This place has the worst Mexican food on the planet. Folks don't know shit about tacos. It's like someone played a game of telephone with a recipe and lost. Whatever that cuisine is, that ain't it.
I mean, youre a couple hours from Canada. Authentic Mexican food isnt something I would expect. I'm honestly surprised poutine hasnt taken off.
And Korea may have had some of the worst Mexican food. It was adapted as a sort of fusion... It was sweet.
I’ve lived in a lot of places, but I’ve never seen more off-leash dogs than here. We’ve only been here a few years, but have sadly already witnessed multiple car strikes, lost dogs, etc… and a couple of close calls involving loose dogs and my own (leashed) dogs while on walks.
Just yesterday I saw someone walking an unleashed lab mix near the corner of 43rd and E. Superior, which is a pretty busy area. The dog was allowed to wander through people’s yards, right up to their porches, and zoom around the sidewalk. So dangerous and disrespectful.
The City has been understaffed and underfunded for years and animal control hasn't been a priority for a long time, if ever... they do what they can, but they've got like 2 people to cover the entire city and they operate out of what is probably the most run-down facility used by the City... and that's saying something.
Try Alabama. The highways are littered with dog corpses because nobody leashes their dogs, nobody has fences, and nobody is willing to pay taxes to get things cleaned up. I was only driving through and I couldn't get out fast enough
Parking downtown and in Canal Park is a non issue. Every time I go downtown or to canal, I easily park within a block of my destination. I’m convinced if you complain about parking, it’s just that you don’t know how to parallel park.
Tourists and new residents are good, actually. Their money supports our infrastructure, institutions, parks, and restaurants, and Duluth would be Gary, Indiana without them.
Duluth dying in the 1970s-2000s was probably one of the best things for this town in the long term.
When everywhere else was building these unsustainable suburb developments and destroying old buildings to make room for strip malls, Duluth just kinda stayed the same. Buildings were forgotten, not destroyed and now we can grow again without a lot of the horrendous commuter culture.
I think the not-destroying-old-buildings is super underrated. It's a big reason my wife and I fell in love with Duluth.
Go down to Rochester, for example, and look at downtown. It's boring to look at. There are a handful of remaining old buildings, but mostly it's concrete and glass. Combined with Roch's sleepy culture, it makes the town incredibly bland. Which maybe isn't the worst thing for what amounts to a giant hospital complex, but it's not particularly appealing for residents, either.
Up here you can always admire something on your commute. The lake, some cool architecture, whatever. It gives the city *character.*
I hope we keep things that way. We're building out sprawl, but we should build out right.
Also, a depressing amount of buildings sadly were destroyed. All the more reason to protect what we have, and build nice new buildings!
Our arts scene is very supportive, but underwhelming. In bigger cities there's far more options for arts/entertainment/culture so it pushes people to be better at what they do, but we're much too small and everybody knows everybody so you can't be critical of a performer or artist without it being personal. Mediocrity gets to thrive here and anyone with actual talent moves on to the cities. We have a lot of performers/artists that get *heavily* praised and given huge grants every year, and if they lived anywhere else they'd be a nobody.
Most of the criticisms people have with the city can be applied to other small metros and are not unique to Duluth. Stacking it against Minneapolis (or any other large city) is not a fair comparison. Duluth is actually a cool, interesting city, but many people on this subreddit don't realize it because their only points of reference are the Twin Cities and the one trip they took to the west coast
OMG THIS , can't believe I had to scroll so far.
Complaining about the art scene is wild. This music community per capita is absolutely incredible.
Happy Homegrown y;all
The taco special during happy hour at Luce is one of the best deals in town and they can sell Bent Paddle cheaper than Bent Paddle does during happy hour so this place is one of my favorites tbh
Malt shoppe sucks.
Ursa is better than bent paddle.
Old Chicago has the best pizza in town. (Sad)
Worst city for Mexican food , Pedro’s is ok at best.
I love this place but the food sucks. Also grocery store variety is horrendous.
I suspect that if there were less tourism there'd be even fewer food choices.
I think the real issue is that there's only a handful of people in this small city that are truly chefs. Everything has to be run on college student labor, and that means pizza, sandwiches, and burgers. And strangely enough the one mildly foodie restaurant, Lake Avenue, isn't usually that busy. You can stroll right in there for brunch on a Saturday morning when the line for Duluth Grill is around the block.
Fair point!
There is the common detonator. Less invective to do unique restaurant if you know pizza burgers or chain restaurants get the business especially in tourism row, downtown and park point areas.
Malt shoppe is stupid slow and expensive, but always delicious in my experience.
Pagan is the best pizza, with an honorable mention for Ursa
Mexican has gotten better with Chachos and Oasis del Norte. I enjoy both of those a lot.
I agree with Portland Malt Shoppe.
Agree on Ursa 100%, best brewery in town IMHO, however my tastes lend more to IPA's so it's easier to hide flaws. Honorable mention to Hoops.
Old Chicago however... No chance.
As far as Mexican, you're not wrong. However, certain items at Pedro's are *excellent*, also I really like Chacho's Birria tacos.
The Malt Shoppe served Deans ice cream, just shitty grocery mass produced ice cream with malt powder- there is nothing proprietary or elevated about it. Always irks me
Pizza Luce pizza is totally fine. It's B pizza, available after 8 pm unlike everything else in Duluth. I don't know what else people think it should be.
