Billionaire Scraps Plans for Neighborhood in a Snit
When locals questioned why she was quietly buying up parcels of land, she decided to cancel plans for “beautifying” the community.

Peter J Markham/Wikimedia Commons
A billionaire who quietly bought up a bunch of property in Duluth, Minnesota, says she has scrapped plans to improve the neighborhood because locals complained about her tactics—including the mayor, who “peed in his Cheerios” by asking for more transparency. “Definitely I’m not going to do anything to benefit that community,” Kathy Cargill, whose husband is heir to a family food fortune, told The Wall Street Journal. Cargill, who bought 20 parcels of land in the Park Point neighborhood and bulldozed homes she called “crap,” said she planned to build homes for relatives, and add some natural areas, a sports complex, and a coffee shop to the community until the hostile reception. “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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