Minneapolis Manufacturer: The City Doesn’t Care About Protecting Us — So We’re Outta Here
ED MORRISSEY Posted on June 9, 2020
After 33 years in Minneapolis, Kris Wyrobek thought he could rely on the city to protect his manufacturing business. In the wake of the city’s paralysis in the rioting — which the Star Tribune helpfully notes “sometimes overshadowed peaceful protests” — Wyrobek has had enough. He’s packing up his 7-Sigma plant to rebuild elsewhere after the city let it burn down, and he’s taking 50 jobs with him:
A Minneapolis manufacturing company has decided to leave the city, with the company’s owner saying he can’t trust public officials who allowed his plant to burn during the recent riots. The move will cost the city about 50 jobs.
“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.”
The city’s mayor Jacob Frey disputes that characterization, claiming that police and fire were doing everything they could, but no one will get fooled by that for long. The news coverage of the riots made the retreat by the city crystal clear. Even Gov. Tim Walz called the city’s response an “abject failure” when he belatedly called up the National Guard to put down the rioting and looting.
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