Twin Cities vs Duluth (Minneapolis, St. Paul: unemployment, college, campers)

[nick is rulz]

Originally Posted by demtion35

There is way more to do in the Duluth area than in the Metro area.

lol

[punkrockscks]

I lived in Duluth for 7 years, 4 while I was in school and 3 after school. My wife and I moved last winter because we couldn't find any meaningful or decent work in our fields.

The good:
1. Very liberal overall. (at least a positive for me)
2. Lots of nature
3. Lake Superior
4. Decent local music scene
5. There are some very dedicated and active community members who are trying to change some of the bad stuff going in Duluth. 6. Traffic... what traffic?

The bad:
1. As many have pointed out, there is a lot of poverty in Duluth. Unless you live in Lakeside or Hermantown, chances are there is a meth lab within a couple blocks. And it's not getting better.
2. Jobs. None... unless you can work for the hospitals or colleges.
3. The roads are the worst on the planet. Seriously. Like, we've blown tires due to them. I still don't understand why the locals don't DEMAND some of them be patched.
4. The local government leaves a lot to be desired.
5. The locals are sort of weird. Don't know how to describe it. My wife calls it the "Duluth vibe"

I don't mean to just rip on Duluth, but the city as a whole really isn't going anywhere. I'd say 90% of people would enjoy living in the Twin Cities and visiting Duluth for the weekend once a summer much more than living in there.

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by punkrockscks

I lived in Duluth for 7 years, 4 while I was in school and 3 after school. My wife and I moved last winter because we couldn't find any meaningful or decent work in our fields.

The good:
1. Very liberal overall. (at least a positive for me)
2. Lots of nature
3. Lake Superior
4. Decent local music scene
5. There are some very dedicated and active community members who are trying to change some of the bad stuff going in Duluth. 6. Traffic... what traffic?

The bad:
1. As many have pointed out, there is a lot of poverty in Duluth. Unless you live in Lakeside or Hermantown, chances are there is a meth lab within a couple blocks. And it's not getting better.
2. Jobs. None... unless you can work for the hospitals or colleges.
3. The roads are the worst on the planet. Seriously. Like, we've blown tires due to them. I still don't understand why the locals don't DEMAND some of them be patched.
4. The local government leaves a lot to be desired.
5. The locals are sort of weird. Don't know how to describe it. My wife calls it the "Duluth vibe"

I don't mean to just rip on Duluth, but the city as a whole really isn't going anywhere. I'd say 90% of people would enjoy living in the Twin Cities and visiting Duluth for the weekend once a summer much more than living in there.

I wouldn't say that Duluth isn't going 'anywhere'. A lot of good things are happening now that will pay off in the future. Change doesn't happen over night. Mayor Don Ness is doing some good things, and like you said there are a lot of people trying to make changes.

Duluth is just a sad story. It is a city that covers a large area (90 sq miles). The city of Duluth had as many as 120,000 residents in the 1950s and 1960s, and had lost 35,000 of them by 1990. Much of this was due to the loss of jobs that continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s. When a city loses that much tax base and still has to maintain roads suited for 120,000 people, some things go untouched. That's why the roads are so bad, and people can 'DEMAND' all they want but if the city has no money, then they can just magically fix streets.

Downtown and Canal Park have gotten much better since the 1990s even, and the population has seemed to have plateaued at 86,000 with the suburbs of Hermantown and Proctor growing.

I just wish more large jobs would come to the city. That's all that the City of Duluth needs. Just like Rochester has Mayo and IBM.

[demtion35]

Originally Posted by babrent

For years I have asked this question to myself. I lived in both areas and both offer many things: If a job was not a part of the question where would you live? and what one would you visit? Thanks it would help to know what others think

Jobs isnt in the question. Still there is way more to do in the Duluth area than in the metro area.

Thanks

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by demtion35

Jobs isnt in the question. Still there is way more to do in the Duluth area than in the metro area.

It depends on what you want to do. In terms of "the arts", Duluth doesn't come close to the Twin Cities. Or in terms of professional sports.

On the other hand, Duluth is close to a fair number of outdoor activities.

I suspect many people would disagree with you, but opinions are opinions.

[nick is rulz]

Its not an opinion so much as it is he is stating something completely incorrect. There is not more to do in Duluth, hands down. Doesnt matter if you're talking outdoor activities or not.

[demtion35]

Originally Posted by nick is rulz

Its not an opinion so much as it is he is stating something completely incorrect. There is not more to do in Duluth, hands down. Doesnt matter if you're talking outdoor activities or not.

I believe Ive always said "in the Duluth area" . Regardless, to answer the op's question again Id live Duluth and visit the metro area.

