Changes in Duluth (Minneapolis, Kent: condominiums, neighborhood, to buy)
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Hey folks, I joined this forum for the Alaska thread, because my family is moving there within 7 months. But right now, we live in Lincoln Park. We moved here 6 months ago and wow, I am shocked and totally sad.
I spent a few years in the Twin Ports as a kid and always came up here at least once a year ever since. When things were starting to get rough for my family, we figured, heck, why not make a go of it in Duluth?! So we got jobs and moved on up....
I am so shocked at what a dumpy city this is!
I figure the reason it seems so great to you is because you're visiting it...even when I was visiting it...coming up for job interviews and whatnot...it seemed so perfect...because I was still, even at that point, a tourist. Now that I live here, I really am disappointed. The city caters to the tourist for the simple fact that it's one of the only things that brings in any revenue. So hardly any crime is reported on the news. A few weeks after we moved in, we had some criminal run through our neighborhood...not only did the police not do anything about it, nothing was on the news. I won't even go into it....
Yes, there is crime everywhere....and Duluth is a pretty city....and that's about where it ends. When I talk to people about my job, as a college graduate, they are shocked at what I receive, and apparently, for Duluth, I'm doing pretty damn good!
My advice...don't move here. Or if you do...get out. We're leaving soon. Sooner the better. Keep it pretty for yourself...stay a tourist. Man, I wish I had!
As a native Duluthian I agree. Imo, Duluth has turned into a mini Detroit with all the gang activity and low wages. It seems as though 70% of the town is on welfare or some sort of public assistance and the town is sinking in debt! I am not trying to be negative just stating the facts here people. Yes Duluth is pretty in the summer, and the lake is nice, but thats all it has going for it.
Duluth's big plus is if you're an outdoors person and have a good enough job to make it all work. You can't beat the lake, canoeing in the Boundary Waters, snowmobiling is unbelievable if there's enough snow, skiing at Lutsen or Spirit Mountain. I graduated from high school in Duluth in the 1970s. A bunch of my classmates still live there and tell how they can work downtown, be home in 20 minutes to a house that's so rural you can't tell you have neighbors and have to make sure the bears don't get into the garbage cans. That's pretty cool. But, they don't LIVE in Duluth. They live out in the country a ways. The problem I think is that Duluth, especially the West End (they've now renamed it Lincoln Park trying to spiff up the neighborhood) where I grew up is a bunch of old houses built so close together on 40 or 50 foot lots that you can hardly get a ladder up between them to paint. Those old houses are the ones that go for under $100K. Some have kept up their places, but as the properties turn over, I'll bet they'll go down. Cheap housing draws bad people (in Minneapolis, it's north Mpls and south Mpls). In my day the people living in these old places were just poor white people. Not necessarily bad people. Some of those houses have turned into college student (ie party) houses because UMD has nowhere near the housing needed for the kids that attend. My daughter is one of them. Crime is way up since I lived there, because the other type of people living in those houses tend to be bad people from out of town/state. The same houses are now 40 years older. They must cost a fortune to heat. If you look at the census bureau stuff, you'll find that Duluth's young people have by and large left, like me, a bunch of retirees live there on fixed incomes, and too many of the new people are undesirable. That's the reason for the crime and the party houses. And with this unfunded liability, you'd have to be nuts to move to Duluth and live inside the city limits. On the resident/tourist topic, the tourists see the parts that have been fixed up for tourists. Canal park feels like the upscale Minneapolis warehouse district with Lake Superior. It caters very well. But get back into the older neighborhoods and you'll see the old houses, cars with one headlight not working, an dparking facing the wrong way. Check out Restormel St., Devonshire, West 4th St around 27th Ave. W., and you'll see the seedy side that these people are talking about. My old neighborhood. On the schools, they have, after 30 years, finally done the right thing and decided they're only a 2 high school town. They're going to close a bunch of old brownstone grade schools and build a few decent new ones because the old ones are too expensive to heat and to fix up to meet the ADA. Finally Duluth got a superintendent and school board with the balls to fix this. This was discussed in the 1970s when they built "new" Central -- the one they're now going to raze -- instead of just closing "old" Central which is what they should have done then. One last point is that Duluth has been strangled all along because the natives are pretty narrow minded, and the unions have had a death hold on the city since the beginning. That's the real reason no one dared tell city employees they couldn't have free health insurance for life, because it was basically pro-union people negotiating with the employees union. The population was 106,000 in 1970. I think the sign now says 83,000 when you drive in to town. If it weren't for St. Mary's/Duluth Clinic and UMD, there really wouldn't be anything at all up there except the unbelievable view and outdoor stuff, which I miss.
Duluth does have a lot of things going for it besides UMD, St. Mary's Duluth clininc, and the natural setting. The College of St. Scholastica is the fastest growing private college in the state and has over 3,500 students and a nationally recognized Health Information Management program, Lake Superior College just added another addition on campus and is opening a pilot training program at the airport to act as a feeder program for Cirrus Design which now employs nearly 1,000 people in town and is building a $1 million dollar jet, and planning another several hundred thousand foot expansion at the airport.
The airport itself is finally shedding its 1970's horrible design and new plans for a $70 million dollar hangar were revealed this week.
UnitedHealth expaned in Duluth over a decade ago with only handful of employees and now sits in a recently built (3-5 yrs ago) filled to capacity modern office building employing over 1300 people. Many work from home because there is no room left in the building.
The old industries like the port are beginning to diversify too. The port now imports absolutely huge machinery for the oil sands projects in Alberta along with importing and exporting wind turbine equipment from Europe and elsewhere. The port released a study from 2001 which indicated over $200 million annual economic impact and 1200 direct jobs created. (The boats don't come to see the people).
sclaus is right that there a lot of problems with the retiree healthcare, and I agree totally that the schools are long overdue for an overhaul (my daughter attended an elementary school in Duluth that was so old that the Christian symbols in the floor tiles of the school included Swastikas) Ahh..time to update.
