This show would have been a masterpiece if it was narrated by Rick
January 14, 2022 9:31 AM Subscribe
I would show this to my wife who designs hotels for a living but she would either scream or cry. Or maybe both.
posted by misterpatrick at 9:59 AM on January 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by misterpatrick at 9:59 AM on January 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
I have no idea why "dystopian existential nightmare" initially sounded like a good time, but I really should have looked up the words in the dictionary before I clicked.
posted by tigrrrlily at 10:04 AM on January 14, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by tigrrrlily at 10:04 AM on January 14, 2022 [9 favorites]
The video was fine, but I'm a bit confused by the ire: I mean, they are just cashing in on boutique motels popularized by Schitts Creek, and remodelling one for $100k is pretty bare bones, and they are obvious Youtube/marketeers trying to create a trademark-able brand slogans. But not even popular enough for the DIY Network, nee: Magnolia Network.
Most TV shows didn't shut down during COVID, so I'm not sure why theirs would have had to, including home renovation ones like This Old House.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:14 AM on January 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
Most TV shows didn't shut down during COVID, so I'm not sure why theirs would have had to, including home renovation ones like This Old House.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:14 AM on January 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
I was obsessed with this show. I randomly turned it on one day, and rapidly began hate-watching between their utterly wild vocal fry and the fact that 2016 Instagram apparently just arrived in Canada. And yes, it is legit hilarious that their business plan appears to come from Schitt's Creek. The show improves markedly when their deadpan, dour contractor Rick appears on the scene, who wants nothing to do with Instagram "moments" and has zero opinions on pink vs. apricot vs. peach. He functions as an audience insert, constantly reacting to these women going, "There are people who live like this????" and "How exactly is this a viable business plan?"
But I ended up obsessed with them, desperately wanting them to succeed (while being simultaneously enraged that this was, indeed, a viable business plan), and I need Netflix to do a second season.
And this is where I think this video is a little unfair. These women are comfortable, no doubt, but they're not "wealthy" -- they mortgaged their houses to put together the $100,000 to buy and renovate the run-down motel. They've barely started this, their second renovation, when Covid hits, shutting down work on the renovation, throwing all their timelines out of whack, making materials very hard to get, and driving materials costs through the roof. They spend a bunch of the show struggling to make up time and money in the renovation after Covid blows up their timeline and budget -- and they really need to open for part of the summer season to not go under financially. They. Work. Their. Asses. Off. They bought a run-down motel cheap, largely DIY renovated it according to their (very intagram, kinda cringe) vision, and turned it into a successful business. They are now expanding to this second motel, in the Netflix show. They believe in their business. The bust their asses to make it work. They're actually ... kind-of inspiring?
I have longstanding family connections to St. Joe/Benton Harbor (wow, coming up on 100 years now!), so I am sympathetic to the Maggie Mae's Michigan-specific complaints. Buuuuut ... this is more like a small, regional company buying a decrepit, abandoned Super8 and renovating it than rich people from Chicago buying every historic home in the area and pricing locals out. I also think there's a difference between buying and renovating a motel vs. buying family homes and turning them into AirBnBs. (St Joe/Benton Harbor is also approximately ten times the size of Sauble Beach, so I expect there's a pretty different housing dynamic in general.)
I absolutely get why Maggie Mae wanted to hang St. Joe/Benton Harbor gentrification and rezoning complaints on this Netflix show, which got a fair amount of press. Like, the purpose of the video became a lot more clear when she started talking about St. Joe/Benton Harbor. Waves of rotten things that have happened to the towns -- the racism and segregation! The gentrification of St. Joe! The pending destruction of Benton Harbor's historic Black communities as St. Joe gets priced into oblivion and displaced middle-class white people in turn come to displace Black Benton Harbor residents! -- and hardly anybody knows about them and Michigan state government doesn't give a shit. And these are important issues. And these are wonderful towns and historic communities, and it hurts to watch them destroyed. But I don't think the June motel women are quite the same thing as what's happening in St. Joe/Benton Harbor.
The Benton Harbor Black Wall Street plan is neat, tho, and you should support it.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:27 AM on January 14, 2022 [17 favorites]
But I ended up obsessed with them, desperately wanting them to succeed (while being simultaneously enraged that this was, indeed, a viable business plan), and I need Netflix to do a second season.
And this is where I think this video is a little unfair. These women are comfortable, no doubt, but they're not "wealthy" -- they mortgaged their houses to put together the $100,000 to buy and renovate the run-down motel. They've barely started this, their second renovation, when Covid hits, shutting down work on the renovation, throwing all their timelines out of whack, making materials very hard to get, and driving materials costs through the roof. They spend a bunch of the show struggling to make up time and money in the renovation after Covid blows up their timeline and budget -- and they really need to open for part of the summer season to not go under financially. They. Work. Their. Asses. Off. They bought a run-down motel cheap, largely DIY renovated it according to their (very intagram, kinda cringe) vision, and turned it into a successful business. They are now expanding to this second motel, in the Netflix show. They believe in their business. The bust their asses to make it work. They're actually ... kind-of inspiring?
I have longstanding family connections to St. Joe/Benton Harbor (wow, coming up on 100 years now!), so I am sympathetic to the Maggie Mae's Michigan-specific complaints. Buuuuut ... this is more like a small, regional company buying a decrepit, abandoned Super8 and renovating it than rich people from Chicago buying every historic home in the area and pricing locals out. I also think there's a difference between buying and renovating a motel vs. buying family homes and turning them into AirBnBs. (St Joe/Benton Harbor is also approximately ten times the size of Sauble Beach, so I expect there's a pretty different housing dynamic in general.)
