Summer in the “Cities Win-Win, or,
“Worshipping False Idylls”
[Editor’s Note: I originally ran this post over the 4th of July weekend two years ago. With the heat index in the Twin Cities this weekend expected to be over 100 degrees, I’ll allow that there’s a little more reason to seek cooler temps up north. Just not enough to offset the hassle factor 🙂 ].
This will no doubt come as sacrilege to many Minnesotans ” and isn’t going to endear me to my colleagues who specialize in selling 2nd homes up north ” but here goes: my theory about why so many of my fellow Twin Citians cherish a weekend ” typically up north and on a lake ” at their 2nd (cabin) home is that . . . they’ve all been brainwashed.
Yes, brainwashed.
By whom, you may ask?
By a city-dweller who desperately wanted a way to empty out the beautiful City Lakes on Summer weekends, shorten restaurant lines, and generally have some urban peace and quiet, however temporary.
2x . . . Everything
Why else would hundreds of thousands of people voluntarily undertake twice the shopping, cleaning, maintenance and repairs, utility bills/insurance, property taxes, etc. that come with having a second abode?
Not to mention negotiate congested highways and random traffic jams to get there (and especially back).
Search me.
So, the obvious explanation ” at least to me ” is that somebody with an ulterior motive sold a whole lot of people a bill of goods.
Good salesman (or woman) . . .
P.S.: Someone in Manhattan is plying the same canard ” or used to.
Now, Manhattan simply fills up with New Jersey-ites and tourists on summer weekends.
See also, “”True Minnesotan,’ Defined.”
