Duluth Mayor Emily Larson on Thursday is expected to announce the Love Your Block mini-grant recipients for the remainder of 2023.
The Love Your Block program supplies small mini-grants to support resident-led projects that reduce blight in the Lincoln Park and Central Hillside Neighborhoods.
Love Your Block is part of a rich tapestry of current efforts by agencies, organizations and individuals to improve the health, safety, and quality of life for all Duluthians.
The question is no longer simply whether Roger Reinert deserves another term. The question is whether Duluth believes it is on the path it wants — and if not, who has the discipline, clarity and courage to alter it. November 2027 will deliver the verdict. The work of deciding it begins now.
This time, the leverage isn’t casino revenue. It’s downtown frustration — visible poverty, safety complaints, business dissatisfaction and the persistent sense that downtown Duluth has not lived up to decades of promises.
The City of Duluth now spends roughly $1 of every $7 in the general fund on debt service. That’s money that can’t pave streets, fund libraries, or expand housing programs. And yet the answer to each new challenge is the same: another bond.
"As with any wild animal, we want to remind the community that you should exercise caution in their presence and never approach them." -- Duluth Police Department
If tourism funding is now driven by measurable return, then measurement should not stop at the application stage. Duluth should see which organizations applied, which received funding, how proposals scored against criteria, what outcomes were promised and what results were delivered one year later.
For now, the political formula in Minnesota’s 8th District remains remarkably consistent. Duluth votes. The Iron Range votes. Then the rest of northern Minnesota votes. And the rest of northern Minnesota is usually enough.
If Kirill Kaprizov ever gets a true sniper riding shotgun -- Brock Boeser? -- the rest of the Western Conference might suddenly discover something Minnesota fans have suspected for a while now. The Wild are closer than they look.
Duluth and St. Louis County are not asking for luxury investments. They are asking for help maintaining systems — water treatment plants, shoreline protection, waste management infrastructure — whose costs exceed what local taxpayers alone can reasonably sustain.
