News and Current Affairs Posts

Why escape rooms didn’t last long in Duluth

Jan 22, 2024 No Comments

Solve Entertainment launched Duluth’s first escape room on Nov. 28, 2015 with a game called “Silent Night.” Pictured here is the first team to play. (Photo via Solve Enterntainment’s Facebook page.)

Duluth was right in step with the escape-room trend when it began to boom across the United States eight years ago. The city’s first escape room opened two days after Thanksgiving 2015. By the next summer, a second had opened. Both saw solid booking numbers early on and both made it through the pandemic, but by early 2022 both were out of business.

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News and Current Affairs

Mayor Reinert puts hold on Duluth library plan

Jan 20, 2024 No Comments

Northern News Now reports Duluth Mayor Roger Reinert is asking city councilors to rethink future plans for the Duluth Public Library.


News and Current Affairs

PDD Quiz: 2024 Coming Attractions

Jan 14, 2024 No Comments

Take a peek into the future with this week’s quiz, which previews anticipated events and openings of 2024.

The next PDD quiz will review headlines from Jan. 2024; it comes your way on Jan. 28. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Jan. 25.

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Events, News and Current Affairs

Duluth Art Institute continuing search for new space

Jan 10, 2024 No Comments

The Duluth News Tribune reports the nonprofit Duluth Art Institute is searching for a new home as it prepares to leave the St. Louis County Depot, where it has had galleries and workspace since 1975.


Art, News and Current Affairs

Mixed-use development planned for downtown Grand Marais

Jan 05, 2024 2 Comments

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.


News and Current Affairs

Roger Reinert sworn in as mayor of Duluth

Jan 02, 2024 No Comments

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.

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News and Current Affairs, Politics

PDD Quiz: 2023 in Review

Dec 31, 2023 No Comments

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.

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News and Current Affairs

About 50 housing units planned for Silver Bay development

Dec 26, 2023 No Comments

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.”


News and Current Affairs

Trifecta of restaurants opened in Duluth’s Lincoln Park in 2023

Dec 22, 2023 No Comments
Dan Lefebvre standing in the colorful bar setting at Burger Paradox

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.

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News and Current Affairs, Restaurants , , , ,

Sunshine Café leads the list of 2023 restaurant casualties

Dec 22, 2023 1 Comment

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.

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News and Current Affairs, Restaurants

The Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall (and Rise and Fall?) of Downtown Duluth’s Fifth Avenue West

Dec 19, 2023 7 Comments

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.”

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History, News and Current Affairs , , ,

Duluth Mail Bag: Lower Taxes, Viewsheds and Roundabouts

Nov 30, 2023 1 Comment

Hobbs Mail BagAs 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!

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News and Current Affairs, Politics , , , ,

Duluth’s Inn on Gitche Gumee has new owners

Nov 28, 2023 No Comments

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.


News and Current Affairs

PDD Quiz: November 2023

Nov 26, 2023 No Comments

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.

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News and Current Affairs

Cemetery land sale preserves trails through Morley Heights and Woodland wilderness

Nov 15, 2023 3 Comments

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.

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News and Current Affairs