Skyline Parkway Corridor Management Plan
Does anyone have any word on building restrictions on Skyline Parkway? I’m asking because someone built a house on the lower side of Skyline a block above my house. Someone is working on a plot of land to the east which is also directly above my house and they need a variance (for which there is a meeting at City Hall on Tuesday next week).
My street has had a drainage issue ever since I moved in, but the first house to be built up there caused the issue to escalate. With more housing being built directly above, I fear that the problem will get increasingly worse. If anyone has any info on the corridor management plan or building on Skyline in general please let me know, and if you think this issue might directly affect you, let me know so I can forward the meeting info on to you.
I love Duluth and hope that we can work together to make things better. Above is a panoramic picture of ice taking up half the street due to water running down it.
Preston Gunderson with Jillian Rae – “Night”
Video by Peter Jamus and David Kasyanyuk
Shot at East Medicine Lake, Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles — all near Minneapolis
Actors: Laura Blak and Vinny Balbo
Preston Gunderson is a singer/songwriter from the Iron Range. His album While I was Gone cracked the top 200 on the iTunes pop charts, and his EP The Recluse peaked at no. 25 on the iTunes Singer Songwriter Music Chart. He was a casting finalist on NBCs The Voice, but did not appear on the TV show. He was also named the 2014 Bob Dylan Singer-Songwriter Grand Champion during Dylan Days.
Jillian Rae is known in Duluth for her days lending fiddle skills to the band Two Many Banjos. She performs solo shows and in a number of bands in Minnesota.
Nominees for Best Coffee Shop in the Duluth area
It’s been a few months since we’ve done a poll on PDD, but we trust that with all the “Vote Duluth the best outdoor city in the galaxy or whatever” hype that most of you thought a break was for the better. Now it’s time to return to our quest to decide what the best city’s best things are.
Before we launch our poll to name the best coffee shop, we have to establish a list of nominees by asking you to rant in the comments. The ground rules are fairly simple:
- As usual, the territory we are covering encompasses Duluth and anywhere within 10 miles of Duluth’s border – so coffee shops in Superior, Hermantown, Proctor and the various bordering townships all qualify; Two Harbors and Cloquet are out of bounds.
- The criteria for what defines a coffee shop or what makes one “the best” is pretty open. Certain bakeries and restaurants kind of double as coffee shops, and that’s fine. Some places have a focus on live music or a kick-ass record collection, others sink a fortune into furniture or double as a place of worship. Feel free to consider those things along with the coffee itself, or don’t. In the end, voters will decide what’s important to the masses.
- It’s fine to nominate a corporate giant like Starbucks, Caribou or Dunn Bros., but be specific if you do. Pick a particular location; don’t nominate the franchise as a whole.
- Keep in mind that we are not issuing a challenge here to name every coffee shop that exists in the area. We’re just asking you to tell us which ones you think have a reasonable chance of winning a poll.
That’s about it. Make your thoughts known and we’ll launch the poll on Friday.
Lost Benchmaker Knife on Superior Hiking Trail
I lost a blue Benchmade pocket knife just off of the parking lot on the Superior Hiking Trail at Penn Boulevard in Silver Bay on Aug. 29. I believe it was on the four-wheeler trail just before hooking up to the hiking trail. Will pay reward and shipping to get it back.
This week: tupperware, bear hunting and drag racing
Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.
A note to all bears who might be reading, today is not a good day to be a bear, but it is a good day for parking.
The YMCA and Yoga North are both having weeklong open houses and free classes and such to kick off their fall seasons.
Michael Perry will be doing readings from his new YA novel, “The Scavengers,” at Barnes & Noble on Wednesday.
Twin Ports Stage opens Sealed for Freshness at the UWS Manion Theater on Thursday and it runs for two weekends.
Renegade is well known for their short form improv. This week you can see some of your favorite improv artists tackle long form improv, building an evening’s worth of entertainment with just a suggestion or two from the audience, at the Teatro Zuccone on Friday and Saturday.
Pride has ended with its drag shows, but there’s going to be drag racing on Garfield Ave. this next weekend. We really should combine the two events, don’t you think?
So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.
Half Super – teaser trailer
In honor of Labor Day, 4 Track Films would like to share with you its three-year labor of love — the teaser trailer for the new film Half Super. It’s a tale of love, loss and superheroes. It stars Abraham Curran and Tierney Michon and was written and directed by yours truly, Jason Page.
This is just the first taste. Each month for the next four months we will be releasing additional videos as we build to our February 2015 premiere. Stay tuned for more, and please help us raise awareness by passing on the link. Cheers!
