I'm proud to call Central Hillside my home.  I live, work, and play in this neighborhood, and wouldn't choose to be any other place in this city.  The hillside is colorful and alive with character.

For what it is worth, when we bought our first home, here in Rochester, we chose to buy a home in, what I affectionately call, our ghetto down here.

Yes...ghettos are created, largely by white flight, and poor community planning.

Sorry I stirred the pot.

So, what ARE the city and businesses planning?  Does SMDC own the properties across the street from their building on 4th Street?  Those buildings really look creepy. How much of the HIllside do they own? Do they plan to pave over any more lots? Why are they allowed to continue to pave over lots without keeping them nicely landscaped? Central and East Hillside are the most sustainable neighborhoods in the city in the fact that shopping and services are accessible by foot or bus.

Landlords and tenant both need to hold up their end of the bargain. Landlords need to tell the tenants what is expected of them - set out the rules and guidelines.  People tend to rise to the level that is expected of them, or the fall to what they see around them when they see no one else cares.

I typically don't use the word 'ghetto' due to the association with the hollocaust, but many areas of duluth's central hillside ( as well as the neighborhood in which I currently live) could be catagorized as slum neighborhoods.

Everybody take a deep breath.

We Duluthians are a proud bunch, Lojasmo, and that sentiment is justified. Hillside may have it's cons, just as all neighborhoods, but every area in Duluth is an essential part of our larger community.

If you really didn't like our city, then I'm glad you left. We need citizens that are willing to take care of Duluth and appreciate it for everything it has to offer.

There are very few shootings, actually. When a shooting does occur, it definitely makes the news.

I would say the most prominent shooting this year was the young man shot by an officer out west. Shootings that do take place are rarely random.

There are no slums in Duluth.

There are no ghettos in Duluth.

I have to assume that those who assert such falsehoods:

a. Have never lived in a real city
b. Believe that neighborhoods that are populated by non-whites are automatically ghettos

This whole "SMDC employees are afraid to..." walk the 2 or 3 blocks to the Co-op thing makes me chuckle deeply in my loins.

Duluth is ever-hilarious. And I love it.

I've lived all over the United States, including Denver, Seattle, Portland, Dallas, Chicago, and for the past two years, Duluth. 

I have also toured the greater part of Western, and more relevant to this conversation, Eastern Europe.

Anyone under the impression that Duluth has anything remotely resembling a "ghetto" or for that sake, "traffic," is severely uninformed. 

If you're afraid of living among non-white people - if you're afraid of living among poor people - then Central Hillside is not for you. 

Otherwise it's pretty rad, and compared to most cities, ridiculously cheap place to live, in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  

I wouldn't trade my lake view for anything, occasional fireworks (not gunshots) or not.

Also have to second that denser populations in any neighborhood make crime stats APPEAR higher.

Per person. There's more people here, duh.

Good luck in the ghettos of Rochester, MN.  

That sounds real rough.

A year or so ago the Duluth News Tribune ran an article with proof that the Central Hillside is dangerous.

The proof?  A Pawn Shop had been broken into twice in the last eighteen years.

My parents looked very stern and concerned after reading the article.

That was HILARIOUS.  

Reminded me of why I love Duluth.

And of why I hate Duluth.

Look, folks, the definition of "slum" is, according to the United Nations, "a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure."

According to the UN-HABITAT press release, "The term has traditionally referred to housing areas that were once relatively affluent but which deteriorated as the original dwellers moved on to newer and better parts of the city."

This description fits many areas within the Central Hillside, and, indeed, the Central Hillside as a whole, when compared to the entirety of Duluth proper (and the greater Duluth area).

I still consider myself a Duluthian, though I have now lived nearly half my life away.  In fact, when my son is done with high school, it is somewhat likely that we will move back ... certainly we will not stay in Rochester, which is a social and cultural wasteland.

Sorry I caused a squid-ink of butt hurt here.  Facts are facts, though:  Duluth has a higher crime rate, and higher unemployment than the rest of the state, and the Central Hillside is at least not inconsistent with the UN's definition of "slum" though, of course, there can be no real comparison to the slums of Mumbai, or the ghettos of Venice.

