Many lessons were learned from the Covid lockdown, including knowing which jobs are conducive to work from afar. Employees who work primarily through an internet connection discovered that they preferred working from home as it gave their lives more flexibility. Some employers are now indifferent to where their employees sit when they earn their paychecks. But not all employers are so flexible.
A few years ago, a brouhaha flitted through the local news as it was discovered that the man in charge of our largest, and nationally recognized, library system was running the show from a downtown condo in LA. Minnesota’s weather is indeed a drawback. Still, the Hennepin County Board is in charge of this position and was not amused by someone in a key position choosing to live by the beach instead of in the land of ten thousand lakes.
There’s a consensus that if you are a public employee of stature then you should be experiencing the public environment here, along with the rest of us. You need to part of the team. You need to be in the know of the subtle and sometimes unsaid nuances of an area’s culture and aspirations. To dial in from afar was deemed unacceptable and a severance package was negotiated.
Where you choose to live tells a lot about your preferences. It’s an acceptance of the combination of features available to residents in the surrounding area. There’s an acknowledgment, by taking on the expense of the move, that there is something to gain through the relocations. Interestingly, the minority population in Minnesota is the only population that has gained ground between 2022-2024. Minnesota Compass, a non-profit research group, recently released these numbers.
People of color in the Twin Cities has increased by 34,000 in two years. It doesn’t seem to indicate the concern about policing and the justice system that some in the political realm are suggesting. Quite the opposite.
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