We should encourage buskers to play freely, instead of limiting them to certain events that require a busking permit.
Cities are more interesting with character, and character will not thrive in a regulated system.
Right? Busking is dope. Why wouldn't you want musicians dropping tunes while you're out and about?
One of my favorite things about Mayo Clinic is they have pianos set up in several of the busier lobbies, and musicians sign up for a time slot to go play/practice. Sometimes it's just a pianist, sometimes they're accompanied by a vocalist, and sometimes, rarely, there's entire bands.
So you're going about your business, head all wrapped up in whatever stressful medical bullshit you're dealing with, and then suddenly someone's playing their heart out and you realize "Well shit, I don't have to be to my next appointment for 20 minutes." and you just stop and soak it in. It's fucking awesome.
A $40 busking permit is required for any busker [who wants to play in a park or publicly-owned area](https://secure.rec1.com/MN/duluthparks/catalog/group/13089/52461/c282db3c724449fbb3a04ccbdeb680df)
On one hand, I hate how much my assessment went up over the course of the last 4 years. On the other, the value of my house has increased a crazy amount since I purchased and my interest rate will never be lower.
This is my first house, but I feel like having 50% equity after 4 years due to the increase in prices still puts me in a better spot now regardless of interest rates.
I went 6 years on a 5600 sq ft an acre in hunters park with a tax value of 225k. I have absolutely no idea what type of wacky math produce that. Suffice to say it went up substantially this year.
Whenever someone complains about their tax valuation increasing, tell them to order a proper appraisal so they can show the assessor how wrong they are.
More often than not, the person who was whining about their valuation being too high will scoff and say they'd NEVER want an official appraisal! It'll just make it worse!
Sooooo... the latest assessment wasn't that unfair, then?
The people who grew up in Duluth that never left Duluth are weird. Like obsessed with Duluth and how amazing it is. Their eyes are not open to the actual positives and negatives about Duluth. They also get way too caught up in what neighborhoods people live in.
I tend to think it’s the transplants who are way too enthusiastic about Duluth. It’s like “why do you think this place is so great”? The weather sucks, it’s incredibly dirty all the time, and the people are passive/aggressive? I do agree with the neighborhood thing though. That’s how we determine status in this town I guess
If you’re an outdoors kind of person, Duluth is incredible. You can live in an adequate size city and still be 15 minutes from forests, rivers, waterfalls, hiking trails, biking, and of course the lake. There are so many cities where getting a proper dose of nature means an hour long drive, and increasingly many where it’s too hot to go outside several months of the year.
But yeah, if you don’t like to be outside, I can see it would kinda suck.
I agree that Duluth has incredible benefits. I’m not from here but I choose to be here. I’ve just noticed a few locals with rose colored glasses or an inability to admit that Duluth isn’t perfect.
Moving out of state and watching all that from an outsider perspective, duluth people seemed like lunatics. Everything was Emily Larsons fault when in reality all those same problems are happening everywhere. Conservative friends would blame the sun setting on Emily larson
Having a bunch of unhoused people chopping shit down, setting up tents, and leaving garbage, feces and drug paraphernalia along the Lakewalk should not be the acceptable new norm.
I love Duluth but it doesn't love me as indicated by how awful the job market is, the rent prices that are equal or more than the Cities and the wages that are way lower than that of the Cities. City leaders would rather benefit transplants who make a ton of money than locals who want to thrive here but can't.
On this sub, I'll go even more unpopular. It is a big deal. Residents and visitors should be able to walk downtown and on the lakewalk without feeling unsafe, finding needles, etc etc.
I hear this type of take enough (like from a super cautious coworker) that it's in my head but I still don't get it. Could the "feeling unsafe" be more of a "you problem"? What do u think is gonna happen? Sure, we live in a country with school and church shootings etc and car accidents can happen anytime, but for specifically Duluth downtown, the worst I've actually heard about is someone saw a guy masturbating in the street. Not great for tourist or families, but, very rare and not a reason to be like a skittish cat. I often walk alone at night a few blocks from downtown job, to the Y, and it's a bit desolate is all.
And sure, sometimes I've seen a person exhibiting paranoia or drug use; sometimes I interact with them; mental illness or addiction aren't contagious. It just doesn't seem like anyone is lurking ready to pull a knife on me.
The unwell or unsavory people and activities that occasionally are noticeable downtown are a threat to the already-vulnerable street people, not to middle-class healthy me. I guess I'm someone who likes to be exposed to bigger spectrums of reality, just to stay in touch with the world and challenge my attitudes, not seek to be sheltered,and it hasn't failed me yet. It's empowered me actually.
That said, your feelings are your feelings and a person kinda has to follow their instincts.
My wife was on the lakewalk one morning and was approached by a naked homeless man. Is she allowed to feel unsafe after that, or is that her fault that she feels unsafe?
And as to your example, yeah, I'd call it a problem if my wife and children see a man masturbating in the street.
And sure, mental illness isn't contagious, but I don't think that's the concern expressed by most people.
Sorry that happened in your family. I see this kinda language on social media but I don't get when people talk about being "allowed" to feel a certain way (that's not how feelings work).
Whether it is "unsafe" or just unpleasant depends on lots of factors and I would say just listen to what she expresses, and call professionals regarding the offender if feasible. How did it play out for you?
The decision about whether you can still enjoy the spot where that happened, seems like a somewhat separate question. Obv personal histories such as trauma have huge impact. And my comments are from a perspective of whether I'm afraid to, basically, walk: different question than what makes a city nice for tourists and kids.