So what is this about? Is it a great preponderance of rural people who just don't know what to make of a place where people are actually out on the street and talking to each other--not always a tip of the hat, no, but still...? Run down? Anyone seen some of the rural places out there in the hinterlands? If Central Hillside is a ghetto due to its rundown buildings and poverty, then I declare the whole Iron Range to be a ghetto. 

But see, it ain't about that. It's about color, if you ask me. People aren't afraid of living near poverty until it looks different from theirs.) 

I truly can't imagine how someone could be afraid to walk to the Co-op from SMDC unless they have a weird fear of Teh Brown Folk... It just seems inexplicable. 

Gunshots? Anyone who's ever lived in a city knows that most of what outsiders think of as gunshots are fireworks. Like easily 90+ percent. I've heard way more gunshots when I've stayed in the middle of rural farms, since, you know--them people have more guns and have the space to shoot at cans and stuff.

Whenever I hear someone talking about "the ghetto" in Duluth, I want to teleport them to East St. Louis, or the South Side of Chicago. Show them what a ghetto looks like and feels like. Walk the length of one there. (I actually think *everyone* should do this. You won't get shot, I promise.)

If it was just about the fear of street drunks/meth addicts, I guess I understand. But, isn't that usually just about knowing how to handle yourself in a place where people gather? There have always been impaired people on the street, in every place there's been a downtown, since the beginning of time. So as adult persons, we gotta know how to navigate those sorts of situations. It's distressing to me that so many people find that such a fearful thing that they avoid a whole neighborhood. 

There just aren't that many people stumbling around asking you for money or wanting to rob you. Truly there aren't. It's not that they don't exist--it's just that our paranoia is way over-indulged. I'm sorry, but this has to be the result of American overdose on 24 hr news stations. 

Here's my made-up term of the day: the Suburbanification of America.

I used to work at SMDC and knew a lot of those people who spoke of being afraid. They're mostly from the outskirts of Duluth or the surrounding little towns in the middle of nowhere. They're afraid of downtown too. Yeah, they were all white and racists of various degrees.

From Dictionary.com

Slum: -noun 1.Often, slums. a thickly populated, run-down, squalid part of a city, inhabited by poor people. 2. any squalid, run-down place to live.

Ghetto -noun, plural -tos, -toes. 1. a section of a city, esp. a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social or economic restrictions, pressures, or hardships. 2. (formerly, in most European countries) a section of a city in which all Jews were required to live. 3. a section predominantly inhabited by Jews. 4. any mode of living, working, etc., that results from stereotyping or biased treatment: job ghettos for women; ghettos for the elderly.

So back to Marjora Carter ... Ghettos don't just happen. They are planned. What is the plan for these neighborhoods?

The fact is that there are blighted properties in the Hillside. The Hillside is a mix of beautiful views and ugly concrete. Fun old, architecture and run down buildings. When little inconsequential laws are not enforced, this gives people the feeling that no one cares anyway, so why not litter, why not just let your property sit with overgrown grass, or why bother fixing up your house or rental property, it's just the Hillside?

We need to plan a beautiful, livable Hillside. When trees on the boulevard are chopped down due to disease or old age, they need to be replaced. Currently they are not. 

When a new store is built, it needs to have attractive landscaping. What is the plan for the new Walgreens to be built at 12 Ave. E. and Superior? There are over 30 trees that will come down in that block. Will they be replaced?  What will the parking lot look like. Will it look like the parking lot at the current Walgreens?

 When people litter or put too much garbage out in bags that are ripped open by skunks, raccoons and birds, they need to be called on to clean it up, or call the cops. You might think those are little things, but they show whether or not you care. 

People will rise or lower to the level of expectation.

I walk through the Central Hillside at all hours of the night.

In Duluth "ghetto" is code word for the the dreaded N-Word.

@Nathan Amundson, almost every time I saw somebody accosted/threatened involved white (caucasian) people, not blacks (usually white guys and women between age 18-40).

I can recall only one incident when I wore a blue (patterned) bandanna that some black people gave me creepy stares even though the rest of my attire was plain jane.  I especially like the one a guy gave me trying to lock eyes with me as I got off the bus (about 15 full seconds of glare; even got a "love tap" from the shoulder).

But I agree with most other people, it's pretty trivial compared to other cities.  It's simply the area is not like other spots in Duluth.