I absolutely get why Maggie Mae wanted to hang St. Joe/Benton Harbor gentrification and rezoning complaints on this Netflix show, which got a fair amount of press. Like, the purpose of the video became a lot more clear when she started talking about St. Joe/Benton Harbor. Waves of rotten things that have happened to the towns -- the racism and segregation! The gentrification of St. Joe! The pending destruction of Benton Harbor's historic Black communities as St. Joe gets priced into oblivion and displaced middle-class white people in turn come to displace Black Benton Harbor residents! -- and hardly anybody knows about them and Michigan state government doesn't give a shit. And these are important issues. And these are wonderful towns and historic communities, and it hurts to watch them destroyed. But I don't think the June motel women are quite the same thing as what's happening in St. Joe/Benton Harbor.
The Benton Harbor Black Wall Street plan is neat, tho, and you should support it.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:27 AM on January 14, 2022 [17 favorites]
Eyebrows McGee: this is more like a small, regional company buying a decrepit, abandoned Super8 and renovating it than rich people from Chicago buying every historic home in the area and pricing locals out.
The parallel here is rich people from Toronto buying every home and pricing locals out. The GTA is only about 2/3rds the population of Chicagoland, but in terms of the Canadian economy it looms large. And in terms of driving property prices up, Toronto has been on a two-decade tear that was barely affected by 2008 and is now having knock-on effects not just in southern Ontario but as far away as the Maritimes.
So it might not be a big thing to you, but it feels like a big thing to us Canadians. :-)
The result in this case is a property going from $90 per night to $500 per night, which means that it's not just these two erasing affordability for the locals, but every Torontonian who can afford $500 per night driving out the locals.
posted by clawsoon at 10:49 AM on January 14, 2022 [7 favorites]
The parallel here is rich people from Toronto buying every home and pricing locals out. The GTA is only about 2/3rds the population of Chicagoland, but in terms of the Canadian economy it looms large. And in terms of driving property prices up, Toronto has been on a two-decade tear that was barely affected by 2008 and is now having knock-on effects not just in southern Ontario but as far away as the Maritimes.
So it might not be a big thing to you, but it feels like a big thing to us Canadians. :-)
The result in this case is a property going from $90 per night to $500 per night, which means that it's not just these two erasing affordability for the locals, but every Torontonian who can afford $500 per night driving out the locals.
posted by clawsoon at 10:49 AM on January 14, 2022 [7 favorites]
I watched the linked video in the post but did not watch the TV series. I'm sorta with Eyebrows McGee here. I live in Chicago and am familiar with the general Benton Harbor area and the surrounding towns. A couple friends of ours are on a years-long quest to renovate a couple dilapidated houses outside of Michigan City (they are actually in Indiana less than a mile from the Michigan border) to eventually turn into a B&B.
There are some wealthy parts in this general area, and yes, I'm sure there's a lot of over development and wealthy Chicagoans pricing out locals. But—there's also a huge amount of dilapidated, run-down properties all over this area. There's almost no local industry outside of tourism from Chicago, so a lot of people in these towns depend on "wealthy" and not-so-wealthy Chicagoans spending money there on trips to the lake, restaurants, fudge shops, ice ream parlors, bars, etc. There's dying towns all over the country... at least the Benton Harbor (and Michigan City) area does have money coming in from somewhere. Most dying towns in the USA do not have any such influx of money. All they have is closed factories and mills, etc.
Also: as I mentioned, there's a huge amount of desolate, run down areas. This includes many, many run-down, dying motels. Someone buying and renovating a few of these is not a big deal in my opinion.
I have no interest in watching this Netflix series, and no desire to go to an Instagram hotel, but the linked video is pretty overwrought in its message.
posted by SoberHighland at 11:07 AM on January 14, 2022
There are some wealthy parts in this general area, and yes, I'm sure there's a lot of over development and wealthy Chicagoans pricing out locals. But—there's also a huge amount of dilapidated, run-down properties all over this area. There's almost no local industry outside of tourism from Chicago, so a lot of people in these towns depend on "wealthy" and not-so-wealthy Chicagoans spending money there on trips to the lake, restaurants, fudge shops, ice ream parlors, bars, etc. There's dying towns all over the country... at least the Benton Harbor (and Michigan City) area does have money coming in from somewhere. Most dying towns in the USA do not have any such influx of money. All they have is closed factories and mills, etc.
Also: as I mentioned, there's a huge amount of desolate, run down areas. This includes many, many run-down, dying motels. Someone buying and renovating a few of these is not a big deal in my opinion.
I have no interest in watching this Netflix series, and no desire to go to an Instagram hotel, but the linked video is pretty overwrought in its message.
posted by SoberHighland at 11:07 AM on January 14, 2022
SoberHighland: Also: as I mentioned, there's a huge amount of desolate, run down areas. This includes many, many run-down, dying motels. Someone buying and renovating a few of these is not a big deal in my opinion.