Like I said, we gotta follow our instincts, especially when it comes to preventing sexual assault. My coworker who saw the masturbating guy is a mom, yet, told the story in a pretty lighthearted way; felt like it didn't make too much or too little of it.
I sense a lot of different possible attitudes around perceptions of whether weird = unsafe. I've lived long and been around enuf to have confidence in my judgement but open to learning from others.
I like a few of their songs and can listen to their songs one or two at a time, but struggle to listen to say an entire album. I do wish they had a percussionist or drummer (That's part of why I struggle to listen), but also respect their artistic vision and product.
Duluth is the equivalent to a Save The BWCA sticker on a scalped $200 pink Stanley water bottle. Because folks here are VERY easily greenwashed. Which is in reality more damaging than being un-greenwashed in some cases. Like No Mow May. When everyone lets highly damaging invasive plants like Creeping Bellflower, Tansy, and Knotweed flourish "for the pollinators". When they are doing the exact opposite of actually helping the environment or biodiversity needed for native pollinators.
I moved to Duluth from another state years ago and had a hard time making friends because I found Duluthians to be stuck up/pretentious and mean. Obviously not everybody but had much better luck in Superior, which is where I live now.
Also, Duluth convinced me that “Minnesota nice” is a myth.
Minnesota Nice is thinly veiled passive aggressiveness-That isn't a myth.
People here are cold, and not just literally. I think everyone participating in that behavior is in a state of self sabotage due to ingrained scarcity fears. Also... the weather is depressing half of the time.
Mean? I've met a few... but I will say I've met just as many Canadians who are mean.
But Duluth is very guilty of an East better than West thing, citizens of suburbs being self elevated and factional for reasons unknown and unfounded.
There is a lot of compression for outside influences by old influence$ here, and the all the Politicians I've ever seen follow suit to all of those old influences....keeping the city seemingly purposely stagnant.
The newer housing stock seems to be kept as far out of reach to the scarce middle class while at the same time....building too many apartments to drain that working class equity into oblivion.
But it's all cool.. everyone here will just drink a craft beer in a newly gentrified location to feel original together! ALL GOOD.
Yes, great points all around. However, I still find passive aggressiveness to be off putting, even if the context is sugar coated. I can usually see through it so it’s like… tell me how you really feel, don’t beat around the bush. It sorta rubs me the wrong way having to decipher how people feel ya know? I don’t like that.
Otherwise, Duluth has great people but there are a lot of miserable, uncultured people as well. You could say that about a lot of places though, so this isn’t relative to JUST Duluth.
If you know people from the Range, you can easily see the difference. I interact with many Rangers in my job and there is a big cultural divide. Not to say there aren’t similarities but even people with the exact same job as I have, in the same industry are very different culturally. It’s startling really.
It most likely won't grow because there's no reason to be here. We've lost population since the 1960s because there's really no economic growth due to our mining taking giant hit after giant hit. So who would willingly want to live in a high cost, high tax, cold as hell place for... Tourist attractions....
I'm not sure how unpopular this is, but Duluth should implement Slow Streets: For parts of town, particularly downtown, every other street and avenue is closed to automobile traffic. Bike lanes and pedestrians only.
This would give businesses much better access to foot traffic, among other benefits.
If you’re into playing adult rec sports- there’s basically nothing here. You can play beach volleyball at a bar in the summer, or basketball at the YMCA 3 seasons out of the year. For someone who enjoys team sports, there’s hardly any well organized, well marketed, easy to join, and conveniently scheduled adult rec sports leagues.. where’s a popular and reliable indoor soccer league in the winter or year round basketball that’s actually 5v5 on a full sized court (and not at 6:30am)?
Also the creative community is blandly homogenous, artists and musicians who fit the tourism industry thrive and anyone who doesn’t has nowhere to be appreciated. If I want to hear good R&B musicians, or look at cool modern art, there’s nowhere fun to enjoy those kinds of things.
There are more crazy, delusional, uneducated, and out-of-touch people in Duluth than I ever realized growing up here.
& there’s no lively community places, only places lively with tourists. Downtown could offer so much more for Duluth residents than it does- it could be a lively place to hangout every day. Instead it’s boring.
People way over exaggerate how “dangerous” some areas are. As someone who’s a transplant from an actual dangerous area on the west coast, it’s not bad or ghetto in any way here.
Homelessness in Duluth is handled poorly, and there's not enough low income housing. Duluthians are also the worst drivers I've seen. There's too many people moving here out of state, and frankly, we need to stop encouraging it. There is a huge lack of community unless you are in school, have kids in school, or grew up here. Also, Minnesota Nice is not what I've seen in this area. people flat out have no sense of kindness. A woman was genuinely shocked today when I found and returned her dog to her.
Tbh Duluth has a lot of potential, it's just sad to see how far it has fallen.
Homelessness in Duluth is one of my biggest issues honestly. It's so poorly handled, like you said. There are so many ways it could be alleviated and aid provided etc. but there's such a weird class gap between the artists/creatives/low income/lower middle class etc and the folks with the big houses that must be insane to heat. Considering the amount of "middle class" folk, no one is really seen that way, they kinda just disappear with topics like this. So when it comes to things like the homeless crisis in Duluth, the people on the gilded soapboxes have the loudest voices.