Ghetto is code word for the dreaded n-word. That does not negate the fact that most of the big time drug houses in my neighborhood are franchises of Chicago GD or VL or whatever brain damaged organizations they come up with to sell their terrible drugs. The house that makes my life living hell is owned by Scott Vesterstein and managed by Ship Rock. Some days it's like watching an episode of the Wire looking out my front window. Well I guess there would be a cop or two in an episode of the Wire.  

Also, fuck SMDC.

For what it's worth, as a 40-something female, I have and will walk anywhere in the Hillside, solo, at any hour of day or night. My radar might be heightened at night, and I definitely pay attention to my surroundings and who else is on the street with me, but I would not hesitate to do so. 

Muggings happen. I've known people who've been mugged. This does not deter me from living my life and going where I want to go. Drunk or drugged up people aggressively asking me for money earn a "Get the FUCK away from me!!" 

It's really that simple.

Cheers hbh and C-freak. It's perplexing to see people limit their own freedom and mobility due to their irrational perceptions of danger.

As C-Freak knows, I'm much more wary of going to a Tea Party event or a Sarah Palin/Michele Bachmann rally than I am walking around the Hillside. I've walked through the Hillside between my home and downtown many times and never, never have had a problem. In fact, I once parked a block or two from SMDC's E.R. in the middle of the night and didn't think twice about it. 

 dbrewing and hbh are right: it's all about "the other" living in that neighborhood. 

Just seems ironic that the neighborhood with the greatest lake views in town has this bad rap. I love my neighborhood, but if I had to, I'd live in the Hillside any day over suburban Woodland or other areas far from the Lake.

This is a GREAT thread by the way, with a lot of thoughtful comments.

??????What and odd thing to say??????!!!!!

You want us to predict the future.

Sounds like you are trolling trying to bait someone to bite.

Yes, if you park you big, fancy car in the Hillside people will bash in your windows and steal you fancy radio. Better not enter. Stay in your little rural town. The big city is too scary for you.


I have a friend who has a older model, modest vehicle car and lives in Lakeside. He had his window bashed and CDs stolen. A year previously his neighbor across the street had his motor stolen off his boat.

Hmmmm.....Moral of the story? Park in a garage.

That is my point, so it's a ghetto. Not racisim, just a fact. Lincoln Park is much the same. Stop pretending they are anything else. It's not a bad or good thing, just what is.

It's been the same for over 30 years.

You know what? I'm going to have to disagree with 'Zra here, and that could be a first.  He agreed (apparently) with Wes Scott who said if he parks his nice SUV outside in the Hillside it would get broken into "That is a given plan and simple." 

I have lived in the hillside for over 8 years now and parked outside every night and I have had my car broken into ... once.  Now, that really sucked when that happen and I was enraged.  But it was one time in 8 years.  Hardly a given.  In fact, by my reckoning those odds would be 2900 to one that your car WON'T get broken into.

@ goose:

Sarcasm. Sorry.

I've lived in "ghettos" far more dangerous than the Hillside.

The Hillside isn't ghetto. 
The Hillside isn't ghetto.
The Hillside isn't ghetto.

South Minneapolis. Ghetto.
Central District in Seattle. Ghetto.
Division St in Tacoma. Ghetto.
Midway/Frogtown in St Paul. Ghetto.

Spend a week or two going toe to toe with drug dealers and prostitutes in any one of these other neighborhoods and then tell me that the Hillside is ghetto.

The Hillside is. not. ghetto.

Perhaps there is a perception of it being so coming from people who've never really experienced what a ghetto really is. If I grew up in a city of 5,000 and moved here, then I might possibly think that the Hillside is the worst place on the planet ... but I know better.

The Hillside is. not. ghetto.

Oh boy. Zra, gotta get yer goose, here. 

MPLS doesn't have any ghettos, either. Even the Northside is good...just tiny pockets (a couple of houses here and there, really) that are bad spots, which bleed gunshots into the neighborhood. There is nowhere that is block upon block of neglected housing, rampant blight, etc.

As for South MPLS, it actually encompasses over a dozen neighborhoods (from Lowry Hill - clearly not a ghetto, to Longfellow and beyond - and mos def not ghettos. Sure, there are pockets (32nd and Bloomington? 22nd and Elliot?) that aren't the greatest, but, again, no ghetto.

K, I go fly now.

You're probably right, vicarious. 