When we see the results of growing inequality in action and say "[shrug] seems like a good thing that the gentry class is getting stronger, that's probably how things should be, surely trickle-down economics will work out for poor people this time, can't think of any other options," it strikes me as a failure of liberalism.
posted by clawsoon at 11:18 AM on January 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
When we see the results of growing inequality in action and say "[shrug] seems like a good thing that the gentry class is getting stronger, that's probably how things should be, surely trickle-down economics will work out for poor people this time, can't think of any other options," it strikes me as a failure of liberalism.
posted by clawsoon at 11:18 AM on January 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
clawsoon: your point is 100% valid, but this show is about a couple women renovating a motel. It's not about other options for impoverished people. In the meantime, big cities are where it's at in the 21st century. Where do most college grads from Michigan go upon graduation? Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, etc.
edit- again, I'm not defending this show nor do I have any interest in it. If there's a show about how small towns on the lake in Michigan near Chicago could become better generators of wealth and equality, I'd probably watch it.
posted by SoberHighland at 11:28 AM on January 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
edit- again, I'm not defending this show nor do I have any interest in it. If there's a show about how small towns on the lake in Michigan near Chicago could become better generators of wealth and equality, I'd probably watch it.
posted by SoberHighland at 11:28 AM on January 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
The real dystopian nightmare is how many of these cheap old rundown motels are the only affordable housing options left.
posted by interogative mood at 11:54 AM on January 14, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by interogative mood at 11:54 AM on January 14, 2022 [7 favorites]
The result in this case is a property going from $90 per night to $500 per night, which means that it's not just these two erasing affordability for the locals, but every Torontonian who can afford $500 per night driving out the locals.
It's a motel - if 'locals' are staying in the motel (and therefore increasing rent is driving them out), then your local plans have already failed. You just didn't want to admit it.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:00 PM on January 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
It's a motel - if 'locals' are staying in the motel (and therefore increasing rent is driving them out), then your local plans have already failed. You just didn't want to admit it.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:00 PM on January 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
They worked their asses off.
I haven't watched the show, so perhaps my skepticism is misplaced, but.
Can someone who did watch, tell me about their hard work?
Besides borrowing money, then spending it on a contractor with a lot of Millenial Rose paint, Pier 1 replicas of midcentury modern MDF, and armloads of succulents in little pails?
"Why are we paying $500 a night for this?" 'Because they have so many Instagram followers! If we stay here, and post it on our Insta, then we borrow that fame for ourselves.'
Is that the hard work part; the labor involved in all the spellcasting rituals that make that sort of glamour enchantment possible?
posted by bartleby at 12:03 PM on January 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
I haven't watched the show, so perhaps my skepticism is misplaced, but.
Can someone who did watch, tell me about their hard work?
Besides borrowing money, then spending it on a contractor with a lot of Millenial Rose paint, Pier 1 replicas of midcentury modern MDF, and armloads of succulents in little pails?
"Why are we paying $500 a night for this?" 'Because they have so many Instagram followers! If we stay here, and post it on our Insta, then we borrow that fame for ourselves.'
Is that the hard work part; the labor involved in all the spellcasting rituals that make that sort of glamour enchantment possible?
posted by bartleby at 12:03 PM on January 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
My privilege is hanging out in the breeze, but we are going to persist.
I've stayed in lots of these boho chic instagram renovated motels. They are good in concept but fail in execution as they have 1960's levels soundproofing, ie. none. Oh, and the price doesn't go from 90 to 500 bucks a night just because you have a macrame owl in your lobby, they generally are ten bucks a night more than the unrenovated ones.
posted by Keith Talent at 12:07 PM on January 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
I've stayed in lots of these boho chic instagram renovated motels. They are good in concept but fail in execution as they have 1960's levels soundproofing, ie. none. Oh, and the price doesn't go from 90 to 500 bucks a night just because you have a macrame owl in your lobby, they generally are ten bucks a night more than the unrenovated ones.
posted by Keith Talent at 12:07 PM on January 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
Is that the hard work part?
... Well - having once spent 8-hours with a film crew as subject of the footage for a 5-minute news segment, I can say - the filming itself is hard work... But this DIY porn? (Because that is what it is - just like Food Network has food porn)...
It is performative - they do not do 90% of the work - there is a crew of people - and the surly/snarky contractor who ends-up on camera is part of the formula these shows adhere to. (And don't forget - every episode has to have a bunch of unecessary drama...)
posted by rozcakj at 12:20 PM on January 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
... Well - having once spent 8-hours with a film crew as subject of the footage for a 5-minute news segment, I can say - the filming itself is hard work... But this DIY porn? (Because that is what it is - just like Food Network has food porn)...
It is performative - they do not do 90% of the work - there is a crew of people - and the surly/snarky contractor who ends-up on camera is part of the formula these shows adhere to. (And don't forget - every episode has to have a bunch of unecessary drama...)
posted by rozcakj at 12:20 PM on January 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
Oh, and the price doesn't go from 90 to 500 bucks a night just because you have a macrame owl in your lobby
I thought that the price went from $90 to $500 in order to ensure that people paying $500 only have to interact as equals with other people who can afford to pay $500.
posted by clawsoon at 1:10 PM on January 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
I thought that the price went from $90 to $500 in order to ensure that people paying $500 only have to interact as equals with other people who can afford to pay $500.
posted by clawsoon at 1:10 PM on January 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
I was curious about the reviews she mentions, so I checked--yeah, there are some disappointed people, but it's still averaging 4.3 stars across 202 reviews.
Compared to this place, which is basically the unremodeled version (I stayed there on a road trip some years ago, and it hasn't changed much), a jump from 3 stars to 4.3 seems like a solid improvement.
posted by box at 1:24 PM on January 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Compared to this place, which is basically the unremodeled version (I stayed there on a road trip some years ago, and it hasn't changed much), a jump from 3 stars to 4.3 seems like a solid improvement.
posted by box at 1:24 PM on January 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
(Especially considering that some of the one-star reviews are from people who don't appear to have stayed there, which probably doesn't happen to a random motel in rural Pennsylvania.)
posted by box at 1:34 PM on January 14, 2022
posted by box at 1:34 PM on January 14, 2022
but it's still averaging 4.3 stars
If you paid $500 to sleep next to a GOOD VIBES pillow would you admit to being suckered?
