Howie's column is powered by Lyric Kitchen · Bar.
IF YOU WANT TO understand Duluth in 2025 — not as a talking point, not as a budget spreadsheet, but as a living, breathing community, start at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.
On any given day throughout the year, it tells you everything you need to know.
Hockey fans wrapped in maroon and gold filing into Amsoil Arena to watch UMD Bulldogs men's and women's hockey. A different crowd – same building but in the summertime – turning out for Minnesota Monsters. Families in town for a convention who end up staying an extra night. Graduations, trade shows, concerts, civic celebrations. And when summer hits, the crowd flows naturally across the avenue to Bayfront Festival Park, now part of the same operational ecosystem.
That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because someone understands what the center actually is.
That’s why DECC Executive Director Dan Hartman is our 2025 Person of the Year.
In a city that spends a lot of time arguing about vision, Hartman has quietly been practicing it.
The DECC is no longer just a convention center or two arenas. Under Hartman’s leadership, it has become the region’s living room — the rare neutral space where Duluth and the Northland still come together without qualifiers or ideological labels. You don’t have to agree on politics, taxes or the future of downtown to sit in the same seat, cheer for the same goal or sing along at the same concert.
That kind of civic gravity matters more than most people realize.
Hartman’s background explains a lot. Before taking over the DECC, he ran Glensheen Mansion, one of Minnesota’s most treasured historic sites. It’s a job that requires reverence for legacy without suffocating it — protecting history while keeping it alive and relevant. Glensheen didn’t just survive on his watch; it thrived.
Earlier still, Hartman served on the Duluth City Council. That experience matters, too. It gave him a working understanding of how decisions ripple outward — into neighborhoods, budgets, expectations and public trust. He knows how cities work, how they stall, and how they move forward. That blend of stewardship and public accountability shows up every day in how the DECC is run.
What separates Hartman, though, is not just competence and high character. It’s ambition — the right kind.
The DECC isn’t playing defense. It’s not settling for whatever tours happen to pass through. Under Hartman, Duluth is actively competing for major national concerts and large-scale events that once skipped the city entirely. Those shows don’t just fill seats; they fill hotel rooms, restaurants and parking ramps. They inject life into downtown nights that would otherwise go dark.
That’s vision with an economic spine.
At a time when Duluth’s economic reality leans heavily on tourism, the DECC has become one of the city’s most reliable engines. Conventions bring first-time visitors. Concerts bring repeat ones. Sports bring loyalty and tradition. And Bayfront Festival Park gives the entire operation a front porch overlooking Lake Superior that few cities can match.
Just as important, the DECC has done all this without losing its local soul. Bulldogs hockey still feels like Bulldogs hockey. Community events still feel like they belong to the community. The DECC buildings haven’t become slick or detached. They have become welcoming, functional and confident.
That balance is harder than it looks.
In 2025, Duluth has been wrestling with big questions — about affordability, taxes, trust and the future of downtown. Not every institution has answered those questions well. The DECC, however, has quietly shown what effective stewardship looks like: run the asset well, respect the public, adapt without panic, and aim higher than expected.
Naming Hartman as Person of the Year isn’t about personality. It’s about results.
It’s about recognizing that cities don’t hold together on speeches alone. They hold together in shared spaces — places where people still gather, still celebrate, still recognize themselves as part of something larger.
In 2025, the DECC became that place. And Hartman made sure it did.