It's actually been a good decade since I've spent any time at all in Minneapolis. I think what I was trying to say is that if folks up here think the Hillside is a ghetto, then places like I mentioned, including S. Mpls (Bloom Lake comes to mind) would have them curled up in the fetal position whimpering for mommy.

Ghetto-by-comparison?

I'm glad to know that once-blighted neighborhoods in the cities are finally starting to come around.

I'm not really sure what to make of all of this.  Calling Hillside a ghetto seems silly.  Being proud to live in Hillside seems silly, too.  The only neighborhoods I've ever lived in where residents claimed "pride" were neighborhoods trying to fight negative perception -- to make outsiders see them more positively, to make insiders groom their lawns and pick up their trash.  No one in Congdon wants "Congdon Pride" T-Shirts.

To call the perception of Hillside as unsafe racially motivated seems silly because there are so few nonwhites anywhere in Duluth.  Even Hillside must be majority white, no?  And in Milwaukee, at least, the "unsafe" neighborhoods were seen as "unsafe" by people of all races.  The markers of an unsafe neighborhood were not rooted in race; they were rooted in poverty and the [real or perceived] political powerlessness that comes from poverty.

My spouse, who grew up in rural Missouri, is freaked out by housing density in Duluth (our place is 18 feet from our neighbor's).  In Milwaukee, as in the Hillside, I could have crawled out my window and into the window of my neighbor's place -- the space between houses was barely a catwalk.  Her visceral response to that kind of population density is no more racist than my own feelings of vulnerability when we drive through rural Missouri (as in space, in rural Missouri, no one can hear you scream -- they live too far away).  Calling her response racist or small town is dismissive without actually doing anything useful.  

This whole thread seems like more heat than light.  Here's what I want:  I want to know how do we sustain one of the few, genuine, urban areas of Duluth (where life without a car is possible, where bus service is actually convenient) without succumbing to gentrification that will displace the population?  $200,000 condos on 4th don't "fix" the neighborhood;  they draw the inequalities into relief. 

Planting trees:  I'm on board with that.  Orchards?  Check.  I note the new tattoo shop on 6th -- how do we fill other empty storefronts?  What else?  I'll vote for any referendum you suggest.  I'll pester my councilor to align with any proposal you endorse that helps us "unplan" the aspects of Hillside life that can be improved -- that remove the markers of poverty that define the "unsafe" neighborhood.  

Instead of arguing about perceptions, let's debate courses of action.

One orchard, financed by NHS, three individuals and several businesses who decided to donate the whole set of trees because they know/liked the individuals involved. I'm not bad-mouthing any of this (yes, lots of 20-year-olds worked on it) but it is ironic that there is so much willingness lurking unseen. Sometimes it takes a few, sometimes a village, to make an improvement which I feel has more to do with safe food sources than development.  The Hillside could be more characterized as "badly not living up to its huge potential," which should not include the least bit rundown.

Oops missed this post somehow last fall.

Lots of Duluth does look run down and there is garbage everywhere, but it's still no where near as bad as Superior looking like it does, or as bad as Thunder Bay. Gross dilapidated filthy cities those.

I walk from Chester Park to Downtown to work many days for the past few years, greeting people in my path, taking various routes down the different streets, taking pics, both mornings and afternoons included, and even some evenings at/after dark. I've never felt unsafe in this neighbourhood/area.

I walked to and from Hillfest last year as well. 

I also regularly pick up cans along my routes there, and on 9th St in my walks. If I could carry more, there'd be a plethora of plastic bottles and cig boxes to pick up as well. Perhaps someone else can pull that duty.

I've long said that Duluth needs a monthly clean up day ( like on Sat or Sun so the week starts off nice), where everyone goes out on their block and picks up garbage and takes some pride in their neighbourhood. I usually do this Easter week every year, as it's spring too, and I like my block clean, even though my neighbours can be pigs letting refuse fall from their cars or stray stuff from their overflowing garbage bins.

The city pays people to keep downtown clean. Citizens seem to have no incentive or initiative to keep their own areas clean, not even for their own eyes, families, children, or neighbours. The blow-ins make quite a bit of mess as well. No one is held accountable or seems to care.

Time to start carrying grocery bags on the daily walks. Pick up those stray mittens! put 'em on the fence on the Lakewalk! It's up to us to keep our neighborhoods clean.