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:36 PM on January 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
If you paid $500 to sleep next to a GOOD VIBES pillow would you admit to being suckered?
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:36 PM on January 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
OK, I snooped a bit. Seems prices range from around $235 - $475 per night in July, most nights on the lower end of that scale. It looks like a nice place, honestly, but fairly pricey for what you get. I don't know anything about the Sauble Beach area, but if I needed to stay in that town this place might be an option—depending on other nearby hotels.
posted by SoberHighland at 1:56 PM on January 14, 2022
posted by SoberHighland at 1:56 PM on January 14, 2022
$235 is far too much to spend if you then "have to interact as equals with other people who can afford to pay $500."
posted by whatevernot at 2:06 PM on January 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by whatevernot at 2:06 PM on January 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
I haven't watched the show, so perhaps my skepticism is misplaced, Can someone who did watch, tell me about their hard work?
Your prejudices about how hard a other people are working when you know almost nothing about them, their business, or their show are something for you to deal with on your own.
posted by interogative mood at 2:59 PM on January 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
Your prejudices about how hard a other people are working when you know almost nothing about them, their business, or their show are something for you to deal with on your own.
posted by interogative mood at 2:59 PM on January 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
I don't know anything about the Sauble Beach area, but if I needed to stay in that town this place might be an option—depending on other nearby hotels.
So, one of the things about this part of Ontario (having grown up near it) is that there used to be a fair number of options for families to grab a cheap motel room in a beach town on Lake Huron for an affordable family weekend getaway in the summer. And Lake Huron's got some great beaches that are a welcome respite from the dank humidity that grips Southwestern Ontario in August.
What this meant was that a family getaway in the summer could be had for the cost of a tank of gas and a cheap motel room and some meals. I benefited from that as a kid.
The motels in question (as with the one that is the subject of said makeover) were slightly-dated, family-run affairs that were still reasonable places to stay. Cheap and cheerful, as it were. And really, just a place to sleep after a day at the beach.
The structural economic conditions that lead us to "Instagram influencers get TV deal for their makeover show" and the displacement that concerns people who may have fond memories of certain localities as this are beyond the scope of the show as entertainment, but...
A while back, I was discussing the show with friend who vacations with his family up around that part of Ontario and the Bruce Peninsula, and this last summer he had the chance to discuss this with some people (including the owner of a restaurant) who are residents of Sauble Beach, and he got an earful about the the show and its stars being viewed as obnoxious assholes by the folks he spoke to.
This is, of course, anecdata, so take it as you will.
But not even popular enough for the DIY Network, nee: Magnolia Network.
The Canadian TV and film market is a very, very small pond, and not a terribly lucrative one at that. So there's also that.
Full disclosure: A macrame owl hangs beside the desk I'm typing this at. My mom did macrame in the 70s, and her knots were super-tight, so this thing has stood up to the test of time.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:23 PM on January 14, 2022 [10 favorites]
So, one of the things about this part of Ontario (having grown up near it) is that there used to be a fair number of options for families to grab a cheap motel room in a beach town on Lake Huron for an affordable family weekend getaway in the summer. And Lake Huron's got some great beaches that are a welcome respite from the dank humidity that grips Southwestern Ontario in August.
What this meant was that a family getaway in the summer could be had for the cost of a tank of gas and a cheap motel room and some meals. I benefited from that as a kid.
The motels in question (as with the one that is the subject of said makeover) were slightly-dated, family-run affairs that were still reasonable places to stay. Cheap and cheerful, as it were. And really, just a place to sleep after a day at the beach.
The structural economic conditions that lead us to "Instagram influencers get TV deal for their makeover show" and the displacement that concerns people who may have fond memories of certain localities as this are beyond the scope of the show as entertainment, but...
A while back, I was discussing the show with friend who vacations with his family up around that part of Ontario and the Bruce Peninsula, and this last summer he had the chance to discuss this with some people (including the owner of a restaurant) who are residents of Sauble Beach, and he got an earful about the the show and its stars being viewed as obnoxious assholes by the folks he spoke to.
This is, of course, anecdata, so take it as you will.
But not even popular enough for the DIY Network, nee: Magnolia Network.
The Canadian TV and film market is a very, very small pond, and not a terribly lucrative one at that. So there's also that.
Full disclosure: A macrame owl hangs beside the desk I'm typing this at. My mom did macrame in the 70s, and her knots were super-tight, so this thing has stood up to the test of time.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:23 PM on January 14, 2022 [10 favorites]
I can’t tell who’s really real except the barista and the contractor. Both of them seem a bit puzzled.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 4:17 PM on January 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 4:17 PM on January 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
The barista looked like she was being held hostage. Of course they have almond milk in Canada.
posted by mochapickle at 4:39 PM on January 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 4:39 PM on January 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
"The parallel here is rich people from Toronto buying every home and pricing locals out. The GTA is only about 2/3rds the population of Chicagoland, but in terms of the Canadian economy it looms large."
Right, my point is not to bag on Canada for smallness, but to say that a Great Lakes resort town of 2,000 permanent residents (with hoards of tourists in the summer) has a different economic situation than a pair of cities of 20,000 (with hoards of tourists in the summer) that historically had a self-sustaining downtown -- and a significant shipping industry, from pre-Columbian times through the creation of the Interstate Highway system. A huge portion of Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana's farmland is in the watershed of the St. Joe (including the cities of South Bend and Kalamazoo) and it's navigable all the way to the Ohio border. That agricultural and industrial shipping historically all entered Lake Michigan at St. Joe/Benton Harbor.
