"We are seeing tremendous unrest" after George Floyd's death: Mpls Regional Chamber CEO

Minneapolis Regional Chamber CEO & President Jonathan Weinhagen joins Yahoo Finance’s Kristin Myers and Zack Guzman to discuss the unrest in Minneapolis following George Floyd's death, as some demonstrators are looting and damaging local businesses.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: We've been watching protests there are continuing for a fourth day following the death of George Floyd in police custody. Of course, video of his arrest in which he says he couldn't breathe. And pleas for the police officer to take his knee off his neck quickly went viral. This sparked an investigation by the FBI as well.

But without answers, there, the scene in Minneapolis has turned violent with more than 100 businesses damaged, torched, or looted in the past few days. Even a third precinct police station was abandoned and set ablaze before the governor ordered National Guard troops into the city.

For more on the unrest there and the scene on the ground, we're joined by Minneapolis Regional Chamber CEO and President Jonathan Weinhagen. And he joins us now. And Jonathan, I mean, when we look at this play out, I know your guys's entity, the Minneapolis Regional Chamber is focused on advocating for businesses there. What's the scene been in discussions you've been having with the small business owners there in your community?

JONATHAN WEINHAGEN: Yeah, good afternoon, Zack, and thanks for having me. I'd like to just start really quickly by acknowledging the tragic and preventable loss of George Boyd's life. What we've learned about George is he was an employee-- a beloved employee at a small business in our city. I mean, I've joined community leaders and business leaders and calling for justice for George.

We are seeing tremendous unrest and on the streets of Minneapolis and across our region. It is heart wrenching. It's been a difficult time for small businesses, certainly, in our state and region but across the country, as people respond, not just to George Floyd's death and 400 years of structural, historical, and institutional racism, but also, the 10 weeks of global pandemic that have kind of brought our economy to the brink.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, and that's kind of, I guess, the issue here is that we've already talked about businesses are already dealing with that. And then in your community, you have this issue, as well as the backlash, in terms of handling all this. We saw one of those businesses around the margin of Mall of America saying that they're going to be postponing their planned June 1 reopening because of the unrest right now in the community.

How important is that, though, when you're thinking about a business going through something like this and now having another thing pop up like this? What does it do for kind of plans to get back open and how that has to shift?

JONATHAN WEINHAGEN: Yeah, it absolutely has a compounding effect. We've been hearing from businesses who were excited to begin reopening in the coming week, as the economic strife that this pandemic has caused them to now to have to delay that opening or, worse yet, I mean, some of our neighborhoods, like on Lake Street and University Avenue in St. Paul, to have businesses that have been looted that have been physically damaged that have been burned to the ground.

Inventory losses in the 5, 6, and 7 figures. And one of the most tragic parts of that is many of these neighborhood businesses are owned by people of color in our community-- immigrants in our community. And they're serving portions of our community that have endured generations of economic exclusion. So it's really a heart-wrenching sight to be seen here in Minneapolis.

KRISTIN MYERS: Hey, Jonathan, it's Kristin here. So the riots that we're seeing in the city remind a lot of people of [INAUDIBLE], at least, others with these traits. I want to run through some economic data for you. In cities with riots, we're seeing black family income dropping by about 9%. Male employment in cities with riots drops [INAUDIBLE] percentage points.

And then even median home values also dropped. So now that you're seeing the impact here in Minneapolis, what are your thoughts on the long-term economic impact going forward? Are there a concern for you? Are business owners there concerned?

JONATHAN WEINHAGEN: 100% we're concerned about that. We already anticipated a slow recovery from the global pandemic. If three to five years, I would tell you that the neighborhoods and communities that are being impacted by these riots could anticipate upwards of a decade of recovery. And that's coming off the heels of an anemic recovery for our communities of color in the last decade that we've seen only $600 in wealth creation for African-American families in our region over the course of the last 10 years.

So add this to that, and we're really concerned. It's why the business leaders, community leaders are coming together in real time, not just to respond to the crisis. We're certainly doing that, but to begin developing some strategies for immediate and sustained recovery.

KRISTIN MYERS: So speaking about recovery, what do you think that's going to look like in Minneapolis? Moving forward, how does the community come together not to not only to uplift in terms of racial divisions, but also economically divisions the city is facing?

JONATHAN WEINHAGEN: Yeah, I think that's the opportunity at hand. And candidly as a leader in this community if we're talking to each other in five or 10 years, and we haven't seen significant gains and progress towards those measures, I will have failed this region and the city. Again, we have some examples where we've come together as a community.

In 2012, North Minneapolis was hit by a tornado. It's a community response team. 60-plus nonprofits that came together to provide recovery assistance and a community support to that neighborhood. And they have largely rebuilt. We're looking at some similar strategies and approaches as we think about this economic recovery and how we rebuild these communities and come out on the other side even stronger.

And I would tell you that's the thing that we are consistently hearing. That's the theme from small business leaders who are sitting in front of their storefronts with broken glass or ash marks from fire is that we will rebuild. We are resilient. And that's the thing that gives me optimism.

ZACK GUZMAN: You know, what, I mean, when we look at all this too, as you're kind of highlighting the differences for small businesses to deal with this, as I highlighted, it's not just them. But also, Target, a Minneapolis-based company, they've had to close a few stores as well. Some of theirs were damaged in all this. I mean, how do communities themselves-- I'm sure, you know, I mean, we have seen this scene play out across the country all the time.

Unfortunately when we think about how different communities deal with these issues, particularly in Minneapolis, what are you expecting in terms of how maybe some of those larger businesses might be able to work with some of smaller businesses? Since we know they're all tied together, is there any effort in that regard to maybe get them together on the same page as well?

JONATHAN WEINHAGEN: Absolutely. I think one of the silver linings in this coming on the heels of a global pandemic to the extent that there is a silver lining is that these are the conversations we've been having. As we've been talking about our economic recovery strategy and resilient strategy, a big piece of that is around supply chain.

We are a strong headquarters community with 16 Fortune 500 companies located in our region. And these are companies that time and time again, have raised their hand to be helpful in situations like this. And I would anticipate that this crisis will be no different.

KRISTIN MYERS: Jonathan, I wanted to ask your thoughts and comments on what the president recently tweeted. He borrowed a phrase from the former governor of Alabama, George Wallace, saying, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. What are your thoughts there? And what do you think the impact of the president's comments in the city is going to be right now?

JONATHAN WEINHAGEN: You know, we're really more focused on, you know, on-the-ground response and reaction. Again, there is considerable concern day after day, as we're seeing-- as we're heading into our fourth day of civil unrest. So I certainly don't think it helps our community as we work to heal, as we work to bring peace to our streets. But again, I'm more focused on making sure that we're providing the help that our companies and our people need in the city of Minneapolis and across our region.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, and right now, no doubt, a very volatile situation there on the ground. And any help in that regard would be appreciated. But for that and your time, Jonathan Weinhagen, Minneapolis Regional Chamber CEO and president-- appreciate you chatting with us.

JONATHAN WEINHAGEN: Thanks so much.