Brooks: Nothing makes a downtown more vibrant than forcing people to be there

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took a page from the federal government’s handbook this week and executive ordered the state workforce back to the office.

Downtown St. Paul is struggling. Maybe butts in the seats at the desks in the cubicles will help.

Go forth, state workers, and buy venti lattes and order $15 salads — for half the week, at least. Fill your tanks, pay for child care, shell out for a new wardrobe to replace the one the moths ate in 2020. Inch through gridlock. Cool your heels at the bus stop. Hope nobody veers deliberately through a puddle to soak you in the bike lane on your way to the office.

Nothing makes a downtown more vibrant than forcing people to be there.

It was a little after 9 a.m. on Wednesday, and everything was 50% off at Lunds & Byerlys, on the penultimate day of business at the last full-service grocery store in downtown St. Paul.

It was morning rush hour, but the downtown sidewalks were almost empty. Traffic was light. Last autumn, Colliers estimated that as much as a quarter of the office space in the central business district may be vacant.

Sixty percent of the state workforce is already back in the office — or in the state parks, hospitals, classrooms, prisons, patrol cars, courts or on maintenance crews out repairing our bridges.

On Tuesday, Walz ordered the rest — the ones who don’t need to be on-site to do their jobs — back to the office to do their jobs. He did not ask them what would make them want to go back to the office. Although access to downtown groceries might be on the list.

“Having state workers work from home for 5 years has decimated St. Paul & been unfair to taxpayers who go to their jobs everyday,” state Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, tweeted after the Walz announcement.

Almost a quarter of the American workforce teleworked last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — even more than in 2023.

The majority of state and St. Paul city workers were back in the office already. The Lunds & Byerlys is closing anyway. Dragging the rest of the state workforce downtown is just going to make them hangry.

The Trump administration ordered federal workers back into the office full time, then set about defenestrating much of the federal workforce anyway.

We’re five years into the pandemic. There are probably things the government could do to help America’s downtowns adapt and thrive. But those things cost money, and money is tight.

Convincing a corporate headquarters not to relocate, or landlords not to hike rents, or a grocery store not to close is difficult.

Forcing workers back to the office costs employers nothing. All the hassle and expense are shifted to the employees.

It’s not like anyone is executive ordering pay raises to keep up with inflation or the added expense of eating, commuting and existing downtown. A half-hour commute doesn’t come out of the governor’s pocket. It comes out of the worker’s day.

We all want a vibrant downtown. The kind of place people want to work, live, play and shop.

So you cram thousands of state workers back into their cubicles in downtown St. Paul. Now what?

Will they stick around and shop and eat? Where? And why?

Would you want to spend happy hour in a place you’re forced to be?