And that a lot of the complaints Maggie Mae has are about wealthy Chicagoans buying historic single-family homes, turning them into AirBnBs, and pricing people out of St. Joe (the white city), which is driving gentrification of Benton Harbor (the Black city), as white residents who own and run a lot of the summer attractions are forced into Benton Harbor, displacing working-class Black families. (There is also a book from 1999 about then-95% white St. Joe and then-92% Black Benton Harbor and the relationship between the two cities, with a lot to say about poverty and race and gentrification.) A small Michigan-based company that owns one motel in South Haven buying a second decrepit hotel in St. Joe (or Benton Harbor) is not remotely the same thing as the destruction of single-family homes and apartment buildings in the area -- a lot of the permanent residents in the area would welcome this kind of boutique motel replacing a decrepit motel, because it's not converting any housing away from local permanent residents, and it's increasing summer tourist traffic and tax receipts, which helps the communities. But buying up single-family homes to AirBnB them is forcing closure of schools, reducing tax receipts, and forcing residents out of town. (They're also destroying or damaging a lot of the historic housing stock that makes the town "charming," although that's an intangible claim.)
(The expense of working-class vacations at Lake Michigan beach resorts is a different and more complicated question, although you can get to St. Joe from Chicago for $20/person on the Amtrak or in a car with a single tank of gas, and stay at a chain motel with a car for $60/night, or within walking distance to the beach and the Amtrak station for $120/night.)
"Can someone who did watch, tell me about their hard work?"
I did watch! They did a lot of painting, some tiling, cabinets, assembling furniture, etc. Their contractor handled building new structures, repairing the pool, plumbing, drywall, etc. They take on a surprising amount of the work themselves -- and in their first motel, they could not get any financing because they had no experience, and so laid floor, hung wallpaper, did all the tiling. This time they were able to get financing and hire some of the work out, but they still did a lot of work themselves. It's not exactly an HGTV-type makeover/renovation show ... it's more like a "friendly documentary" about these women expanding their business. With a lot of design/reno stuff ... but a lot about the costs, a lot of worrying about losing the business completely to Covid, a lot of hiring. (And a lot of the filmmakers being very aware that these women are sort-of ridiculous.) Here's an archive link to a WaPo interview with the two women, that goes into more specifics.
I don't really want to stay at their motels, and I want to be clear again that this started as a 100% hate-watch that slowly morphed into admiration for their hard work and a desire for them to succeed ... tempered by still hate-watching because there's an undertone of ridiculousness to the whole thing.
(Everyone else I tried to convince to watch it with me could not STAND it, so, you know. Possibly my taste is totally terrible, and nobody else came away from it cheering for their gumption.)
Anyway I have now officially written way more paragraphs than this topic deserves!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:48 PM on January 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
Right, my point is not to bag on Canada for smallness, but to say that a Great Lakes resort town of 2,000 permanent residents (with hoards of tourists in the summer) has a different economic situation than a pair of cities of 20,000 (with hoards of tourists in the summer) that historically had a self-sustaining downtown -- and a significant shipping industry, from pre-Columbian times through the creation of the Interstate Highway system. A huge portion of Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana's farmland is in the watershed of the St. Joe (including the cities of South Bend and Kalamazoo) and it's navigable all the way to the Ohio border. That agricultural and industrial shipping historically all entered Lake Michigan at St. Joe/Benton Harbor.
And that a lot of the complaints Maggie Mae has are about wealthy Chicagoans buying historic single-family homes, turning them into AirBnBs, and pricing people out of St. Joe (the white city), which is driving gentrification of Benton Harbor (the Black city), as white residents who own and run a lot of the summer attractions are forced into Benton Harbor, displacing working-class Black families. (There is also a book from 1999 about then-95% white St. Joe and then-92% Black Benton Harbor and the relationship between the two cities, with a lot to say about poverty and race and gentrification.) A small Michigan-based company that owns one motel in South Haven buying a second decrepit hotel in St. Joe (or Benton Harbor) is not remotely the same thing as the destruction of single-family homes and apartment buildings in the area -- a lot of the permanent residents in the area would welcome this kind of boutique motel replacing a decrepit motel, because it's not converting any housing away from local permanent residents, and it's increasing summer tourist traffic and tax receipts, which helps the communities. But buying up single-family homes to AirBnB them is forcing closure of schools, reducing tax receipts, and forcing residents out of town. (They're also destroying or damaging a lot of the historic housing stock that makes the town "charming," although that's an intangible claim.)
(The expense of working-class vacations at Lake Michigan beach resorts is a different and more complicated question, although you can get to St. Joe from Chicago for $20/person on the Amtrak or in a car with a single tank of gas, and stay at a chain motel with a car for $60/night, or within walking distance to the beach and the Amtrak station for $120/night.)
"Can someone who did watch, tell me about their hard work?"
I did watch! They did a lot of painting, some tiling, cabinets, assembling furniture, etc. Their contractor handled building new structures, repairing the pool, plumbing, drywall, etc. They take on a surprising amount of the work themselves -- and in their first motel, they could not get any financing because they had no experience, and so laid floor, hung wallpaper, did all the tiling. This time they were able to get financing and hire some of the work out, but they still did a lot of work themselves. It's not exactly an HGTV-type makeover/renovation show ... it's more like a "friendly documentary" about these women expanding their business. With a lot of design/reno stuff ... but a lot about the costs, a lot of worrying about losing the business completely to Covid, a lot of hiring. (And a lot of the filmmakers being very aware that these women are sort-of ridiculous.) Here's an archive link to a WaPo interview with the two women, that goes into more specifics.
