I went there Saturday for a wedding reception. Really cool. I hope they can make it work.

Does anybody know if the brewery/brewpub portion of the business was scrapped?

Sounds like a great place to check out.

Gushing about a guy who had a lien placed on him for not paying the workers and then borrowed half a million DEDA bucks to get by places the bar pretty low for a renaissance man.

That poorly designed ice arena is up to 19 million. He donated that space so the state, city and school district could scrape together the money for hockey so then he could open his pizza and burger joint.

Yes he's an innovative dreamer; let's hope he's successful for the sake of the West End and so he can follow through on his interesting plans to redevelop the LaFarge Cement Terminal.

I wish I would have had a chance to skate the Clyde skatepark.  From what I've heard, it sounded like a small group rippers had some massive ramps. Anyone w/ pictures or stories to share?

LaFarge Cement Terminal: is that next to Bayfront?

Beautiful does not make for a good arena. No goal judge boxes, hard to find lavoratories for the young skaters, increasing assessments, donated artificial turf not available for other sports, tight corners, bad sight lines for spectators, ice not too good, no use of newer green technology for the cooling system.

Of course the Link high end condo extravaganza was excessive. Also a decade late. 

But really the fact this business man needed more money and couldn't pay workers must be stated, not glossed over. 

Put up some good industry, like a wind turbine plant, for the working poor and middle class in town to make some decent money. That would be progress.  Attract something for Duluthians to make money rather than spend money.

I don't necessarily disagree with your assessment, but the tone and tenor of the argument is starting to get a little "News-Tribuney," if I might be allowed the invention of a new word.

Malacious is quite an overstatement but perhaps if information is not convenient then it may seem so. Perhaps by trying to insert some caution to the swooning that goes on in this city every time someone plops up a restaurant struck a wrong chord.

Some just don't get excited about it. Don't see it as progress. Will save the pom-poms for real industry, small business that create jobs with livable wages.

TimK the exasperation with nothing new, same old same old is where tone came from. But do like the News-Tribuney.

Duluth can do better. Find something cutting edge, innovative.

And fuck publicly subsidized sports.

$60 (or $80 or whatever) million from the state for a bigger hockey rink at the DECC, but not the $16 million needed to prevent poop from flowing into the Lake would be a good target. Nice priorities.

The state also kicked in clean-up money at Heritage site.

The three high school hockey teams shared the DECC facilities for years. And even with their infamous Red Plan underway cutting down to two school teams they gave money to build the arena as well as expensive ice time payments.  But hey, with them threatening a 4-day school week maybe they can practice more.

The city who can't keep open libraries or repair a collapsed roof at a park pavilion gave money. Gotta add in the Holiday Station they bought out when Kroc was on the table. Grants were received for the Heritage.

But those other private donors were fed stats from a 1999 UMD study about hockey in the area. After the thing was done then the DNT published the well-known fact that hockey participation was down, like 33%. Fewer games are being played. Fewer skaters to support and sustain it.

All the kids need is a decent place to play hockey, not a Taj Mahal.

Checked out the new restaurant this evening. It is a cool space, airy and sunny. The only bummer is lots of TVs in the sit-down restaurant/bar section upstairs. But none in the downstairs.  

The food we had was pretty darn good. A terrific and very large salad for $6.50, and a good but not great pizza. The crust was very good, the sauce was uninspired, and the olives were those rubbery things you get in a can.

I hope they'll add a veggie hoagie to the menu. Currently all of the sandwiches have meat.

LOL ... Slipper Bums. I take it Jim means trustafarians.

I haven't had a chance to make it over to Clyde, but it'll happen when finances and a sitter coincide ... especially if there's music involved.

Secret Service could take a few hints from these guys.