But is the Two Harbors Frolic a Free-for-All Trotting Event?

Smoosh racing and boot hockey. What I like is the city actually building a sledding hill for the weekend. Imagine that in today's world. Around 1 p.m, it will be Chairman Rick Goutermount vs. Mayor Randy Bolen: It's being billed as "Two planks and some flanks, a smooshy humdinger in Two Harbors."

Heysme:  There was an annual winter festival with a volunteer-built sledding hill at Memorial Park in West Duluth in the 2000ish range.  I am drawing only on memory since I can't find a record of it anywhere online.  

Leif Ericson Park is now a profoundly UNDER used gem of a park.  Bayfront has it's fantastic uses, (as in Bentleyville, bluesfest,) but you can't beat the intimacy, natural amphitheater, and ecological grandeur of Leif Ericson for events with crowds of say, a couple hundred to a thousand.  I'd love to see this come back with Leif Ericson as a base and the lake as the playground.  It won't though.  Too many people whine about not enough parking.  As shallow as that sounds, its true.  Very generally speaking, people are obsessed with parking in this town.  If it's not free and with in a hundred yards, they're probably not coming.  

One other Leif Ericson blunder?  When the park was redone in the 80s-90s along with the freeway expansion, the decision makers at the time NEGLECTED to bring plumbing into the main green space of the park.  So the nearest public bathroom, is in the Rose Garden.  They saved a lot of money with that move, I'm sure, and they also probably avoided some controversy about where and how to build a bathroom/concession area among so many old-growth trees. But over the long term it was an unfortunate strategic decision.  

If anyone is interested, the Project for Public Spaces has lots of resources on how to design public spaces and to use events (like the Winter Fest that Barrett mentioned) to STRENGTHEN communities and improve quality of life, not to mention public health: http://www.pps.org/