I don't really want to stay at their motels, and I want to be clear again that this started as a 100% hate-watch that slowly morphed into admiration for their hard work and a desire for them to succeed ... tempered by still hate-watching because there's an undertone of ridiculousness to the whole thing.
(Everyone else I tried to convince to watch it with me could not STAND it, so, you know. Possibly my taste is totally terrible, and nobody else came away from it cheering for their gumption.)
Anyway I have now officially written way more paragraphs than this topic deserves!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:48 PM on January 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
The barista looked like she was being held hostage. Of course they have almond milk in Canada.
But do they really have it outside of Toronto??
posted by clawsoon at 4:52 PM on January 14, 2022
But do they really have it outside of Toronto??
posted by clawsoon at 4:52 PM on January 14, 2022
A small Michigan-based company that owns one motel in South Haven buying a second decrepit hotel in St. Joe (or Benton Harbor) is not remotely the same thing as the destruction of single-family homes and apartment buildings in the area -- a lot of the permanent residents in the area would welcome this kind of boutique motel replacing a decrepit motel, because it's not converting any housing away from local permanent residents, and it's increasing summer tourist traffic and tax receipts, which helps the communities.
So what you're saying is that they're the missionaries of gentrification rather than the colonizers?
Anyway I have now officially written way more paragraphs than this topic deserves!
I want to see you and Maggie Mae go toe-to-toe on this one.
posted by clawsoon at 4:56 PM on January 14, 2022
So what you're saying is that they're the missionaries of gentrification rather than the colonizers?
Anyway I have now officially written way more paragraphs than this topic deserves!
I want to see you and Maggie Mae go toe-to-toe on this one.
posted by clawsoon at 4:56 PM on January 14, 2022
The barista looked like she was being held hostage. Of course they have almond milk in Canada.
But do they really have it outside of Toronto??
Sure, it's just in bags like all the other milk.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 5:00 PM on January 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
But do they really have it outside of Toronto??
Sure, it's just in bags like all the other milk.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 5:00 PM on January 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
Sure, it's just in bags like all the other milk.
In Prince Edward County they have fun days where you can milk the almonds yourself.
posted by clawsoon at 5:03 PM on January 14, 2022 [8 favorites]
In Prince Edward County they have fun days where you can milk the almonds yourself.
posted by clawsoon at 5:03 PM on January 14, 2022 [8 favorites]
But because of Health Canada regulations you aren't allowed to take the raw almond milk home with you, and you are definitely not allowed to make runny cheese with it.
posted by clawsoon at 6:49 PM on January 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by clawsoon at 6:49 PM on January 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
I would watch a doc about Trixie Mattel's new motel. All the snippets I've seen on social media make it look like it would be a lot of fun (for the right clientele).
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:15 PM on January 14, 2022
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:15 PM on January 14, 2022
"I want to see you and Maggie Mae go toe-to-toe on this one."
There's no toes to go, I 100% agree with her about St. Joe/Benton Harbor. Where our views diverge is that her actual complaints about St. Joe/Benton Harbor are driven by out-of-towners buying housing stock and removing it from the market, which not only drives gentrification and pushes people out of housing, but reduces city tax receipts (and as we've discussed a bunch of times on MeFi, lots of AirBnBs don't properly register or pay taxes AT ALL) and forces schools to close -- that part we agree on. But the two women in this show are buying vacation motels and upgrading them, in a way that isn't displacing any housing and is likely to increase tax receipts for the town. And Maggie Mae pivots in the last 1/3 of the video in a way that suggests she is aware it's not a great comparison, but dragging this show is a legitimately great way to get attention to a closely-related economic issue that she cares a lot about (and that I care a lot about!) and that needs more attention.
(And like I said, literally everyone else I tried to get to watch this show, because I was so fascinated by it, could not stand it, and even I was half-hate-watching. This show is hate-able, and hating it is half the enjoyment of watching it. I just found her characterization of the economics of these two women's business unfair, and I am OBSESSED with this show and will take literally any chance to discuss it, lol.)
I looked at Sauble Beach's tourism statistics, and it has 2,000 year-round residents ... with 30,000 day-trippers and weekenders on a summer weekend. (60,000 on a long weekend! It's gobsmacking!) A 24-room motel (let's say 100 guests tops) is just barely a drop in that bucket. I went through their local tourism website looking at different motels, hotels, and resorts, and June looks like the smallest motel in town (next smallest I spotted was 34 rooms). (There are also two B&Bs.) It also does legitimately look like it's filling a hole in the market -- most of the motels and resorts are marketed towards families with small children; this is the only one that seems marketed towards adults/couples/girls' weekends. I'm now slightly more irritated that they found a legitimate gap in the market in a popular beach destination for GTA residents, because I remain kind-of mad this is a legitimate business plan at all.
Anyway, I remain convinced that Maggie Mae would be far less upset about a pair of marketing people from Grand Rapids who bought and upgraded a crap motel in South Haven (another Michigan beach resort town) coming and buying and upgrading a crap motel in St. Joe (of which there are several), because they're providing jobs in the crucially-important tourist sector in these resort towns, and renovating existing tourist infrastructure that provides jobs for locals and pumps tax dollars into town. (I also do think there's a qualitative difference between Sauble Beach specifically, which appears to be almost entirely a summer resort town, with a lot of cottagers; and St. Joe/Benton Harbor, which has a history as a self-sufficient city as well as a summer resort town. Sauble Beach's infrastructure is mostly there to be a resort town; St. Joe/Benton Harbor is losing infrastructure to resort-ness that used to be infrastructure for the self-sufficient city.)
