PDD News Sieve
R.I.P. West Duluth Video Vision, Mariner Mall Younkers
Two longtime Twin Ports stores will soon close. Fox 21 reports the West Duluth Video Vision store will close this week. The Duluth News Tribune reports Younkers in Superior’s Mariner Mall will close within 12 weeks. (more…)
Lake Superior Magazine 2018 Photo Contest Winners
Duluth’s Dan Vander Ark took first place in the Nature category of Lake Superior Magazine‘s 23rd Annual Photo Contest. His photo, “The Turtles Four,” was shot near Iron River. Galleries of all the winning photos and runners up can be seen on lakesuperior.com. The winners were featured in the magazine’s February/March issue, which also marked the publication’s 40th anniversary. (more…)
Former Duluthian Emily Lewis to appear on Jeopardy!
A 2011 alum of the College of St. Scholastica will appear on TV’s Jeopardy! game show on Tuesday, Jan. 30. The program airs at 5 p.m. in Duluth on the CBS affiliate KBJR channel 6.2.
Emily Lewis graduated from St. Scholastica with three majors — mathematics, economics and finance. She currently lives in San Diego, where she works as a merchandise planner for Petco.
Jeopardy! is a pre-recorded program and the Jan. 30 episode has already been shot, but Lewis isn’t allowed to share any details about her appearance before the air date.
Lower Chester Park Mini-Master Plan draft released
Duluth’s Parks and Recreation Division is requesting public comment on the Lower Chester Park Mini-Master Plan draft until Jan. 31. There is also a supplementary survey for the plan that members of the public are encouraged to complete.
Following the public comment period, a final draft of the plan will be reviewed and voted on by the Duluth Parks Commission on Feb. 14 at 5 p.m. in Duluth City Hall, Council Chambers. For more information about the plans, visit the Parks Planning webpage at duluthmn.gov.
One of Duluth’s first four parks, Chester Park spans approximately 131 acres between 13th and 15th avenues east and stretches from Kenwood Avenue to Fourth Street, where Chester Creek runs under the street and, a few blocks later, disappears underground before emerging near Leif Erikson Park, where it empties into Lake Superior. Lower Chester Park, specifically, is located at 15th Avenue East and East Fifth Street and is about two acres in size.
Creative Minnesota releases report on arts economy
Creative Minnesota has released its second biennial economic report. The effort is a collaboration of arts and culture funders in partnership with Minnesota Citizens for the Arts with the goal is to “create solid, hard data about the arts sector.” The data is collected for “analysis, education and advocacy.” (more…)
Lower Spirit Mountain Riverfront Park Site Plan released
The nine-page Lower Spirit Mountain Riverfront Park Site Plan was presented to the Duluth Parks Commission on Jan. 10 and the city’s Parks and Recreation Division is seeking public comment on it until Jan. 31. A final draft of the plan will be presented and voted on at the Feb. 14 Parks Commission meeting.
The site sits below the BNSF Railroad, opposite Tallus Island in Duluth’s Riverside neighborhood, and has approximately 1,500 ft. of shoreline to the St. Louis River. (more…)
Irving Fairmount Brownfields Revitalization Plan
The Duluth City Council adopted the Irving Fairmount Brownfields Revitalization Plan on Dec. 11. Irving and Fairmount are sub-neighborhoods of West Duluth.
The video above shows clips from a gathering on Oct. 18 at Loll Designs headquarters marking the completion of the plan.
The planning effort focused on redevelopment of post-industrial sites, infrastructure improvements, creating better connections to the Spirit Valley commercial area and increasing walkability.
Low Versus the Volcano
It started as a Twitter feud between Mt. St. Helens and Lake Superior, then Duluth band Low got involved. Soon Glacier Peak, Mt. Baker, Cahaba River and the Grand Canyon were in on the action. (more…)
Chris Monroe art on Rain Taxi cover
The Winter 2017 issue of Rain Taxi, a Minneapolis-based book review and literary magazine, features artwork by Duluth’s Chris Monroe.
Vanilla Bean expanding to Duluth; will take over Northern Waters Restaurant space
WDIO Eyewitness News reports the Vanilla Bean restaurant will open a Duluth location in the Mount Royal Shopping Center on Feb. 1. The space has been occupied by Northern Waters Restaurant since February 2016; Northern Waters’ owners announced earlier this month they will close their eatery on Dec. 31.
The original Vanilla Bean, in Two Harbors, opened in 1998.
“The Duluth location will serve Vanilla Bean’s popular signature dishes including oven-baked omelets, Swedish pancakes with lingonberries, Norwegian crepes, pasties, soups, sandwiches, and burgers,” the Eyewitness News story notes. “It will also have full liquor, beer and wine service.”
