Why Did a Billionaire Snap Up Homes on a Sandbar in Duluth? - WSJ

[question everything]

DULUTH, Minn.—When the wife of a billionaire heir to the Cargill food company fortune paid $2.5 million for a home in a funky neighborhood of beach bungalows in this Lake Superior port, it didn’t draw much notice. But after Kathy Cargill, wife of James R. Cargill II, started buying up multiple additional homes unconnected to the original parcel on Park Point, alarms went off for many residents of the 7-mile strip of sand near Duluth’s main tourist area, with popular beaches and a city park.

(snip)

Roger Reinert, newly elected mayor of the city of 86,000, wrote a letter last month to Cargill, beseeching her to reveal her plans for around 20 parcels she now controls. “The plan for these properties is unknown, and that is concerning to many, including me,” Reinert wrote in a recent social-media post in which he suggested residents consider not selling her any more homes until she showed her hand. It turns out that Cargill, who says she planned to spruce up and help modernize the neighborhood for everyone, was listening. And she wasn’t happy. “I think an expression that we all know—don’t pee in your Cheerios—well, he kind of peed in his Cheerios right there, and definitely I’m not going to do anything to benefit that community,” Cargill said in an interview.

(snip)

Things got worse after a local reporter got in touch with Cargill in December and quoted her saying: “The homes that we bought were pieces of crap. I couldn’t imagine living in any of them.” Even those like Brooks Anderson, a 90-year-old retired minister and longtime peace activist who emphasizes neighborliness and believes the Cargills have good intentions, were taken aback by the comment. “This is my piece of crap, and I love it,” he said, sitting in his modest home with a view of Lake Superior through pine trees out his back windows. “I hope she regrets saying that.”

(snip)

Cargill said she didn’t think it was anybody’s business what she did with the properties since she had done everything legally. She said her only intention was to make improvements to the neighborhood while helping some residents move on to the next stage in their lives. She said she planned to build homes for some of her relatives, put in small-scale natural areas, fund improvements to the city park, open a coffee shop and build a complex for pickleball, basketball and street hockey. Then, with the newspaper article, the mayor’s comments and attacks that friends and family showed her online, she soured on the whole project.

“The good plans that I have down there for beautifying, updating and fixing up Park Point park or putting up that sports court, forget it. There’s another community out there with more welcoming people than that small-minded community,” she said.

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[SharonAnn]

1. Somehow, I don't believe a word she has said.

[Lithos]

2. You should take her at her word

Just re-read what she is saying with a bit more skepticism.

First, she is buying up the land to set up "homes" for her family - read that to mean vacation villas. The investment in the natural areas again is an investment that benefits her private development. The coffee shop is probably something she wants her family to have. Same with the park and facility extensions.

Just focus on these ticket items as something meant for her family. What might have soured is that she could no longer do this to benefit the "community" because this transparency shows that she would have destroyed the community beforehand.

It's the same type of crap done by the ultra-rich in California and Texas, where exceptions are made at the expense of the community. I'll spruce up that bit of land, but you can't use it anymore.

[question everything]

11. What caught my eye was the disdain towards her future neighbors, and community leaders

[Lithos]

12. Typical for people who view themselves separate

She cares about her own - which does not include the community, as they are just in the way of her getting what she wants.

[waterwatcher123]

3. Kathy Cargill seems to Embody the Privledged and Arrogant Attitude of Billionaires Everywhere.

I have lived in Duluth for well over 30 years. Ms. Cargill seems like an entitled person who thinks she does not have to follow rules and laws that apply to everyone else. This is a residential neighborhood without much in the way of a commercial district. So, her plans to open a sports facility and coffee shop are, indeed, the people's business. Given her penchant for privilege, her next step will likely to be an effort to eliminate public access to the beautiful beach in front of these properties (entirely public).

We have billionaires trying to buy the White House, conducting their own foreign policy (Musk), controlling access to information, and building monstrous compounds all around the world. These people need to be taxed at a high enough rate, so they no longer act like Russian oligarchs.

[PlutosHeart]

4. This is not difficult to understand what she is doing.

First of all she is now using the community reacting to her "veiled" statements (so they can go on to their next part of their life means good luck sucker&quot to now play the game of holding her money hostage and the gifts she can give. Also to build her gated compounds.

This is the end game. To buy up Duluth. To plant her people on the boards, committees, in the schools (her son) and on and on. All the wealthy who are shitting their pants over climate change are already moving there and making it near impossible to buy a home already. Plus she can drive her fancy car collection on the mountainous terrain like she brags about doing elsewhere.

Imagine how nice it will be to have a front line view of those cargo ships the Cargills own. Bringing in and out of that precious port the ravaged natural resources they hope to ship. Bringing in the toxic agricultural chemicals that they make money off of. Billions. Billions. Billions. One of the richest families in the world.

I see tons of lies by "not lying" and saying exactly what she plans to do in her interviews. Shame on giving her permits so easily. Shame on Duluth for being so trusting. You have let the monster in and now you own her until she owns you. Which should be in short order.

And now the WSJ has given a head's up for investors.

QUESTION: WHO IS LETTING HER DO THIS IN DULUTH?

[SarahD]

5. My friends live there.

Their house is close to the end of the spit, not far from the park in question. It's an older house, probably considered shitty by Cargill. I will have to ask them what's going on. They keep.up on politics, so they will have some good gossip.

[PortTack]

6. "Move on to the next stage of their life." Code for I hate fucking little ppl and I'm removing them

[DFW]

7. It sounds like nothing is obvious except for one thing:

These people are up to something that will benefit them, and be detrimental to the rest of the community.

It’s not just in horror films that vampires avoid sunlight.

[Wild blueberry]

8. Another uber-wealthy fuck who is trying to control resources

Like the Uhlein creeps who "own" Manitowish Waters in northern Wisconsin. They've tried their best to take over the whole town.
Hope Duluth and Park Point can stand up to Cargill. Ugh.

[OldBaldy1701E]

9. I have one word for Park Point to consider...

(Hint, it is seldom a good word.)

And, the word is...

'Gentrification'!

[Lulu KC]

10. Climate change

Duluth is vulnerable to predators who are looking ahead. When there are even late night skits about it, you know it's in the crosshairs. I could go on, but I need to get out in the garden before my head explodes.

Duluth lives in my heart. I'm so sorry the riffraff have found it.