Also I do see that the Sauble Beach area has a split between cottagers who own their land, and cottagers who lease their land from two local First Nations reserves, with its own complexities and competing demands. Which is a different land-use and gentrification debate than in St. Joe/Benton Harbor, where we have two ENORMOUSLY segregated sister cities, and gentrification is playing out on different axes of power, land ownership, control, and racial history. (It has been really interesting for me to read about the Sauble Beach area's politics and history and racial/ethnic disputes and tourism industry tensions, and compare them to St. Joe/Benton Harbor, because the same types of issues end up falling in very different lines of dispute, and it's really interesting in helping think through why that happens differently because of different historical development and modern conditions.)
But if you are an FIB (Fucking Illinois Bastard) looking for a weekend vacation in a Michigan resort town, may I suggest South Haven, which is only 20 minutes further away by car than St. Joe/Benton Harbor? But it is much, much smaller than St. Joe, and it was one of the original Lake Michigan resort towns and has gorgeous old inns and resorts that are still operating. It typically has many fewer FIBs than St. Joe, and more people from Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids and nearby farming towns who have been summering in South Haven for 70 years. (It also has a very good bicycle trail, that runs 33 miles to Kalamazoo, and a great bike rental place right by the trailhead.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:58 PM on January 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
There's no toes to go, I 100% agree with her about St. Joe/Benton Harbor. Where our views diverge is that her actual complaints about St. Joe/Benton Harbor are driven by out-of-towners buying housing stock and removing it from the market, which not only drives gentrification and pushes people out of housing, but reduces city tax receipts (and as we've discussed a bunch of times on MeFi, lots of AirBnBs don't properly register or pay taxes AT ALL) and forces schools to close -- that part we agree on. But the two women in this show are buying vacation motels and upgrading them, in a way that isn't displacing any housing and is likely to increase tax receipts for the town. And Maggie Mae pivots in the last 1/3 of the video in a way that suggests she is aware it's not a great comparison, but dragging this show is a legitimately great way to get attention to a closely-related economic issue that she cares a lot about (and that I care a lot about!) and that needs more attention.
(And like I said, literally everyone else I tried to get to watch this show, because I was so fascinated by it, could not stand it, and even I was half-hate-watching. This show is hate-able, and hating it is half the enjoyment of watching it. I just found her characterization of the economics of these two women's business unfair, and I am OBSESSED with this show and will take literally any chance to discuss it, lol.)
I looked at Sauble Beach's tourism statistics, and it has 2,000 year-round residents ... with 30,000 day-trippers and weekenders on a summer weekend. (60,000 on a long weekend! It's gobsmacking!) A 24-room motel (let's say 100 guests tops) is just barely a drop in that bucket. I went through their local tourism website looking at different motels, hotels, and resorts, and June looks like the smallest motel in town (next smallest I spotted was 34 rooms). (There are also two B&Bs.) It also does legitimately look like it's filling a hole in the market -- most of the motels and resorts are marketed towards families with small children; this is the only one that seems marketed towards adults/couples/girls' weekends. I'm now slightly more irritated that they found a legitimate gap in the market in a popular beach destination for GTA residents, because I remain kind-of mad this is a legitimate business plan at all.
Anyway, I remain convinced that Maggie Mae would be far less upset about a pair of marketing people from Grand Rapids who bought and upgraded a crap motel in South Haven (another Michigan beach resort town) coming and buying and upgrading a crap motel in St. Joe (of which there are several), because they're providing jobs in the crucially-important tourist sector in these resort towns, and renovating existing tourist infrastructure that provides jobs for locals and pumps tax dollars into town. (I also do think there's a qualitative difference between Sauble Beach specifically, which appears to be almost entirely a summer resort town, with a lot of cottagers; and St. Joe/Benton Harbor, which has a history as a self-sufficient city as well as a summer resort town. Sauble Beach's infrastructure is mostly there to be a resort town; St. Joe/Benton Harbor is losing infrastructure to resort-ness that used to be infrastructure for the self-sufficient city.)
Also I do see that the Sauble Beach area has a split between cottagers who own their land, and cottagers who lease their land from two local First Nations reserves, with its own complexities and competing demands. Which is a different land-use and gentrification debate than in St. Joe/Benton Harbor, where we have two ENORMOUSLY segregated sister cities, and gentrification is playing out on different axes of power, land ownership, control, and racial history. (It has been really interesting for me to read about the Sauble Beach area's politics and history and racial/ethnic disputes and tourism industry tensions, and compare them to St. Joe/Benton Harbor, because the same types of issues end up falling in very different lines of dispute, and it's really interesting in helping think through why that happens differently because of different historical development and modern conditions.)
