Howie: Downtown Duluth won’t revive until it faces its hardest truth
Downtown won’t be saved by consultants, binders or cheerleaders. It will be saved when Duluth faces its most challenging problem — the needles, the psychotic breaks, the encampments in doorways — and chooses to act rather than avert its eyes.
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Howie: Fix downtown before you try to sell it
You can’t sell people on “vibrancy” if they don’t feel safe walking to their cars. You can’t advertise “connection” when the skywalks are dark and half-locked. You can’t preach “momentum” when storefronts still sit empty after a decade of ribbon cuttings.
Howie: Lot D optics in motion
Duluth’s short-term goal is tactical — keep Inland’s exclusivity alive, hit the paperwork milestones, and convince the Legislature to fund the $10.85 million in site-prep money the city calls the key that unlocks $250 million in private investment.
Howie: Downtown Duluth embraces for another long winter
You can’t police despair. You can shuffle people from doorway to doorway, but that’s optics, not safety. The folks drifting between shelters and liquor stores aren’t statistics.
Howie: Essentia’s tower is the beating heart of a rebuilding downtown
The Benedictine Sisters weren’t chasing miracles — they were building them. Standing on Superior Street at sunrise and looking east toward that glass tower, you can still hear their rhythm beneath the city’s heartbeat. The heart of downtown is beating again. And it carries a Benedictine rhythm.
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City of Duluth, Minnesota Power issue Wednesday morning update on snow operations
DULUTH, Minn. — Duluth residents woke up Wednesday to widely varying snow totals, with depths ranging from about four inches of compacted snow to more than ten inches in areas where drifting occurred. The heaviest snowfall came during the early morning hours. Snow continued moving east by daybreak, and the National
Obit: Bill Minter
It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, and grandfather, William “Bill” Minter who left us on November 22, 2025. He was a man whose life was centered on love, especially for his family, and whose greatest joy was being a grandfather. Nothing
Howie's preseason Minnesota Top 20 boys hockey ranking
1. Moorhead 2. Hill-Murray 3. Rogers 4. Hibbing/Chisholm 5. St. Thomas Academy 6. Maple Grove 7. Holy Angels 8. Minnetonka 9. Hermantown 10. Warroad 11. Wayzata 12. East Grand Forks 13. Rosemount 14. Edina 15. Sartell 16. Shakopee 17. Cretin-Derham Hall 18. Rock Ridge 19. Mahtomedi 20. Benilde-St. Margaret’
Obit: Thomas Griffin
Tom always said, “We know not the hour nor the day,” but the day finally came for him after a lengthy journey with colon cancer. If you met Tom and heard about his life, you would inevitably end up saying, “You can’t make this up!” Tom was born accidentally