Yes, Duluth has lost population steadily since the 1970's but Hermantown has tripled in size along with the 5-10 acre lots in the countryside outside duluth like Lakewood, Canosia and Rice Lake. Hermantown had a population of 500-1000 people in the 1960's and 1970, and now has over 8,500 ( I had to student teach MN state history from a map from 1965 still hanging in the school).
Duluth is a great place ot live, and you can find a job here and make a decent living. I am not in healthcare or education.
[quote=Duluth07;1544094]I'd have to agree with much of what the others have said. This is definitely a family-churchy-everyone gets married at 19 city.
I AGEE WHOLEHEARTEDLY WITH THIS STATMENT.
Of course, if you are tourist, all you see is the good stuff in duluth or a medical tourist, you only see the good stuff here in Duluth. Those people are PAID to be nice to you. You don't see the majority of people having to work three jobs, at 8 dollars an hour at some crap human services waste dump of Adult Foster Care Homes. And if you talk to the workers here about it, they will say the same thing every single time, "it's just the way it is up here, and it's worth so I can go skiiing on some 5th rate hill(Spirit Mountain) any time." REALLY? REALLY???? it's fracking "worth" working 3 fracking jobs to pay for a roof, food, gas, in the hopes that you will get time off if you need it to go skiing?
And the way these people are so "nice" but it's in a passive-aggressive way. No, they aren't nice.. My sister struggles with her shoulder, the neighbors know it, and do you think one g-dd**mn one could help her shovel out her walk during the three back to back to blizzards we got? No, the people in Duluth are just as self-centered egotistical b*astards as they are in Chicago, and Manhattan, but duluthians are deceptive about it, not honest like Big City folks are.
Not to mention the racism, the fundementalism, the psuedo good do'ers hippies and the really, really, really old people everywhere. Oh and a stupid a**sed city council thinks putting bricks in roads, crummy boardwalk on the lakefront, and promoting the "arts" is going to revitalize the economy. NO, it won't, stupid, it g-da**mn won't okay? People who work at $8.00 an hour tourist supported jobs live in subsidized housing that you can't collect freaking taxes you nimrods.
No, better off to get a job in a suburb of Mpls/St. Paul where it only has to be 1 joband drive up on the weekends for your "fresh air" fix. Duluth is a hellhole unless you are Doctor at the behmoth medical center.
Wow, did someone just go off their meds? Any time I see a post like this I immediately file it mentally in the "round file". That kind of incredible negativity just tells me you're not likely to be happy anywhere and won't admit to any positives even if they were to slap you in the face!
Yes tourism jobs don't do a lot for the locals in terms of raising standard of living, but tourism isn't he only growth sector in Duluth. Healthcare continues to expand and those jobs tend to pay well. Likewise education is expanding - another poster already metioned CSS. I think a lot of Duluthians get bitter because the strong union jobs (iron, timber, etc) that originally made Duluth grow are now a thing of the past. Maybe you're just in the wrong job. Duluth can still be great, but some adjustments in emphasis and public mindset are needed.
I'd have to agree with much of what the others have said. This is definitely a family-churchy-everyone gets married at 19 city.
I AGEE WHOLEHEARTEDLY WITH THIS STATMENT.
Of course, if you are tourist, all you see is the good stuff in duluth or a medical tourist, you only see the good stuff here in Duluth. Those people are PAID to be nice to you. You don't see the majority of people having to work three jobs, at 8 dollars an hour at some crap human services waste dump of Adult Foster Care Homes. And if you talk to the workers here about it, they will say the same thing every single time, "it's just the way it is up here, and it's worth so I can go skiiing on some 5th rate hill(Spirit Mountain) any time." REALLY? REALLY???? it's fracking "worth" working 3 fracking jobs to pay for a roof, food, gas, in the hopes that you will get time off if you need it to go skiing?
And the way these people are so "nice" but it's in a passive-aggressive way. No, they aren't nice.. My sister struggles with her shoulder, the neighbors know it, and do you think one g-dd**mn one could help her shovel out her walk during the three back to back to blizzards we got? No, the people in Duluth are just as self-centered egotistical b*astards as they are in Chicago, and Manhattan, but duluthians are deceptive about it, not honest like Big City folks are.
Not to mention the racism, the fundementalism, the psuedo good do'ers hippies and the really, really, really old people everywhere. Oh and a stupid a**sed city council thinks putting bricks in roads, crummy boardwalk on the lakefront, and promoting the "arts" is going to revitalize the economy. NO, it won't, stupid, it g-da**mn won't okay? People who work at $8.00 an hour tourist supported jobs live in subsidized housing that you can't collect freaking taxes you nimrods.
No, better off to get a job in a suburb of Mpls/St. Paul where it only has to be 1 joband drive up on the weekends for your "fresh air" fix. Duluth is a hellhole unless you are Doctor at the behmoth medical center.
My sister struggles with her shoulder, the neighbors know it, and do you think one g-dd**mn one could help her shovel out her walk during the three back to back to blizzards we got? .
I don't really remember the three back to back blizzards but, I hope you were able to make it to your sister's to shovel her out. I'm sure she appreciates having family in the area to help her out so she doesn't have to depend on the neighbors.
If she's having trouble finding help with shoveling, you might want to suggest she join this mail-list. We have lots of people there that have been volunteering to help with shoveling and other chores.
It's called Helping Neighbors With Open Hearts. Helping-Neighbors-with-open-hearts : Helping Neighbors with open hearts
Last edited by Auntie Bob; 02-19-2008 at 10:14 AM..
Reason: added list
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