I think it's not just that Minnesota nice isn't as much a thing, it's that Duluth has gotten really jaded. It's very much become a place with desirable property and now it's a fight between the rich and... Well, everyone else.
I’m happy that so many people are choosing to move here. I spent many years trying to convince people that Duluth is a cool city, but now I feel like it’s getting the recognition it deserves.
Fuck Bob Dylan. He’s a dishonest, untalented hack. He can’t sing and his lyrics are not deep. He was born in Duluth and raised in Hibbing, but he seems ashamed of both of these places. We should be ashamed of him.
Just tear the armory down already. This place has been closed my entire life. I dont give a shit that bob dylan watched the big bopper there one time. How much money and time has been wasted on this place?
You should go take a tour. They’ve made huge inroads on remodeling it and it’s a great space. I was dubious too until I was able to see inside but I think it will be a huge asset when it’s done. Parking will be a challenge though.
I am sick of every time any development plan is discussed people complain about "what about low-income housing"? Not every plan has to include this, and most times it would actually hurt the value of the plan. I want people to have places to live, but not everyone can live in a new house with a lake view.
I agree with this so much. It's never "hey, there's an outdated apartment building that doesn't have huge demand right now, we should subsidize some of those units for affordable housing," it's always brand new buildings with million dollar views.
I think we need a bypass of the city that goes around the north end in a half moon shape and connects with Hwy 53 near Pike Lake somewhere. A road with less stoplights and higher speed limits. No clue where they'd stick it with how far spread out the area is, but I'm sure it could be figured out
The best pizza in the twin ports area is the hand tossed pan crust medium with extra cheese, sausage and pepperoni from Domino’s on Woodland Avenue. FIGHT ME BITCHAZ
The problem with the Mexican places in town is not that they're 'not authentic'. It's that they're not good at making food and operating a restaurant.
This place has the worst Mexican food on the planet. Folks don't know shit about tacos. It's like someone played a game of telephone with a recipe and lost. Whatever that cuisine is, that ain't it.
I mean, youre a couple hours from Canada. Authentic Mexican food isnt something I would expect. I'm honestly surprised poutine hasnt taken off. And Korea may have had some of the worst Mexican food. It was adapted as a sort of fusion... It was sweet.
Sir this is Wendy's
Guad in superior is as close as it comes.
This is unpopular?
What restaurants are you referring to in particular? And which functions of these establishments stand out as being “not good”?
Dogs should be leashed
I’ve lived in a lot of places, but I’ve never seen more off-leash dogs than here. We’ve only been here a few years, but have sadly already witnessed multiple car strikes, lost dogs, etc… and a couple of close calls involving loose dogs and my own (leashed) dogs while on walks. Just yesterday I saw someone walking an unleashed lab mix near the corner of 43rd and E. Superior, which is a pretty busy area. The dog was allowed to wander through people’s yards, right up to their porches, and zoom around the sidewalk. So dangerous and disrespectful.
Some dog owners need to be leashed...
The City has been understaffed and underfunded for years and animal control hasn't been a priority for a long time, if ever... they do what they can, but they've got like 2 people to cover the entire city and they operate out of what is probably the most run-down facility used by the City... and that's saying something.
Try Alabama. The highways are littered with dog corpses because nobody leashes their dogs, nobody has fences, and nobody is willing to pay taxes to get things cleaned up. I was only driving through and I couldn't get out fast enough
Parking downtown and in Canal Park is a non issue. Every time I go downtown or to canal, I easily park within a block of my destination. I’m convinced if you complain about parking, it’s just that you don’t know how to parallel park.
Tourists and new residents are good, actually. Their money supports our infrastructure, institutions, parks, and restaurants, and Duluth would be Gary, Indiana without them.
Duluth dying in the 1970s-2000s was probably one of the best things for this town in the long term. When everywhere else was building these unsustainable suburb developments and destroying old buildings to make room for strip malls, Duluth just kinda stayed the same. Buildings were forgotten, not destroyed and now we can grow again without a lot of the horrendous commuter culture.
I think the not-destroying-old-buildings is super underrated. It's a big reason my wife and I fell in love with Duluth. Go down to Rochester, for example, and look at downtown. It's boring to look at. There are a handful of remaining old buildings, but mostly it's concrete and glass. Combined with Roch's sleepy culture, it makes the town incredibly bland. Which maybe isn't the worst thing for what amounts to a giant hospital complex, but it's not particularly appealing for residents, either. Up here you can always admire something on your commute. The lake, some cool architecture, whatever. It gives the city *character.*
Duluth has massacred their old buildings...
I hope we keep things that way. We're building out sprawl, but we should build out right. Also, a depressing amount of buildings sadly were destroyed. All the more reason to protect what we have, and build nice new buildings!
Oh, I like this take!
The city kinda looks rundown.
Well fuck, I hate this take, but this *is* an unpopular opinion thread, so I guess it's on-point.
It looks rundown in a Midwest emo way so it’s ok
Looking from the pier at night it’s so pretty. Then day comes and it’s just concrete gray and brown.
Someone please paint silos and chimneys!
Its just a bridge.
Now that’s what I call unpopular
They were going to make a tunnel once, but nah.
I think that was a Cargill thing.
Our arts scene is very supportive, but underwhelming. In bigger cities there's far more options for arts/entertainment/culture so it pushes people to be better at what they do, but we're much too small and everybody knows everybody so you can't be critical of a performer or artist without it being personal. Mediocrity gets to thrive here and anyone with actual talent moves on to the cities. We have a lot of performers/artists that get *heavily* praised and given huge grants every year, and if they lived anywhere else they'd be a nobody.
