Duluth shares discussion notes regarding the topic: What’s your favorite neighborhood?
The first discussion item considered was “choose a neighborhood that works and try to determine why.”
We had a good discussion on how we define a neighborhood that works. What does that really mean? We thought it meant something different for Duluth than other communities – we don’t really have the “ideal” neighborhood.
We agreed that there were good things about a lot of neighborhoods; the neighborhood group in Park Point, the business coalition in West Duluth, and the diversity across the city. But we couldn’t identify one neighborhood that “had it all.”
Canal Park has seen a huge transformation from a run down, seedy, waterfront area to a tourist destination with restaurants, hotels and specialty shops. But it doesn’t have a core residential component.
One attendee shared a metaphor for Duluth – a widow in a big old house. At one time, the house was beautiful, vibrant, full of family and life. Now the husband has passed, the children have moved away, and the elderly woman can keep up, it is more infrastructure than she needs and can handle. We felt like this might explain a bit about why Duluth doesn’t have just one perfect neighborhood.
