Minnesota Public Radio reports a 30,000-square-foot proposed development in Grand Marais seeks to replace three businesses that were destroyed by fire in 2020. Plans for the project include a restaurant, bar and retail space on the ground floor. The second floor would have 10 short-term rental units and an event center with a rooftop courtyard.
Roger J. Reinert was officially sworn in today as Duluth’s mayor during an inauguration ceremony at Duluth City Hall. City leadership and staff, community members and various elected officials gathered at noon in the first-floor rotunda to mark the occasion.
Bid farewell to 2023 with this edition of the PDD Quiz, which looks back on headlines and happenings from the past year.
The next PDD quiz will preview 2024’s coming attractions; it comes your way on Jan. 14. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Jan. 10.
Silver Bay, a city on the shore of Lake Superior about 50 miles northeast of Duluth, is planning for the second-largest investment project in its history. Minnesota Public Radio reports the nearly $25-million plan includes “a mixture of townhomes, vacation rentals, and seven residential lots, along with an event center.”
Dan Lefebvre at Burger Paradox
Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood has burgeoned with new businesses of late. Three new restaurants opened there in 2023, including Bali Asian Cuisine, Burger Paradox and Oasis del Norte. A fourth, Ritual Salad, is slated to open in early 2024.
The Sunshine Café in West Duluth closed at the outset of the pandemic in March 2020. Owners announced this year it will not reopen. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)
One of Duluth’s most significant restaurant closures of 2023 technically happened in 2020. The Sunshine Café closed more than three years ago as COVID-19 swept the country. What was considered a temporary closure at the time was finally announced as permanent in September 2023.
The Twin Ports restaurant scene has stabilized and grown as the pandemic has wound down, but the closure of the beloved diner at 5719 Grand Ave. in West Duluth can be seen as evidence the coronavirus fallout lingers. The Sunshine Café had been a neighborhood gathering place for more than three decades.
Looking down Fifth Avenue West toward Duluth’s Spalding Hotel in 1889. University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
A few weeks ago, David Beard wrote a post on the future of the plaza next to the Ordean Building, noting plans for it to be sold to a private developer in conjunction with a future housing project. I recently wrote a rather long post about Gunnar Birkerts, the architect of the Duluth Public Library, and because his firm also designed the plaza, I ended up with enough information about this project that I thought it might be worthy of a follow-up post on the history of the Fifth Avenue Mall, a name so forgotten that a 2015 Perfect Duluth Day post referencing the mall clarifies that the word ‘mall’ as used here is “not about a shopping mall, but instead something like the decorative median with trees that stands in the middle of the avenue today.”
As a two-time Duluth city councilor, now in my final year of service, one of my goals is to make city government more accessible, or at least help citizens become more informed. I figure there are many Duluthians who would like some simple answers to some simple questions. I learned in school that if there is something you don’t understand it’s likely there are many others who feel the same way. Hence the idea of the Duluth Mailbag column.
I won’t divulge who is asking the questions, but I’ll answer them in this format about once a month. Feel free to put a question in the comments for next month’s “Duluth Mailbag” or tweet me via @Hobbs_Duluth or email me at hobbsforduluth @ gmail.com.
Also, if you want to have a longer conversation, you can sign up for a 45-minute cup of coffee through my 100 Cups of Coffee project.
OK, here we go!
The Duluth News Tribune reports Britney and Reilly Brennan are the new owners of the Inn on Gitche Gumee, a destination hotel and cottage on the shore of Lake Superior at the northeast edge of Duluth.
Shake off the tryptophan hangover and get your brain in gear with this month’s current affairs quiz.
A holiday-themed quiz skiis your way on Dec. 17. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Dec. 12.
Park Hill Cemetery is located off Vermillion Road in the Morley Heights neighborhood of Duluth. The Park Hill Cemetery Association is selling 52-acres of excess property on its northern edge to the city of Duluth. The property will remain natural. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)
A rugged chunk of deep forest in a remote northeast corner of Duluth has been secured for preservation and ongoing trail use after city officials agreed to buy the property, which was reserved for cemetery space more than 100 years ago.
With 34 of 34 precincts reporting, here are the results of Duluth’s municipal election.
Duluth Mayor
Roger Reinert – 17,518
Emily Larson – 11,716
Write in – 61
A building maintenance worker on a telescoping boom lift was pinned to the exterior of the Winthrop Building at 325 W. First St. in Downtown Duluth today. The brick sidewalk in front of the building collapsed under two of the boom lift’s four tires, causing the boom to shift, pinning the worker to the building under the weight of the boom. The lift tipped into a vault that extends under the sidewalk.
Duluth’s Municipal General Election is on Tuesday, Nov. 7. The sample ballot above includes races in Aurora and the Town of White, along with school district races in Mountain Iron-Buhl (ISD #712) and Nett Lake (ISD #707). Duluthians won’t see those races on their ballots, and the city council and school board races on Duluth ballots vary by precinct.
Test your knowledge of October 2023 headlines with this edition of the PDD quiz.
Batten down the hatches for next month’s maritime-themed PDD quiz, which is set to make port on Nov. 12. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Nov. 8.