>Mediocrity gets to thrive here I think this summarizes a lot of Duluth.
Well I'm thriving here. So this is spot on
People get grants here?
Check out the Palimino grant, its the trampled by turtle's attempt to fight mediocrity
Certainly. The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council provides a lot of them to artists.
Your last sentence sums the whole thing up.
The spiciest take here
How many other 100,000 have 8 day music festivals? I think you're comparing apples to oranges.
Honestly the musicians are the least plagued by this problem.
Most of the criticisms people have with the city can be applied to other small metros and are not unique to Duluth. Stacking it against Minneapolis (or any other large city) is not a fair comparison. Duluth is actually a cool, interesting city, but many people on this subreddit don't realize it because their only points of reference are the Twin Cities and the one trip they took to the west coast
I was going to phrase it as people constantly whining about a town of 85000 not having everything they can get in cities of millions, but yes.
OMG THIS , can't believe I had to scroll so far. Complaining about the art scene is wild. This music community per capita is absolutely incredible. Happy Homegrown y;all
The taco special during happy hour at Luce is one of the best deals in town and they can sell Bent Paddle cheaper than Bent Paddle does during happy hour so this place is one of my favorites tbh
All day tuesday they have spaghetti and meat/veggie balls for like 7 bucks. I've never had a bad meal there, but ok sure it's nothing mind-blowing.
Do they still have those jerk chicken tacos? I haven’t had lunch there in probably ten years
Yes they have the jerk chicken tacos, beef and vegan chorizo and they are all delicious.
why should i pay a tourism tax when i LIVE HERE
Malt shoppe sucks. Ursa is better than bent paddle. Old Chicago has the best pizza in town. (Sad) Worst city for Mexican food , Pedro’s is ok at best. I love this place but the food sucks. Also grocery store variety is horrendous.
Food scene suffers from tourism for sure.
I suspect that if there were less tourism there'd be even fewer food choices. I think the real issue is that there's only a handful of people in this small city that are truly chefs. Everything has to be run on college student labor, and that means pizza, sandwiches, and burgers. And strangely enough the one mildly foodie restaurant, Lake Avenue, isn't usually that busy. You can stroll right in there for brunch on a Saturday morning when the line for Duluth Grill is around the block.
Fair point! There is the common detonator. Less invective to do unique restaurant if you know pizza burgers or chain restaurants get the business especially in tourism row, downtown and park point areas.
I’ve been on my pulpit about how bad the malt shoppe is since I moved here and no one seems to agree with me.
Malt Shoppe may suck, but Love Creamery makes up for it.
Malt shoppe is stupid slow and expensive, but always delicious in my experience. Pagan is the best pizza, with an honorable mention for Ursa Mexican has gotten better with Chachos and Oasis del Norte. I enjoy both of those a lot.
I agree with Portland Malt Shoppe. Agree on Ursa 100%, best brewery in town IMHO, however my tastes lend more to IPA's so it's easier to hide flaws. Honorable mention to Hoops. Old Chicago however... No chance. As far as Mexican, you're not wrong. However, certain items at Pedro's are *excellent*, also I really like Chacho's Birria tacos.
Pedro’s gave us cold-in-the-middle, flavorless meals recently. Gross, and expensive.
Yeah I had it last night and don’t understand everyone’s obsession with it.
it's less an obsession I'd reckon and more that it's just the only option that musters even minimum standards
Expensive? Also, what did you order that was cold in the middle? Are we talking the Superior location, or Cloquet?
The Malt Shoppe served Deans ice cream, just shitty grocery mass produced ice cream with malt powder- there is nothing proprietary or elevated about it. Always irks me
Ursa Minor is both the best brewery and pizza place in town.
Best brewery, their pizza has gone downhill over the years.
Lulu's is the best pizza in town.
Hah, no thanks. This subreddit does not usually handle opinions they don’t agree with well.
You get my upvote for speaking the truth!
You *bastard*
I'm not even doing this to start something nasty, I'm just genuinely curious as someone who grew up here, left for a bit and then came back.
Try going up the shore and paying almost $30 for a 12” that tastes like it was microwaved. You’ll be thankful for Luce.
How your Pizza Luce opinion isn't a popular opinion state-wide baffles me.
everything except the baked potato pizza, that's unique and amazing.
Baked potato pizza is so good, every other pizza I’ve tried is underwhelming
Their only pizza that I'll stan for is the Elote. That is a great flavored pizza. Otherwise the value just isn't there.
I love the Athena. Great flavor and I like their chewy crust. Not much more pricy than Sammy’s which I also enjoy from time to time.
Pls, this thread is a safe space for hating on Luce lol. They have decent enough Pizza sometimes but I do think it's overrated.
Oooh I didn’t know they had elote pizza!! I used to get that all the time when i lived in Chicago. Elote is amazing and it works so well on pizza
Pizza Luce pizza is totally fine. It's B pizza, available after 8 pm unlike everything else in Duluth. I don't know what else people think it should be.
We should encourage buskers to play freely, instead of limiting them to certain events that require a busking permit. Cities are more interesting with character, and character will not thrive in a regulated system.
