DULUTH — Let’s be blunt: we haven’t exactly been rolling in visionary leadership around these parts. Not since the John Fedo days, anyway, when Duluth swaggered like it actually mattered on the national stage. Most of our so-called community leaders since couldn’t market a fish fry, let alone dream up new industries that might carry this gritty old port into the next century.
So yeah, forgive me if I sound downright giddy watching Mayor Roger Reinert and DECC Executive Director Dan Hartman get busy rewriting the script. Finally — finally — we’ve got two leaders in key seats who think like entrepreneurs, not just caretakers. They’re not afraid to toss out the stale Duluth playbook that’s been dog-eared since the iron boom went bust.
Reinert’s sharp as they come — an officer in the Navy Reserve who knows how to navigate actual life-and-death stakes, with marketing chops honed on deck plates and strategy rooms, not just parade floats and ribbon cuttings. He’s got that calculated, steely calm of someone who’s stared down chaos and made a plan anyway.
Meanwhile, Hartman’s over there at the DECC doing triple duty: local historian, big-event rainmaker, and fearless schemer. The guy cut his teeth on the Duluth City Council before turning Glensheen into a marketing marvel, leveraging every spooky whisper in those creaky old halls into record-setting attendance and a fresh brand identity.
These two actually get it. They understand that you can’t keep taxing your way out of stagnation. You’ve gotta grow the pie, lure new dollars, tell a story about this place that resonates far beyond the Iron Range and Lake Avenue. They’re building partnerships, eyeing smart investments, thinking in decades instead of news cycles.
And let’s be honest: it’s about damn time.
Because while we’ve squeezed plenty out of the tourism sponge — bless the bachelor parties from Prior Lake dropping big coin at our brewpubs — there’s only so much juice left. Canal Park’s lovely, but you can only sell so many $14 craft cocktails to weekenders in “Take Me to the Lake” hoodies before you hit a ceiling.
Meanwhile, our local kids? The ones busting it through Denfeld, East, Marshall, Hermantown? They’d like a reason to stay beyond bartending gigs and the faint hope of a six-month construction season. If we’re serious about becoming more than Minneapolis’ quaint northern porch — the metro’s weekend lakefront sandbox — we’ve gotta think way, way bigger.
Why not chase data centers? We’ve got cool air, cheap water, solid infrastructure, and a power grid that’s getting greener every year. XMusk, Google, Apple, Microsoft — they’re all hunting for exactly that mix. If we can get tech suits to see beyond the Aerial Lift Bridge selfies and realize Duluth’s a prime climate-resilient site, we might start planting real corporate flags here.
Or what about finally treating Lake Superior like the world-class asset it is? Not just a backdrop for engagement photos, but a driver of serious science, tech, and policy. We could build freshwater research institutes here that anchor the global conversation around water scarcity. We could host Lake Superior Davos — freshwater summits where nerds in Steger mukluks hammer out billion-dollar deals over Bent Paddle IPAs, while snowmobiles cruise by on Harbor Drive.
Let’s not forget our harbor and rails. Those ore docks and spur lines once pulsed with economic lifeblood. Why not green manufacturing? Advanced composites? Niche shipbuilding that serves wind power fleets? Duluth could be a key node in the new clean Midwest supply chain.
Yeah, I know. Hermantown will keep building strip malls, and Minneapolis suits will keep cruising up I-35 to Instagram our lake before zipping back home to Edina. Let them scoff. Truth is, if Duluth’s gonna make another great run — if we’re going to matter again the way we did when this port fed America’s steel mills — it’ll be because we found new reasons for the world to come here, stay here, and invest here.
And you know what? Reinert and Hartman are laying exactly that groundwork. Reinert’s pushing hard on downtown revitalization, streamlining how we do business permits, dreaming up modern marketing pushes that treat Duluth like the brand it truly is. Hartman’s turning the DECC from an aging event barn into a dynamic economic engine — courting trade shows, sports tournaments, concerts and conferences that fill hotels and breathe life into our off-season months.
Together, they’re moving us off our long-standing “aw shucks” posture — that tired inferiority complex we’ve nursed since the mines started pulling back. They’re daring to believe Duluth can stand shoulder to shoulder with booming regional centers, with an economy that’s more than fish tosses and boutique goat soap.
Look, I’ll always love our tourists. They pay for a lot of pizzas after Bulldogs games and keep our streets lively. But we can’t bet the farm on whether it rains for Grandma’s Marathon. We need long-haul industries, fresh tech, world-class freshwater diplomacy, and new-school manufacturing. And we need to protect Lake Superior like it’s the last ace we’ve got — because in many ways, it is.
So hats off, Roger. Hats off, Dan. Keep dreaming, keep hustling, keep showing this proud, battered old port what real vision looks like. Because if Duluth’s ever going to shake the chip off its shoulder and charge into a bold new century — it’ll happen under leaders who know how to brand it, build it, and bet big on it.
And maybe, just maybe, we’ll stop acting so surprised that we’re worth it.
