Over recent years I've written some opinion pieces for the DNT regarding Canal Park and decried the surfeit of surface parking lots. I conservatively pegged it at >50% but your map (thank you!) shows that it clearly exceeds that.  

Briefly, I think the warehouse motif of the district has been marred by pseudo-North Shore lodges (what are they doing in a post-industrial area?) that are themselves mostly cheaply constructed edifices with kitsch attributes tacked onto them. Further they form a "curtain" across the lakefront and their capacious parking lots set them back from the street inhibiting pedestrian activity in a place that should be all about walking 365/yr in all weather. 

Had it been redeveloped with high-density developments, Canal Park could have evolved with sheltered courtyards, alleys, etc. to encourage walking and then land could have been reserved along the lakeshore for open vistas. Canal Park Brewing did a marvelous job -- concrete form, brick, etc., but sprawling Hampton Inns, etc. should've been consigned to Proctor or Miller Hill.

Taken from my PDD post "Shoddy Construction"
.... Duluth has every reason to demand legacy architecture and top-notch planning. It is not elitist to require something better than the cookie-cutter plastic house.

Look at Canal Park if you want to see a travesty of urban planning. So much public expenditure went into making a waterfront plan that ensured a uniquely Duluth district – not one that tried to emulate New England or whatever.

Today, 50 percent of Canal Park is devoted to surface parking. The lakeshore is blighted by sprawling, pseudo northwoods-inspired motels that are totally incompatible with the warehouse fabric of the district.

The DeWitt-Seitz Marketplace stands as a fine example of gentrification among others. But instead of pursuing high density development with strict controls over building materials and design criteria, the City of Duluth and DEDA supported the influx of suburban motels that are more suitable to an Interstate cloverleaf than a post-industrial warehouse district.

Myriad opportunities to enhance Canal Park with a distinctive identity were lost. Instead of getting brick and stone edifices, pedestrian thoroughfares, sheltered courtyards and a sweeping view of Lake Superior, Duluth traded café culture and al fresco summertime dining, boutique hotels, city apartments and lofts, concealed and protective parking, studio spaces and a 24-hour neighborhood for a day-tripper’s paradise of tourist tat, windswept parking lots and roadside motels for transient visitors.

Is it any wonder it goes into hibernation in winter?

I really think this is my very own Custer’s Last Stand because as things are shaping up, the Bayfront along Railroad Street is going to be another circus.

This is the tourist market that Duluth is aiming for so what more can I say except that perhaps it’s not really my battle?