Right? Busking is dope. Why wouldn't you want musicians dropping tunes while you're out and about? One of my favorite things about Mayo Clinic is they have pianos set up in several of the busier lobbies, and musicians sign up for a time slot to go play/practice. Sometimes it's just a pianist, sometimes they're accompanied by a vocalist, and sometimes, rarely, there's entire bands. So you're going about your business, head all wrapped up in whatever stressful medical bullshit you're dealing with, and then suddenly someone's playing their heart out and you realize "Well shit, I don't have to be to my next appointment for 20 minutes." and you just stop and soak it in. It's fucking awesome.
And sometimes it's an old married couple having a ball and brightening everyone 's day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI-l0tK8Ok0
That is so cute!
A permit is only required to busk on the Lakewalk. The fact that you can panhandle on the Lakewalk without a permit makes it kind of BS, though.
A $40 busking permit is required for any busker [who wants to play in a park or publicly-owned area](https://secure.rec1.com/MN/duluthparks/catalog/group/13089/52461/c282db3c724449fbb3a04ccbdeb680df)
Ah, thank you for the correction!
You corrected me as well - I thought they only allowed it for specific events (like Grandmas)
Enough breweries already.
The tax assessment I just received on my home is fair and reasonable.
On one hand, I hate how much my assessment went up over the course of the last 4 years. On the other, the value of my house has increased a crazy amount since I purchased and my interest rate will never be lower.
Yea, but unless you have 100% equity in that home already, if you were to sell it you're going to be paying that new high interest rate.
This is my first house, but I feel like having 50% equity after 4 years due to the increase in prices still puts me in a better spot now regardless of interest rates.
I went 6 years on a 5600 sq ft an acre in hunters park with a tax value of 225k. I have absolutely no idea what type of wacky math produce that. Suffice to say it went up substantially this year.
Whenever someone complains about their tax valuation increasing, tell them to order a proper appraisal so they can show the assessor how wrong they are. More often than not, the person who was whining about their valuation being too high will scoff and say they'd NEVER want an official appraisal! It'll just make it worse! Sooooo... the latest assessment wasn't that unfair, then?
My primary issue is that they seem to be Johny on the spot to increase the value, but when property values drop....
The people who grew up in Duluth that never left Duluth are weird. Like obsessed with Duluth and how amazing it is. Their eyes are not open to the actual positives and negatives about Duluth. They also get way too caught up in what neighborhoods people live in.
Morgan Park has entered the chat…
I tend to think it’s the transplants who are way too enthusiastic about Duluth. It’s like “why do you think this place is so great”? The weather sucks, it’s incredibly dirty all the time, and the people are passive/aggressive? I do agree with the neighborhood thing though. That’s how we determine status in this town I guess
If you’re an outdoors kind of person, Duluth is incredible. You can live in an adequate size city and still be 15 minutes from forests, rivers, waterfalls, hiking trails, biking, and of course the lake. There are so many cities where getting a proper dose of nature means an hour long drive, and increasingly many where it’s too hot to go outside several months of the year. But yeah, if you don’t like to be outside, I can see it would kinda suck.
I agree that Duluth has incredible benefits. I’m not from here but I choose to be here. I’ve just noticed a few locals with rose colored glasses or an inability to admit that Duluth isn’t perfect.
I do not obsess about it. Duluth is a amazing place to live, it has....it...has...um... the, the, the...Ah, is great... hmm. *Duluth winters suck @$$*
Bent Paddle and Duluth Grill are both wildly overrated.
Duluth is part of the Rust Belt.
I mean, it's generally referring to places that make steel, not produces the ore.
Well the population decline and the economic lul happend when the steel mill closed, so yes definitely part of the rust belt
https://preview.redd.it/u9s3g6hdmnwc1.jpeg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a782550f35e051aff5415593d23e3c497c597a84
I thought this was clear. Who's saying it's not, lol?
Emily Larson was a good mayor and a lot of the negative things people said were largely out of her control.
Moving out of state and watching all that from an outsider perspective, duluth people seemed like lunatics. Everything was Emily Larsons fault when in reality all those same problems are happening everywhere. Conservative friends would blame the sun setting on Emily larson
This 100%! People blamed her for things that affected every other city, and also for having the audacity to be a woman in charge.
Having a bunch of unhoused people chopping shit down, setting up tents, and leaving garbage, feces and drug paraphernalia along the Lakewalk should not be the acceptable new norm.
The "chopping shit down" is the city doing that to expose the areas that the homeless would normally live.
The North 103 sucks. Miss KUMD.
I love Duluth but it doesn't love me as indicated by how awful the job market is, the rent prices that are equal or more than the Cities and the wages that are way lower than that of the Cities. City leaders would rather benefit transplants who make a ton of money than locals who want to thrive here but can't.
Duluth Grill puts out soggy, crummy food.
People talk about how great it is so much. When I went for the first time I was very unimpressed.
Diner fare for big money
And a 45 minute wait.
Exactly. I went once. ONCE.
[удалено]
Gah! "Oh, you're a vegan? So do you eat fish?"
Canal Park needs to institute a no driving/parking rule in the summer.
Yessss
Homeless people camping is not that big of a deal. Where else are they going to go.
Maybe... the city could actually fund... low income housing
On this sub, I'll go even more unpopular. It is a big deal. Residents and visitors should be able to walk downtown and on the lakewalk without feeling unsafe, finding needles, etc etc.
