Two Harbors Mayor Under Fire For Underwater Hotel Tourist Attraction Idea

Chris Swanson is the Mayor of Two Harbors and has recently been thrust into the spotlight for his grandiose ideas of how to attract tourists to the area. Not only are his ideas fairly unrealistic but there is also a mystery man in the picture which is making this all seem like a bad movie.

This proposal caused enough concern that the Two Harbors City Council held a special meeting last Thursday.  According to Mayor Swanson, one of his ideas is to have an underwater hotel in Lake Superior. He admitted it would be the first of its kind but stressed that they do exist in other parts of the world.

The reason the City Council decided to have a meeting about this proposal was the mayor shared his ideas with a potential investor on a podcast called "Ask A Billionaire." He also used the website VibeTwoHarbors.com to recruit investors for the projects, and he posted on the mayor’s official Twitter feed, @mayorswanson. The City Council members discussed whether these social media publications violate city code, charter, or state statute.

The mayor himself entered a motion to move the matter to Minnesota’s Attorney General.  Mayor Swanson said to CBS3: "So, I understand the rules and I know that I haven’t broken any rules, so I very much would love to see the Attorney General review that and make sure that the air is cleared. I don’t want anybody saying that it wasn’t reviewed and there was something that was done wrong and it was brushed underneath the carpet."

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Another aspect of the story is the reclusive billionaire that allegedly the mayor had contact with regarding funding for this underwater hotel who goes by the name Mr. O. The mayor has said through Mr. O's connections with him he is now working with the Two Harbors Economic Development Authority and officials from the city planning committee to possibly invest in some of Swanson's ideas. Mayor Swanson said Mr. O could possibly invest $400 million towards future attractions in Two Harbors.

Apparently, this Mr. O had proposed to help invest in the city of Flint Michigan back in 2017 which apparently never happened. I understand the mayor trying to think outside of the box in order to attract tourists to his town but to really think of some mystery man who goes by the name Mr. O is going to be willing to invest almost half a million dollars into an underwater hotel in a town the size of Two Harbors is unfathomable. Thankfully this is going to be investigated by the state attorney general but it does lead to the question of what information regarding the city of Two Harbors was discussed with this Mr. O? I would assume all of that will come out in the investigation.