That aside I do think there is more to do, for me in the Duluth area with out question.
I dont have to list reasons, there are way too many of them, its how things just happened to turn out. Not all progress it good.
If someone likes the nightlife in the metro, great, fantastic, but, its not me.
Id rather go up north than the moa. Id rather be hiking some distant path than at Gandmas Marathon. Id rather be camping in SNF for free than be in the crowds of people for the 4th of July.
Id rather be in a graval pit looking for agates near Carlton MN than attend the Blues Fest.
I love Leaf Erickson Park, and The Sculpture Gardens. Id rather "get of town" with my girlfriend than walking downtown along Nicolette Av, but I love the Flour Mill Ruins along the river. Fantastic place. Id rather sit in front of a vast overlook for miles, watching a lighting storm over Lake Superior, than sitting for the same amount of time in crawling traffic.
Ive been to several Rockie Mountain Horror shows in uptown area around Halloween, but thats enough for me and uptown.
I dont go to bars beings I dont drink or smoke, and I could only see so many museums and the arts type of stuff before that would get old, so what else is there?
Many of the city parks in the metro may not be safe at night time. Duluth does have over 120 city parks in city limits and many of these parks the SHT runs through.
The SHT runs for about 40 miles through Duluth. I dont have to follow large numbers of traffic heading up north for the weekend beings Im allready here, but I can be in the SNF in about 2.5 hours for the day trip if needed or almost anywhere else for that matter not having to tack on another 6-8 hours of drive time.
I prefer smaller towns to live in. Its just how things turned out I guess, and looking back I dont mind at all. It makes many things just a bit richer for life when the lesser trails are travalled.
Thanks

[whoopsie goldburg]

i agree about the deteriorating roads/streets in duluth...horrific! i don't know how you guys put up with it

[tijlover]

I was in Duluth recently on vacation and I'm surprised that Duluth hasn't marketed the city more to us living in the South, Southeast and Southwest who need a cool place to spend their summers. Duluth would be picture perfect.

I know if I could afford it, when retired, I'd have me a condo in Duluth or Superior to spend the summers. Certainly not the insanely spreadout Twin Cities area where you can cook in the summertime, with both heat and humidity. I know, I lived there for 21 years. Yes, you can have your luxurious summers, like the last one, and then, the next summer could be the summer from hell. Too unpredictable.

And, myself, I love a blue collar flavor to a city, and love frequenting blue collar bars, unlike the pretentious,yuppie bars in Minneapolis. To me, a great night out would be staying at the Androy in downtown Superior and pub crawling all night, like I used to do when I lived in Minneapolis and I escaped to Duluth/Superior. Love those funky old bars and those funky bartenders.
To me, they're irreplaceable. Have had lots of fun times in blue collar bars.

And if I did move back to the Twin Cities, it would be downtown St. Paul, without a second thought. On this recent trip I stopped off at Mears park downtown and I noticed they still have some generic, blue collar pubs nearby.
Wow! Just my kind of city! They haven't destroyed the best of St. Paul yet like they have in Minneapolis.

[Joe3rdwash]

Originally Posted by Duluth07

As someone who's spent most of my life bounced around between both downtowns, I have this to offer: Downtown Minneapolis, at least within the last decade, is for the rich, and especially rich people with no kids. There's plenty of panhandlers, street people, etc., but in Duluth, even though it's smaller, there is a much greater sense of poverty and urban blight - you are pretty much shielded from kids downtown in Minneapolis (living there) while in Duluth you have lots of poor people with kids living downtown. While many apartment buildings in downtown Minneapolis are well over $1000 a month, downtown Duluth high rises (Tri Towers, King Manor, Gateway Towers, San Marcos; it's all on bowmanproperties.com or center city housing) are almost all Section 8, which unfortunately has drawn people from cities like Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Kansas City; larger urban areas where the wait list for free housing is nearly 8-10 years; they get right in here and just spend one night listening to the police calls - the high rises that were intended for senior citizens on a fixed income have been taken over by drug dealers, pimps, just a real lowlife/predator element that was not here a decade ago. The main reason Duluth has become a destination is the FREE HOUSING that is not available in Minneapolis any more.

I love Duluth, but I do not see the same influx of very well educated professionals here that I would see in Minneapolis - this is no longer a place where we are getting a lot of wealth coming in, and our schools are reflecting that. In two years, Central High School will be gone, leaving us with only two high schools (East and Denfeld; boundary being the east-west split on 6th Ave E)...our problem downtown is that there was a real lack of proactive and forward thinking people like there has been in Minneapolis to create an artsy, fun, cultural and basically an energetic, clean downtown where you would feel okay with your mother/sister/wife/etc walking around alone. Duluth is becoming sketchy - and again its economics - we are getting all the people who can no longer afford Minneapolis or other large cities and will definitely say yes to Duluth so long as they get free housing, easy local women to live off of and drive her car around, and do anything except come here to work. The irony is that people still have a problem with the gay pride events (mainly people who have much higher levels of education, income and living standards than those who complain about them; they usually don't have kids nor do they cause any problems in the city) but these same complainers say nothing about our 'street pharmacists' and convicted felons who are here to get local women pregnant and stick them with the responsibility of raising (sometimes 5 different kids with 5 different baby daddys)...it's just sad to see this decline in Duluth because it almost cements the future here. Who wants to invest in a city like this? At least in Minneapolis you have a definite track of wealth coming in and things happening. Not so in Duluth. We are going from a quaint Great Lakes community to an urban dump and a place for Illinois felons to run away from 'three strikes' convictions.

Minneapolis is veryyyy affordable
go 2 st paul 4 a small city
Twin Cities has the best of both worlds