"Baxterization"?
Having just come back from "up north" and driven through Baxter, MN, this headline grabbed my attention, Sprawl of the Wild: Baxterization, beaten paths, and the great riparian land rush of northern Minnesota, by Mike Mosedale in the latest City Pages.
To be honest, I don't think it's that bad. It is nothing compared to Bloomington, or Woodbury, two suburbs that I spend a fair amount of time driving through or in. In addition to driving through this stretch of Baxter, we spent a few days on this actual piece of 371 in March when we stayed at one of those motel-water parks with the kids. Much fun! By my recollection, there are only three stoplights (I could be wrong) along this stretch of 371. Yes, there is a Walmart, in all it's big-box ugliness, but in March I also visited the Caribou Coffee, Cub Foods, Culvers, and a pizza place in the area. None of these are "high" culture stops the likes of which one would find in the Twin Cities, though I suspect some in Baxter find Caribou a little snooty.
I share the author's other concerns raised in the article: off-road ATV damage, overdevelopment of lakes, the loss of small "cabins" being replaced by larger "lake homes". What "gets my goat" is the knee-jerk "development is bad" argument in the paragraph above - it helps to mention Walmart - the bogeyman of all developments, but there are two sides to every story.
I suspect many rural Minnesotans are excited about Walmart - or at least the opportunity to have access to lots and lots of stuff cheap. If I lived "up north" I think I would begin to resent all those Twin Cities folks who wanted to keep my home (where I live year-round) under some sort of glass bubble, just so they can enjoy the "up-north" experience on weekends and holidays.
Balance - you gotta have balance - that's all I ask.
Besides the neat Rapid River Lodge - located within walking distance of the Caribou, Baxter marks the start of the Paul Bunyan Trail, an innovative reuse of old rail lines. The trail starts at a very cool looking rest-area complete with a big parking lot for those who want to park-and-ride.
Whoa - - where am I going with this?
Now Baxter represents something entirely different: not your arrival to the wilderness, but suburbia's arrival to the wilderness. There are few marks to differentiate Baxter's 371 from the commercial frontage roads that line the interstates of Bloomington, Woodbury, or Minnetonka. The development is a monument to the modern face of big-box American commerce. Arriving from the south, the first major retailer a traveler encounters is a newly opened, 207,000 square foot Wal-Mart Superstore.
To be honest, I don't think it's that bad. It is nothing compared to Bloomington, or Woodbury, two suburbs that I spend a fair amount of time driving through or in. In addition to driving through this stretch of Baxter, we spent a few days on this actual piece of 371 in March when we stayed at one of those motel-water parks with the kids. Much fun! By my recollection, there are only three stoplights (I could be wrong) along this stretch of 371. Yes, there is a Walmart, in all it's big-box ugliness, but in March I also visited the Caribou Coffee, Cub Foods, Culvers, and a pizza place in the area. None of these are "high" culture stops the likes of which one would find in the Twin Cities, though I suspect some in Baxter find Caribou a little snooty.
I share the author's other concerns raised in the article: off-road ATV damage, overdevelopment of lakes, the loss of small "cabins" being replaced by larger "lake homes". What "gets my goat" is the knee-jerk "development is bad" argument in the paragraph above - it helps to mention Walmart - the bogeyman of all developments, but there are two sides to every story.
I suspect many rural Minnesotans are excited about Walmart - or at least the opportunity to have access to lots and lots of stuff cheap. If I lived "up north" I think I would begin to resent all those Twin Cities folks who wanted to keep my home (where I live year-round) under some sort of glass bubble, just so they can enjoy the "up-north" experience on weekends and holidays.
Balance - you gotta have balance - that's all I ask.
Besides the neat Rapid River Lodge - located within walking distance of the Caribou, Baxter marks the start of the Paul Bunyan Trail, an innovative reuse of old rail lines. The trail starts at a very cool looking rest-area complete with a big parking lot for those who want to park-and-ride.
Whoa - - where am I going with this?
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