Duluth school principals defend short skirts
For your back-to-school reading pleasure, from the Oct. 2, 1921 Duluth News Tribune:
Gems of Itasca: The Bovey Edition
Bovey is an historical jewel on the Iron Range, known for its rich mining history in the early 1900s. It’s also the home of the world-famous 1918 photograph Grace. (more…)
Bike Duluth Festival 2014 Video
Video by Dudley Edmondson from the Bike Duluth Festival.
Another Wonderful Mitchell Letter
Dennis P. Mitchell’s letter in this morning’s Duluth News Tribune is a gem. Dennis and his wife Rosemarie gained notoriety with their London Olympics letter a few years ago. Today, they reveal the sordid happenings in the Sally Forth comic strip.
Duluth Wet Basement Recommendation
I’m looking for a recommendation for someone to come take a look at a wet basement problem. My wife and I purchased our first home a couple months ago. With the torrential rainfall last night, I awoke this morning to a nice soggy wet carpet in the basement. I’ve got the mess cleaned up and now it is time to solve the problem. It appears the rain decided to enter the house via the egress window. Who would you recommend come and solve this for me?
Ten things a perfect city needs
Except for ethnic diversity, I think Duluth makes the cut:
The Guardian: The 10 things a perfect city needs
This week: singing vampires, gay pride and football
Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.
You have your choice of geekery tonight with the Doctor Who Peter Capaldi era debuting at Marcus Cinema and Zinema 2 offering a Joss Whedon Sing Along hosted by the Zenith City Browncoats and some local online calendar editor.
Pride Festival is this weekend, running Thursday through Sunday, and opens with the Mayor’s Reception at the Depot. The celebration includes an art exhibit with a Friday opening at Zeitgeist and a 5K run on Saturday.
School hasn’t started yet, but the Denfeld Hunters have their football season opener on Thursday at Public Schools Stadium as they host the Cambridge-Isanti Bluejackets.
So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.
Introducing Perfect Duluth Day’s new responsive design
It’s been over five years since we’ve freshened things up around here. Welcome to the new look of PDD. At the moment we’re still fixing all the things that are breaking left and right as a result of messing with the layout of the PDD Blog, but soon things will be functioning better than ever.
Here are some fancy bullet points to get you up to speed:
- What we have done, essentially, is changed PDD’s WordPress theme. The result is a responsive design that will adapt to whatever device you are using to view this website.
- If you are on a desktop computer, you’ll notice the content field is bigger and the navigation sidebar that used to be on the left of all pages is gone. Everything that was there is still available through the navigation at the top of the page.
- If you are on a phone or tablet, everything about this website should look much better.
Ark of the Anthropocene is coming to Duluth and needs support!
Minneapolis-based artist and musician Sean Connaughty has done many wonderful and interesting things. Among them are a series of self contained ceramic biospheres that he sculpts, fills with plant life, and then submerges in waterways to become free floating universes. He wires them with cameras so viewers can hit his website and see what is going on inside. Now he has taken on his biggest version of the project yet, a massive concrete ‘Ark’ biosphere which will be submerged in Lake Superior near the Aquarium. The image is of the Ark being hoisted in place for the Northern Spark Festival in June at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis.
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Duluth Mystery Photo: Denfeld football players from 1951
Help name these Denfeld Hunters. The image above is one of three dated Nov. 29, 1951 that were listed for sale on eBay. The description read: “These three photos were of the football players from Denfeld High School in Duluth, Minnesota. The sign in the background says Public Schools Stadium. The photos are from 1951. Two of the boys are identified: Eli Miletich and Richard Wilson. Eli Miletich gained some local celebrity later in life on the Duluth Police force.”
So, who can name the other two gridiron greats from West Duluth?
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Lost Husky on Central Entrance
Roughly 2-year-old Siberian Husky lost on Central Entrance around 9 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23. Please call 218-251-3091 if you have any info. He was going to be trained as an emotional support animal for a vet with PTSD. He is a new member of our family and we love him very much!
ChuchCrew: Duluth Dæn
Dan Wilczek takes a few downhill runs. Video by Alex Colorito.
A Century of the Pickwick
Duluth’s oldest and longest operating restaurant is celebrating its centennial this week. Although it didn’t bear the Pickwick name in 1914, the establishment that would later become the Pickwick Restaurant and Pub opened 100 years ago. The centennial celebration continues through Saturday. See the PDD Calendar for details.
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St. Louis River video at Jay Cooke State Park
Video by Douglas Feltman; music by Dexter Britain.
Death of Hugh A. Wetmore
The post “Buffalo Bill Cody, his little sister Helen, and their connection to Duluth” notes that Hugh Wetmore died in 1900. He did not. He died April 6, 1909 in Chicago.
What date, and in what state, if you know, did Alexander Calhoun Jester die? I have seen online at least three different dates and three different states.