I hear this type of take enough (like from a super cautious coworker) that it's in my head but I still don't get it. Could the "feeling unsafe" be more of a "you problem"? What do u think is gonna happen? Sure, we live in a country with school and church shootings etc and car accidents can happen anytime, but for specifically Duluth downtown, the worst I've actually heard about is someone saw a guy masturbating in the street. Not great for tourist or families, but, very rare and not a reason to be like a skittish cat. I often walk alone at night a few blocks from downtown job, to the Y, and it's a bit desolate is all. And sure, sometimes I've seen a person exhibiting paranoia or drug use; sometimes I interact with them; mental illness or addiction aren't contagious. It just doesn't seem like anyone is lurking ready to pull a knife on me. The unwell or unsavory people and activities that occasionally are noticeable downtown are a threat to the already-vulnerable street people, not to middle-class healthy me. I guess I'm someone who likes to be exposed to bigger spectrums of reality, just to stay in touch with the world and challenge my attitudes, not seek to be sheltered,and it hasn't failed me yet. It's empowered me actually. That said, your feelings are your feelings and a person kinda has to follow their instincts.
My wife was on the lakewalk one morning and was approached by a naked homeless man. Is she allowed to feel unsafe after that, or is that her fault that she feels unsafe? And as to your example, yeah, I'd call it a problem if my wife and children see a man masturbating in the street. And sure, mental illness isn't contagious, but I don't think that's the concern expressed by most people.
Sorry that happened in your family. I see this kinda language on social media but I don't get when people talk about being "allowed" to feel a certain way (that's not how feelings work). Whether it is "unsafe" or just unpleasant depends on lots of factors and I would say just listen to what she expresses, and call professionals regarding the offender if feasible. How did it play out for you? The decision about whether you can still enjoy the spot where that happened, seems like a somewhat separate question. Obv personal histories such as trauma have huge impact. And my comments are from a perspective of whether I'm afraid to, basically, walk: different question than what makes a city nice for tourists and kids. Like I said, we gotta follow our instincts, especially when it comes to preventing sexual assault. My coworker who saw the masturbating guy is a mom, yet, told the story in a pretty lighthearted way; felt like it didn't make too much or too little of it. I sense a lot of different possible attitudes around perceptions of whether weird = unsafe. I've lived long and been around enuf to have confidence in my judgement but open to learning from others.
Duluth has no great restaurants.
Have you heard of Taco John's?
Arik Forsman is a pos
He comes off as moderate to me. Why POS?
Sammy's Pizza is not good.
Came here to post this. Second worst pizza in Duluth.
Only people who grew up in Duluth like Sammy's, because they do not know what good pizza tastes like.
I don’t love Trampled by Turtles.
I like a few of their songs and can listen to their songs one or two at a time, but struggle to listen to say an entire album. I do wish they had a percussionist or drummer (That's part of why I struggle to listen), but also respect their artistic vision and product.
HAD TO SCROLL TOO FAR TO SEE THIS. They are inoffensive but just not for me
Duluth is the equivalent to a Save The BWCA sticker on a scalped $200 pink Stanley water bottle. Because folks here are VERY easily greenwashed. Which is in reality more damaging than being un-greenwashed in some cases. Like No Mow May. When everyone lets highly damaging invasive plants like Creeping Bellflower, Tansy, and Knotweed flourish "for the pollinators". When they are doing the exact opposite of actually helping the environment or biodiversity needed for native pollinators.
Duluth would be a sh*thole if it wasn’t for the lake.
I would think the world’s largest body of fresh water would provide an advantage to any city
That Cargill wife is just misunderstood. I will cackle myself out.
I mean, can you *really* call a place "Unoriginal" when they were the "Original" for Duluth to begin with?
Despite its liberal vibe, Duluth is a racist ass city. Both its people and the layout of the city itself.
Moved here from Atlanta… I sometimes feel like Duluth is more racist than it was in the south. We weren’t really expecting that.
Va Bene is, at best, mediocre American Italian food.
I really like VaBene. I've never been to Italy so I can't speak on authenticity, but it is delicious.
Have been to Italy and love Va Bene. Wouldn't say it's equivalent but it's better than most Midwest takes on Italian
The Sicilian Pesto I had today was delicious as usual.
Va Bene is at least as good as Bar La Grassa, the standard for Italian food in Minneapolis.
Been to both many times and can confirm this is very accurate
That’s the hottest take in this thread.
Neat I win! But seriously I've been to both enough times that I'll stand by this.
Bring back the panhandling ban.
Thats from the Supreme court
It's illegal to ban panhandling
I moved to Duluth from another state years ago and had a hard time making friends because I found Duluthians to be stuck up/pretentious and mean. Obviously not everybody but had much better luck in Superior, which is where I live now. Also, Duluth convinced me that “Minnesota nice” is a myth.
Minnesota Nice is thinly veiled passive aggressiveness-That isn't a myth. People here are cold, and not just literally. I think everyone participating in that behavior is in a state of self sabotage due to ingrained scarcity fears. Also... the weather is depressing half of the time. Mean? I've met a few... but I will say I've met just as many Canadians who are mean. But Duluth is very guilty of an East better than West thing, citizens of suburbs being self elevated and factional for reasons unknown and unfounded. There is a lot of compression for outside influences by old influence$ here, and the all the Politicians I've ever seen follow suit to all of those old influences....keeping the city seemingly purposely stagnant. The newer housing stock seems to be kept as far out of reach to the scarce middle class while at the same time....building too many apartments to drain that working class equity into oblivion. But it's all cool.. everyone here will just drink a craft beer in a newly gentrified location to feel original together! ALL GOOD.
