Duluth schools have not earned another tax referendum
Duluth taxpayers are not prepared to approve another vague promise that new money will stabilize a system the district admits will remain financially unstable.
Opinion
The bill comes due: Inside Duluth’s 2027 budget reckoning
Early-term labor agreements, sluggish revenue growth and familiar levy politics have left City Hall confronting a projected $5.5 million deficit.
Duluth hired a mayor, not a campaign
Roger Reinert's winning pitch against incumbent Emily Larson was simple and effective: Duluth, he argued, needed a mayor focused on basics — core services, discipline and execution. However, Reinert’s mayoralty remains heavy on messaging and light on visible results.
Duluth needs a budget surgeon, not another video stream
The city estimates its recently negotiated labor agreements will increase personnel costs by approximately $9.9 million over three years, according to the 2026 city budget. There is your deficit, dressed in a collective bargaining agreement and scheduled to arrive on time.
Duluth deserves answers, not another recorded statement
Mayor Reinert is an experienced and politically skilled communicator. He regularly uses video to promote city projects, explain policy and shape his administration’s message. That makes his reluctance to participate in unscripted questioning during a public-safety scare more conspicuous, not less.
What if Duluth became the digital health capital of the Northland?
The next generation may build digital infrastructure that allows world-class medical expertise to reach every corner of northeastern Minnesota without asking every patient to make the trip to Duluth. That's a vision worth discussing.
Howie: Downtown Duluth's next chapter will be built with trust.
The first step is honesty. Residents already know homelessness, addiction and mental illness exist. They also know downtown remains home to exceptional restaurants, successful small businesses, major employers, recognized attractions, a spectacular Lake Superior shoreline and people who work there.
The Fourth of July Is Duluth's biggest economic weekend
People rarely visit Duluth only once. They come for a weekend and return for a season. They bring children who later bring their own families. They discover a city that offers something increasingly valuable in modern America: authenticity.
Howie: How history may ultimately judge Donald Trump
Trump challenged the structure itself. To Trump supporters, he represented long-overdue rebellion against elite management of the country. To his critics, he represented a direct threat to democratic norms, constitutional stability and civic decency.
Howie: Duluth needs summer more than ever
Duluth residents simply need this summer emotionally. They need concerts at Bayfront and families along the Lakewalk. They need baseball games, festivals and tourists asking directions. They need reminders that life cannot become an endless cycle of bills, politics, inflation, anxiety and survival.
Howie: Rebuilding the Twin Cities core
American downtowns historically reinvent themselves every generation or two. Warehouse districts become loft districts. Industrial corridors become medical corridors. Rail hubs become entertainment hubs.
Howie: Something is breaking inside Minnesota’s justice system
Something significant is being examined, something consequential has gone wrong inside the process, and the people most familiar with that process decided they could not continue as if nothing had changed. In federal law enforcement, that is as close to an alarm bell as it gets.
Howie: Duluth isn’t in a recession yet, but our people are
Retirees are feeling it in an even more unforgiving way. Social Security doesn’t rise with property taxes. Pensions don’t adjust for water and sewer increases. Utility bills, groceries and insurance all climb while fixed incomes stay fixed. So seniors tighten up.
Howie: When civic habits wear thin
People didn’t wake up wanting authoritarianism. They woke up tired. Tired of chaos. Tired of humiliation. Tired of politics that felt like permanent trench warfare. They stopped believing the system deserved their patience. That part should feel familiar.
Howie: How the City of Duluth learned to live on borrowed time
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.
Howie: The Great Duluth Spin Parade: Everyone’s cheering, nobody’s buying it
It’s civic theater, and everyone knows their lines. The officials announce. The media nod. The television anchors beam. The advertisers clap. And the citizens — the actual audience — sit at home wondering if they’ve accidentally tuned into satire.