Months after Minneapolis and St. Paul sustained millions of dollars in property damage during protests and riots demanding justice for George Floyd, the Twin Cities have been dealt another financial blow: the skyrocketing cost of demolition.
Days after George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee onto his neck for at least eight minutes, rioters tore through Minneapolis and St. Paul, causing millions of dollars in damage to more than 1,500 locations.
Vandals smashed doors and windows; ransacked goods from pharmacies, groceries and liquor stores; covered hundreds of boarded-up businesses with graffiti; and set fire to nearly 150 buildings.
But insurance policies often cap demolition reimbursement at $25,000 to $50,000, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune — which, for dozens of businesses, doesn’t come close to the actual costs of doing the job.
Some local businesses reported getting bids for $200,000 to $300,000; in some cases, the demolition cost is almost the same as the actual value of the property.
Contractors told the Tribune that prices for riot-related work are far higher than usual, but maintained it’s because of government regulations that require them to treat all debris from a burned-out building as hazardous.
“We aren’t taking advantage of anybody,” said Don Rachel, CEO of Rachel Contracting, one of the largest demolition contractors in the state. “Some people might have sticker shock, but how do they know? Most of these folks have never had to wreck a building.”
Some have called for the local government to help with a public-bid project. St. Paul officials helped coordinate cleanup of the Sports Dome site for about $140,000, after some companies offered to do the same work for as much as $285,000.
“I think that is price-gouging and they should contact the attorney general,” said Andrea Jenkins, vice president of the Minneapolis City Council. “That is a symbol of capitalism run amok.”
The expensive price tag of demolition has caused rebuilding projects to stall out, leaving sections of Minneapolis and St. Paul still ravaged by the looting.
Legislators have proposed creating a $300 million rebuilding fund to cover uninsured losses from the riots; however, the bill has stalled out in the state’s Republican-controlled Senate, which opposes requiring the state to pay for the damage.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/minneapolis-st-paul-face-obstacle-210552652.html
The weaponized corporate brigade has been mobilized to achieve agenda 21/30. And “don rachel”? Sounds kosher like david beth. I could be wrong
“I think that is price-gouging and they should contact the attorney general,” said Andrea Jenkins, vice president of the Minneapolis City Council. “That is a symbol of capitalism run amok.”
Let me see if I understand this idiot. She and her fellow council members, along with the mayor and in cahoots with the governor, allowed the criminal communists to run amok, riot, loot, and burn down their city. Now, faced with the consequences of their dereliction of duty and criminal behavior, it is the fault of the free market and the contractors who have to follow her draconian rules of treating building debris as hazardous waste when cleaning up HER mess? Do I have that right?
Hmmmm…..now let’s see…..not only allow, but encourage destruction of private and govt. and housing buildings by thugs your Sorosian buddies are paying to do this at your behest (or Soros’s….who cares as long as it’s happening?) so that way you can milk the taxpayers again and again and again and pocket the loot (and I mean loot!) yourselves…so what if the middle class (white or otherwise) leaves the cities because living there isn’t worth it and (thanks to your “covid”-causing buddies in cahoots with you) can now work from home ZOOMing or not so why live in dangerous cities where thugs are out to get them?
Cute, elite scumbags, cute…so all you’ll have left are the thug residents and their offspring who will receive nothing but handouts (aka “reparations”)–and no taxpayers to pay the reparations! Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah! (okay okay, some idiot white “guilt ridden privileged” will stay behind so they can keep their media and academic “jobs” as Robin “White Privilege” DeAngelo “writes” her next book blaming “white trash” for refusing to move into these cities to pay the taxes to pay the reparations….(naturally, she’s probably paying ghost writers like most celebrity idiots do!)