Potential family move to Duluth, area pros & cons (Marshall: 2014, neighborhoods)

[DKFamily]

Our family is considering a relocation to Duluth. I'm looking for excellent schools (elementary, middle & high school) and ideally hoping for a couple acres of land but still within 20 minutes from downtown. I could use local help with pros and cons of Esko, Hermantown and Congdon areas & schools (I know Congdon is closer to town with not a lot of land). Thanks in advance!

[aluminumpork]

Hello and congratulations on your potential move to Duluth! As you might imagine, your questions are fairly common and therefore there's a lot of redundant answers on this forum. I'll link you to a couple of my old ones that have the basic overview of the area. Some of the information is outdated now, but the neighborhoods haven't changed much.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/2014103-post76.html
http://www.city-data.com/forum/16577458-post4.html
http://www.city-data.com/forum/34161500-post2.html

As for schools, you'll get differing opinions on the Duluth Public School District (ISD709). We recently went through a facilities overhaul that the community was very divided on. So, on the bright side, any school your children go to will be new or heavily renovated. On the downside, class sizes have gone up due to budgetary issues.

In addition to our public schools, we have a few highly rated charter and private schools, namely Marshall, Edison and Harbor City. Marshall is overall a highly respected private 4 - 12 school located in lower Duluth Heights and is largely known as the "wealthy family school". Marshall is located centrally in Duluth in lower Duluth Heights, no more than five minutes from downtown.

Edison is a very popular charter school that is growing quickly. They recently completed their brand new elementary/middle school and are preparing to break ground on a brand new high school campus nearby. If you wanted, you could start your elementary and middle school aged children there and send them all the way through grade twelve on a single campus. Edison is located near the outer fringe of Duluth in a wooded area, close to the Duluth Heights, Kenwood, and Woodland neighborhoods.

Harbor City International High School happens to be where I graduated from. They are a relatively new school (started in 2003 I believe) that caters to students that don't necessarily perform at their best in a traditional school environment. They pride themselves on finding the strengths of each individual and capitalizing on it. Harbor City is located downtown and takes the top three floors of their building; it's a very unique location. For this reason, they do not have space for athletic sports, but do provide regular outings to the nearby YMCA.

In addition to the schools I listed above, there are private Catholic and other religious schools if that is what you're looking for.

A quick note about cardinal directions in Duluth, the southwest to northeast direction the city takes on a map is referred to as west to east (as if viewed from the lake). Understanding this will go a long ways to understanding what locals are talking about.

In response to your question about towns/neighborhoods with land, you may be able to find what you're looking for in upper Woodland or far east Lakeside.

Upper Woodland has a good mix of larger "development" style lots and smaller traditional city blocks. Upper Woodland is very family oriented and the trip to the mall area is fairly convenient if you utilize Martin Rd/Howard Gnesen and Rice Lake. Your closest school would be Homecroft Elementary. Your middle and high schools would be in Congdon and Lakeside respectively.

Most of Lakeside is standard city blocks, but newer developments have sprung up on the far eastern (or northern if looking at a map) side of the neighborhood. A potential downside of Lakeside is it's proximity to shopping. The neighborhood itself has a small grocery store, cafe, gym and hardware store (among other basics), but you'll more than likely find yourself making the trek west or "over the hill" to the mall area often. A perk of Lakeside is that it is extremely family oriented. You'll be sure find plenty of families to bond with your children will no doubt find many friends nearby.

If neither of those locations suit you, Hermantown would definitely be able to provide you with the acreage you want. There are plenty of newer developments and still land available for building. As a perk, you'd have very close access to the "mall" area, where you'll find all the big box outlets, chain restaurants and grocery stores you'll need.

In regards to Congdon, you are correct. The lots would be smaller, but as an advantage, you would be in very close proximity to all of the schools your children would attend; East Highschool, Ordean Elementary, and Congdon Elementary all within within walking distance or a short bike ride.

As another option, you could look at the northwestern townships of Duluth. My familiarity is with the Lakewood and Normanna townships. I posted about these areas here. Your middle and high school children would have a bit of a trek to get to school in the mornings and ISD709 bus service does run in these townships, but your elementary aged children would be in relative proximity to Lakewood Elementary (which happens to be where I went).

In regards to Esko, I'm not familiar enough with the area to intelligently comment on it; perhaps someone else can.

[Dangerous Dave]

You're on the right track for being in/around Duluth. It's best to be nowhere near downtown. Duluth proper, for the most part, is a pretty crummy place.

[DKFamily]

Thanks for the great input and info Dangerous and Aluminumpork! I've searched here a lot for information but hadn't run across your in depth neighborhood thread yet. In case we end up looking north of town, can you tell me what road maintenance is like on Rice Lake Rd and Jean Duluth Rd in the winter? How long do you think it would take to get from Wild Rice Lake to the Perkins in town - summer and winter version I appreciate your wide range of Duluth wisdom!

[CCbaxter]

DK, this thread is a little old, just wanted to know if you need more info. I have kids in school (Edison) and live outside of town so I could give you some ideas.