Island Lake Inn closed, for sale
Island Lake Inn, a bar and grill about 12 miles north of Duluth in the Gnesen Township, has closed. (more…)
Duluth weather on CBS This Morning
Duluth appeared briefly on CBS This Morning‘s story “Heavy snow and winds wreak havoc for holiday travelers.” At the 1:46 mark in the video above, Duluth is shown as reporter DeMarco Morgan notes “Minnesota had windchills as cold as 35 degrees below zero.” (CBS forces a commercial at the front of the video; PDD apologizes for it.)
Emma Deaner: Trailblazer
Duluth’s Emma Deaner is featured in The Growler‘s list of “25 Trailblazers of 2017.” Deaner is associate events manager at Glensheen Mansion and drummer for the band Superior Siren.
Trailblazers 2017: Emma Deaner of Superior Siren
“It’s going to be a busy year for Deaner,” the article notes. “She’s involved with a TBA project at the soon-to-reopen NorShor Theatre, and Superior Siren are launching their new album with a series of shows in January. What’s more, Deaner’s joining the Minnesota Music Coalition board of directors with the hope to ‘help bridge the gap between the metro and the North Shore.'”
The Growler is a monthly craft-culture magazine published out of St. Paul.
Daisy Roller Mill in Superior
A post on photographer Dan Turner’s Substreet website takes a peek at Superior’s old East End Milling District.
Daisy was the last of the flour mills to close in the Twin Ports,” Turner writes. “It closed in the 1970s when Peavey moved its durum operations to a new mill in Hastings, Minnesota. Today the mill is unused, though a company uses the silos.
Second Duluth Chilly Billy’s will open in March
Miller Hill Mall will be the location of Duluth’s second Chilly Billy’s Frozen Yogurt shop. It will open in the mall’s food court in March. (more…)
Petitioning to Change Duluth in 2017
A look at petitions on change.org shows a pretty good rate of success for people who wanted to change something in Duluth in 2017. As of the morning of Dec. 13, two petitions had more than one thousand supporters and both of those issues appear to be resolved. (more…)
Tina Smith is Minnesota’s new U.S. Senator
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has selected his lieutenant governor, Tina Smith, to replace Al Franken in the U.S. Senate. Smith said she will run for the seat in 2018.
State Senator Michelle Fischbach of Paynesville will replace Smith as lieutenant governor.
Brewhouse’s pub sauce and salad dressing going retail
Just Take Action, a company that owns and operates several restaurants in Duluth, recently began packaging its Fitger’s Brewhouse Chipotle Pub Sauce and Maple Salad Dressing for retail sale.
The effort, under the name Brewhouse Specialties, is part of a move to focus on developing and marketing products to consumers at home. (more…)
Northern Waters Restaurant will close Dec. 31
Just two years after opening, the Northern Waters Restaurant at Mount Royal Shopping Center will close. A news release from owners Eric and Lynn Goerdt indicates the business has been sold and a new restaurant will replace it in early 2018. (more…)
A peek at what Bent Paddle’s new taproom will look like
Bent Paddle Brewing Company plans to relocate its taproom to a larger, revitalized space in the former Enger & Olson Furniture store building at 1832 W. Michigan St. This new location is directly adjacent to its main production brewery and current taproom in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. (more…)
How tall trees feed themselves
A faculty member at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Biology Department has conducted research on tall trees that has been published in Nature Plants and will be highlighted in the journal Nature. Assistant Professor Jessica Savage has been teaching at UMD for about a year and is the lead author of a paper detailing the process tall trees use to transport sugar or feed themselves.
The article, “Maintenance of Carbohydrate Transport in Tall Trees,” was published today on nature.com. An online subscription is required to fully nerd out and read the work, but a 277-word abstract is available for free. (more…)
Videos: This Week in Duluth Snowy Owl Rescues
Richard Hoeg spotted a snowy owl on Duluth Harbor ice this morning and at first didn’t think it was out of the ordinary. Returning a few hours later, he noticed the owl had only moved a few feet and didn’t flush when a pair of dogs were checking it out. So with the help of a fish net, wood and duct tape, he pulled the owl in and passed it along to Wildwoods Rehabilitation. Hoeg tells the full story on his 365 Days of Birds blog. (more…)
As Duluth’s image improves, economic cup half empty/full
Duluth is the only metropolitan statistical area in Minnesota to see its gross domestic product decline in 2015 and 2016. That’s the subject of a story by Greta Kaul, data reporter for MinnPost.
But the news isn’t nearly as dire as it might sound. (more…)