But if you are an FIB (Fucking Illinois Bastard) looking for a weekend vacation in a Michigan resort town, may I suggest South Haven, which is only 20 minutes further away by car than St. Joe/Benton Harbor? But it is much, much smaller than St. Joe, and it was one of the original Lake Michigan resort towns and has gorgeous old inns and resorts that are still operating. It typically has many fewer FIBs than St. Joe, and more people from Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids and nearby farming towns who have been summering in South Haven for 70 years. (It also has a very good bicycle trail, that runs 33 miles to Kalamazoo, and a great bike rental place right by the trailhead.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:58 PM on January 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
It has been really interesting for me to read about the Sauble Beach area's politics and history and racial/ethnic disputes and tourism industry tensions
It's about 150 km south of Sauble Beach, but this deals with the history of Ipperwash and cottagers on Lake Huron (and more): The Secret Life of Ipperwash. Runs about a half hour.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:03 PM on January 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
It's about 150 km south of Sauble Beach, but this deals with the history of Ipperwash and cottagers on Lake Huron (and more): The Secret Life of Ipperwash. Runs about a half hour.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:03 PM on January 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
As someone who watched Prince Edward County (The June Hotel site) gentrify, I don't think it's these two that did it. But man did it ever.
From a plain vacationing perspective, we went there first in 2003 and rented a cottage on the lake for $450/week. Pre-Covid, we barely missed any years after that because it really is a gorgeous fun area. Up until 2015 the prices went up just a bit each summer. The cottage was bought and sold to new owners but no real change until it jumped up in 2016 to about $1800/week. And although that meant we really had to start thinking about it, it was still worth it for us and we just ate out less during the year. In 2018 we had what would prove to be our last summer (we didn't know it) at a slightly larger cottage on the same site for $2400/week.
What changed in between was that Prince Edward County went from a farming and fishing and scenic United Empire Loyalist quaint antiques country to a Foodie Destination (The Drake opened a hotel in Wellington, for god's sake!) This was partly driven by some VERY savvy people, unlike these two women more below, who realized that the land on which they were growing apples and cider could also support vineyards, plus the craft beer industry, plus the farm-to-table movement, plus Torontonians were tired of the traffic going north (although east got just as bad quickly.) (I may have written a few articles on the upswing of that wave myself, since I knew the area as it was taking off.)
In March 2021 I called around, wondering what Covid had done to prices and that exact cottage was renting for $1050 A NIGHT, partly due to everyone not going to India etc., but also because The County has done that lately. So that's it for us for high season stays within walls, I tell ya.
Real estate is the same - my husband and I were talking about going in with two family members for a hobby farm there in 2004 and the place we were looking at was going for $229,000 and it sold last summer for 2.6 million.
So in terms of the show, my point is...anyone with a can of paint would have had the success these two had. And like, good on them, sort of -- I admit that I don't really want to run a hotel at all but I have those kinds of daydreams that I would like the creating of one until I consider the actual work and money of it, so I sympathize -- why not be like the men who cheer themselves on for what market conditions created? But it wasn't their design skill or their eye for things, it was their timing.
PEC also is suffering with the removal of long-term rentals. I won't get into that because I have less expertise but I know seniors are having a hard time.
(Don't feel entirely bad for tourists though, we bought a tent and if we are quick on Registration Day at Sandbanks Provincial Park we can still vacation there for $35/night or whatever it will be this year.)
posted by warriorqueen at 9:32 PM on January 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
From a plain vacationing perspective, we went there first in 2003 and rented a cottage on the lake for $450/week. Pre-Covid, we barely missed any years after that because it really is a gorgeous fun area. Up until 2015 the prices went up just a bit each summer. The cottage was bought and sold to new owners but no real change until it jumped up in 2016 to about $1800/week. And although that meant we really had to start thinking about it, it was still worth it for us and we just ate out less during the year. In 2018 we had what would prove to be our last summer (we didn't know it) at a slightly larger cottage on the same site for $2400/week.
What changed in between was that Prince Edward County went from a farming and fishing and scenic United Empire Loyalist quaint antiques country to a Foodie Destination (The Drake opened a hotel in Wellington, for god's sake!) This was partly driven by some VERY savvy people, unlike these two women more below, who realized that the land on which they were growing apples and cider could also support vineyards, plus the craft beer industry, plus the farm-to-table movement, plus Torontonians were tired of the traffic going north (although east got just as bad quickly.) (I may have written a few articles on the upswing of that wave myself, since I knew the area as it was taking off.)
In March 2021 I called around, wondering what Covid had done to prices and that exact cottage was renting for $1050 A NIGHT, partly due to everyone not going to India etc., but also because The County has done that lately. So that's it for us for high season stays within walls, I tell ya.
Real estate is the same - my husband and I were talking about going in with two family members for a hobby farm there in 2004 and the place we were looking at was going for $229,000 and it sold last summer for 2.6 million.
So in terms of the show, my point is...anyone with a can of paint would have had the success these two had. And like, good on them, sort of -- I admit that I don't really want to run a hotel at all but I have those kinds of daydreams that I would like the creating of one until I consider the actual work and money of it, so I sympathize -- why not be like the men who cheer themselves on for what market conditions created? But it wasn't their design skill or their eye for things, it was their timing.
PEC also is suffering with the removal of long-term rentals. I won't get into that because I have less expertise but I know seniors are having a hard time.
(Don't feel entirely bad for tourists though, we bought a tent and if we are quick on Registration Day at Sandbanks Provincial Park we can still vacation there for $35/night or whatever it will be this year.)
posted by warriorqueen at 9:32 PM on January 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
(At least until Doug Ford paves it over.)
posted by warriorqueen at 9:37 PM on January 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by warriorqueen at 9:37 PM on January 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
In Freaks and Geeks, Kim Kelly tells Lindsay Weir to lie to Kim's mom about her family's vacation house in Benton Harbor. The story isn't true--but if it were, would the Weir family be gentrifiers?
posted by box at 5:34 AM on January 15, 2022
posted by box at 5:34 AM on January 15, 2022
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posted by Well I never at 9:50 AM on January 14, 2022 [5 favorites]