doesn’t absolve them legally from dealing with the claims made under existing policies written before they picked up and left. They’re going to be stuck with dealing with that for years to come.
We had that years ago with house insurance. One claim, and since it was within the first six months they cancelled. Found out a few months later that that firm, a large well known firm, was doing it’s best to get out of the home insurance market in the mid-Atlantic coastal area, hurricane concerns.
And then they couldn’t understand why we switched car insurance away from them.
Frey said the group will seek input from black residents and business owners to make sure rebuilding efforts accommodate their needs.
Diversity, when translated into English, means black, as the mayor makes quite clear. And Mr Wyrobek very obviously does not qualify as black. He would seem to have little practical choice; the United States is just under 4 million square miles in area, and almost all of it must be better for business than Minneapolis. Where does the mayor think the money will go? Successful business attracts far more money than progressive hellholes do.
I wonder what percentage of blacks and their high crime rate it takes to cause insurance companies to bail?
“There is nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody. You built a factory out there – good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory… Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea – God bless! Keep a hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.” – Elizabeth Warren, 2011
About that ‘marauding bands’ thing … if Minneapolis can’t provide their part of Liz’s social contract, why stay.
So, you’re telling me that Obama’s “you didn’t build that” statement wasn’t something that he built, but was, instead, stolen from Elizabeth Warren.
Quelle surprise!
Who is John Galt?
Borrowing words from the AG of Massachusetts….to grow a new forest you have to burn down the old. Nothing like putting on a happy socialist smile with a promise of hope and change. Nothing said about the shattered lives and dreams gone up in smoke because of the woke.
The Left writes about creating a utopia from the ashes of capitalism.
Honoring Floyd….. Maybe Minneapolis can fashion a city anthem around this guy. I know a truly catchy tune they can borrow from…Die Fahne Hoch.
“to grow a new forest you have to burn down the old.”, typical leftist/progress/democratic response, the right way is you build a new forest on the old
Cf. Bastiat’s parable of the broken window
Is that “(black residents) and (business owners)”, or is it “black (residents and business owners)”?
“Black Residents Matter”
“Black Looters Matter”
The rioters made no such distinction and destroyed black-owned businesses too.
Yes, but does Frey intend consulting non-black business owners too?
BLM grabbed a lot of cash during all of this…will they donate anything?
Will they even tip the city for their compliance?
Their pockets are stuffed full.
So 50 Jobs were lost. How much revenue/year, how much tax money, including the workers? Where is the city thing the tax revenue is going to come from when Businesses leave their city?
What size facility do you need?
John~Kiss markKiss My Bot
@John_KissMyBot
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Facts Matter and here’s one of them — Several independent studies show that there is NO Epidemic of Racist Police Shootings. If you listen to Fake News and Democrats (one in same) You would never know that Fact, now you do !
#BlueLivesMatter #KAG
I agree, there is a reasonable correlation between black crime rate and their arrests. The bottom line is that blacks are seeking freedom to commit crimes.
I have been pissed about this since I figured out the scam they were running with Zimmerman, and then with Officer Wilson. There needs to be accountability. Both civil rights were violated on a grand scale, that continues to this day, and nothing has been done about it.
Yes. The theory that systemic racism in police forces around the country results in a series of unnecessary police killings of black people runs aground against the fact that this series does not exist.
Just yesterday a friend was trying to convince me that there really is a problem by relating to me the time that he was stopped by police at gunpoint, because his car resembled that reported at a crime scene. He said it was frightening enough, but he is convinced that the only reason he survived the encounter is that he’s white, so they only pointed their guns at him and didn’t fire. If he had been black they would surely have shot him. This is the quality of the “evidence”. His own experience tells him one thing, but his imagination supplies a different scenario and he goes with his imagination rather than his experience.
Wherever these people move to, I hope they don’t bring their Minnesota attitudes with them (heh heh).
The Democrats have run the city for maybe four decades. All of the cops have been hired under Democrat Police Chiefs. Are they saying that they only hired racist cops for decades? They could have made the department a model PD a dozen times over. Why do people vote for these corrupt Democrats and then complain about what they do or don’t do? The Minneapolis voters own this mess and the bill that is coming due.
They built it! They can pay for it.
Aren’t the Democrats the ones who want to take guns from the citizens so that only the military and police have them. Are there two different groups of police, one being racist killers and the others highly trusted to be armed?
How do we tell the difference?
BTW, where might they find social workers to take field assignments on a Sunday night, in a snow storm?
This is the one thing I wish everyone on the right would just pound day and night everyday. A huge swath of these cities that are disasters have been run by Democrats for decades.
Look at New York City. It was a crap city run by Democrats for decades. It took a Republican, Rudy Giuliani, to clean it up. Now that he’s gone the Democrats once again took over and look what’s again happening to the city. It’s turning into a disaster.
The right needs to run non-stop in these cities ads showing that the Democrats are at fault. For too long the right has let the Democrats screw-up the cities and than blame Republicans.
Smart move, Mr. Business Owner: take the insurance money and run to Texas.
Come to Texas, but hire locals. We don’t need any imported Minnesota leftists.
I am affraid that illegals are ruining Texas, am I wrong?
What is left to move? Looks like this factory owner lost everything.
I hope that he has offsite backup, if not, he is really screwed.
Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic, politically congruent religion (or its relativistic cousin “ethics”).
Let’s ask the question no one will ask. Would the fire department have done anything had 7 Sigma been owned by a member of The Exalted Minority?
Almost certainly not.
The Community Now Coalition is nothing but an extortion racket to benefit blacks.
No, it is not to benefit blacks. Benefiting blacks is probably the last thing on their minds. The only ones benefiting will be those running the groups receiving all this cash — and the politicians and bureaucrats to whom they kick back a commission.
Mr. Wyrobek, please move 7-Sigma to Alabama.
We have a trainable, willing work force, low taxes, and a generally business friendly political climate. We are home to a premiere medical research facility and medical school, a high tech aerospace center, and a deep water port, all connected by major interstate highways. We are also home to four huge auto assembly plants with several others just across the line in neighboring states.
We want your business.
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Minneapolis will become the new Detroit when it hit rock bottom. That’s what happens to cities run by Leftist Demorats. They all fail eventually. For those contemplating getting rid of police departments, witness your future, systematic destruction by thugs.
“Frey is trying to make amends:”? Are you shitting me? Bringing the thugs and looters to the table to make sure ‘business’ rebuilds to suit them?
George Floyd is a convicted felon who has served prison time and was arrested for attempting to steal merchandise with counterfeit money. He was not a good man. His death is questionable but he had drugs in his system including the death drug fentanyl, had cardio vascular problems, and was resisting arrest. The arresting officer including back up officers used questionable tactics and have been fired, arrested, and will be tried like they should be. This is “rule of law.” The jury and judge will decide their fate, not rioters, looters, and domestic terrorists who deserve arrests and a trial for their crimes. This is our system. If you do not like the police procedures of enforcement, your issues should be forced towards them and who they report to. Get to it! I hate the probable fact that the real issue is we have a segment of our society that feels destroying other people’s lives when they face adversity is justified.
“The fire engine was just sitting there, but they wouldn’t do anything.”
Anybody besides me having a Waco flashback?
Burning it down for a moment’s fun makes sense for Goblins because the stuff they burn is free … to them.
Other folks less interested in burning, and more interested in what the stuff is for, have a different opinion.