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Only in Duluth would we try to market a product before we fix it.
Every few years, we rebrand downtown like a soft drink. New tagline, new task force, same cracked sidewalks. This latest version — Imagine Downtown — looks sharp on paper, but here’s the truth nobody wants to print on a banner: activation is the last step, not the first.
The product is downtown itself. And right now, the product isn’t ready for sale.
Mayor Roger Reinert gets it.
“I want to thank everyone who was involved with development of the Imagine Downtown plan — especially Kristi Stokes and Downtown Duluth, and the folks with the MIG Consulting Group,” he said. “It’s helpful to have national experts bring their knowledge and experiences of what works, and what doesn’t, from across the country to Duluth.”
That perspective matters, but expertise alone can’t patch concrete or clean windows. Marketing 101 says it plain — a good sales pitch will kill a bad product. And for too long, Duluth has been running a marketing campaign instead of a maintenance plan.
Reinert knows downtown Duluth isn’t alone in the struggle.
“Duluth is not unique. Downtowns across the country have struggled post-pandemic,” he said. “But Duluth has a few significant advantages: we still have downtown shopping, retail, and restaurants. We have movies, music, and theater. We have professional, medical, and government services. None are at the levels they were, but they are an asset base many downtowns would love to have, and a foundation upon which we can build.”
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.
That’s not a branding problem — it’s a product problem. And at least this new plan seems to understand that.
Kristi Stokes, Downtown Duluth's executive director, who’s been in the trenches longer than most of the city’s consultants have lived here, is calling this phase exactly what it is: hard, coordinated work.
“The big move for the Quality of Life and Safety element was to bring all sides to the table to establish a collaborative approach to improving the downtown environment,” she said. “This means private property owners, business owners, social service providers, law enforcement, city and county leadership, Clean & Safe representatives, fire department and city/county attorneys' office.”
That’s not another committee — that’s a lineup. Stokes isn’t out giving pep talks; she’s dragging all the right players onto the ice and demanding they finally skate in the same direction.
Reinert echoed that spirit of action.
“The recently released plan (www.imaginedowntownduluth.com/) calls for multiple practical strategies,” he said. “These strategies highlight an important principle – take action. Whatever the smallest next step is.”
You don’t activate your way to safety. You build it. Patrols that stick. Lighting that works. Outreach that actually reaches people.
Reinert pointed to a few tangible examples: “You have seen the City leading on this principle. We have removed the blighted Kozy property, and are nearly done with the blighted Shoppers Ramp. We have also taken a more proactive stance with graffiti removal on City-owned property, and asking private property owners to join us. And soon, the City will share the results of the Skywalk Study undertaken earlier this year. We simply do not currently have the activity to maintain 90 blocks of street-level and three miles of skywalk.”
The product has to function before you advertise it. Until then, any “activation” is just lipstick on plywood.
Stokes says a full evaluation of the skywalk system is underway and that property owners are being surveyed.
“A comprehensive evaluation of the skywalk system is underway, and property owners have been asked to respond to a survey this week,” she said. “Additionally, the City of Duluth has provided some updates to the Development Code. They will be highlighting those updates, the new housing study as well as opportunities in the downtown during the Duluth Housing Strategies Conference on Friday, November 14.”
That’s how change starts — unglamorous, technical, steady. Fixing lighting, cleaning glass, updating codes. Not sexy, but essential. The kind of work that never trends on social media yet does more for downtown than a dozen pop-up markets ever will.
Want activation? Put people downtown. When residents fill upper floors and shop locally, you don’t need a festival to make it feel alive.
Reinert agrees the future hinges on housing.
“Something we now know that perhaps we didn’t just a few years ago is that the future of downtown is as our next residential neighborhood,” he said. “The Duluth area needs 9,000 new rental and for-purchase housing units by 2035 to meet both existing demand, as well as additional population growth. Our employers can’t hire because we don’t have the workforce, and we don’t have the workforce because we don’t have the housing.”
The new housing goals finally nod to that reality. Bring back small apartments, workforce housing, and mixed-use spaces. Get nurses, servers, and students living where they work. Then watch what happens — not because a consultant told us, but because people living somewhere is what makes it worth walking through.
Reinert said downtown offers room to make that vision real.
“Downtown presents an exceptional opportunity for as many as 1,500 new housing units,” he said. “So I’m especially excited about the recommendation in the Imagine Downtown plan to create a dedicated development corporation to lead downtown housing efforts. It’s exactly the kind of focused, sustained approach we need.”
Delivering those homes, he said, will change everything. “Delivering 1,500 new rental and for-purchase homes will bring more people downtown, strengthen our economy, and add vitality to the heart of our city,” said Reinert.
“We have also brought neighbors together in several areas of the downtown to discuss and create Good Neighbor Agreements,” Stokes said. “This has led to stronger relationships, better accountability and in many cases, new roles for neighbors to help neighbors.”
That’s the quiet rebuild Duluth actually needs — neighbors cleaning, communicating, and taking ownership. The stuff that doesn’t make headlines but changes everything.
“You’ll likely see some new activation on First Street yet this year, as well as early next year,” Stokes said.
And that’s fine — as long as we treat activation for what it is: the final polish. You don’t start with the parade; you end with it. Downtown Duluth has to earn the right to be marketed again.
Because if we skip the rebuilding and rush to sell, we’ll be right back where we’ve been for 30 years — tired slogans, fading optimism, and another “vision” gathering dust.
“There is much more work to be done and we welcome individuals who would like to be involved in implementation work,” Stokes said.
That’s the invitation worth accepting — the one that says, bring gloves, not pom-poms.
Downtown Duluth doesn’t need another marketing plan. It needs a product worth believing in. When it finally becomes that, the activation will write itself.
Until then, the best “imagination” is a broom, a lightbulb, and a working door lock.