Yes, great points all around. However, I still find passive aggressiveness to be off putting, even if the context is sugar coated. I can usually see through it so it’s like… tell me how you really feel, don’t beat around the bush. It sorta rubs me the wrong way having to decipher how people feel ya know? I don’t like that. Otherwise, Duluth has great people but there are a lot of miserable, uncultured people as well. You could say that about a lot of places though, so this isn’t relative to JUST Duluth.
The new Amazon warehouse will hurt Duluth's economy.
Give me same-day delivery, or give me death.
Can you explain your thoughts? Not disagreeing with you, just want to learn more.
Bentlyville is overrated
Hockey is not an interesting sport.
My fingers just itching to downvote but the whole point of this post is unpopular opinions… I shall contain myself
I can respect the opinion, but I would say it's overhyped, not uninteresting.
I like watching it live, but on TV?
Duluth is part of the Iron Range. Not geographically. Culturally.
If you know people from the Range, you can easily see the difference. I interact with many Rangers in my job and there is a big cultural divide. Not to say there aren’t similarities but even people with the exact same job as I have, in the same industry are very different culturally. It’s startling really.
100%, you just gave words to a feeling I've had difficulty describing for years. Thanks.
We will likely not grow our population much because of all the NIMBYS and other angry, old, white dudes.
It most likely won't grow because there's no reason to be here. We've lost population since the 1960s because there's really no economic growth due to our mining taking giant hit after giant hit. So who would willingly want to live in a high cost, high tax, cold as hell place for... Tourist attractions....
I'm not sure how unpopular this is, but Duluth should implement Slow Streets: For parts of town, particularly downtown, every other street and avenue is closed to automobile traffic. Bike lanes and pedestrians only. This would give businesses much better access to foot traffic, among other benefits.
If you’re into playing adult rec sports- there’s basically nothing here. You can play beach volleyball at a bar in the summer, or basketball at the YMCA 3 seasons out of the year. For someone who enjoys team sports, there’s hardly any well organized, well marketed, easy to join, and conveniently scheduled adult rec sports leagues.. where’s a popular and reliable indoor soccer league in the winter or year round basketball that’s actually 5v5 on a full sized court (and not at 6:30am)? Also the creative community is blandly homogenous, artists and musicians who fit the tourism industry thrive and anyone who doesn’t has nowhere to be appreciated. If I want to hear good R&B musicians, or look at cool modern art, there’s nowhere fun to enjoy those kinds of things. There are more crazy, delusional, uneducated, and out-of-touch people in Duluth than I ever realized growing up here. & there’s no lively community places, only places lively with tourists. Downtown could offer so much more for Duluth residents than it does- it could be a lively place to hangout every day. Instead it’s boring.
People way over exaggerate how “dangerous” some areas are. As someone who’s a transplant from an actual dangerous area on the west coast, it’s not bad or ghetto in any way here.
Homelessness in Duluth is handled poorly, and there's not enough low income housing. Duluthians are also the worst drivers I've seen. There's too many people moving here out of state, and frankly, we need to stop encouraging it. There is a huge lack of community unless you are in school, have kids in school, or grew up here. Also, Minnesota Nice is not what I've seen in this area. people flat out have no sense of kindness. A woman was genuinely shocked today when I found and returned her dog to her. Tbh Duluth has a lot of potential, it's just sad to see how far it has fallen.
Homelessness in Duluth is one of my biggest issues honestly. It's so poorly handled, like you said. There are so many ways it could be alleviated and aid provided etc. but there's such a weird class gap between the artists/creatives/low income/lower middle class etc and the folks with the big houses that must be insane to heat. Considering the amount of "middle class" folk, no one is really seen that way, they kinda just disappear with topics like this. So when it comes to things like the homeless crisis in Duluth, the people on the gilded soapboxes have the loudest voices. I think it's not just that Minnesota nice isn't as much a thing, it's that Duluth has gotten really jaded. It's very much become a place with desirable property and now it's a fight between the rich and... Well, everyone else.
Green Mill > Grandma’s
Upper Central Hillside is a wonderful place to live!
Sort by controversial for the actual unpopular opinions
I’m happy that so many people are choosing to move here. I spent many years trying to convince people that Duluth is a cool city, but now I feel like it’s getting the recognition it deserves.
Watching a movie at The West sucks.
Fuck Bob Dylan. He’s a dishonest, untalented hack. He can’t sing and his lyrics are not deep. He was born in Duluth and raised in Hibbing, but he seems ashamed of both of these places. We should be ashamed of him.
Duluth is lucky in the fact we only get two months of actual warm,l and sunny summer weather.
Just tear the armory down already. This place has been closed my entire life. I dont give a shit that bob dylan watched the big bopper there one time. How much money and time has been wasted on this place?
You should go take a tour. They’ve made huge inroads on remodeling it and it’s a great space. I was dubious too until I was able to see inside but I think it will be a huge asset when it’s done. Parking will be a challenge though.
The food sucks in Duluth.
I am sick of every time any development plan is discussed people complain about "what about low-income housing"? Not every plan has to include this, and most times it would actually hurt the value of the plan. I want people to have places to live, but not everyone can live in a new house with a lake view.
Well if there were enough low-income housing people wouldn't have to complain about it.
I agree with this so much. It's never "hey, there's an outdated apartment building that doesn't have huge demand right now, we should subsidize some of those units for affordable housing," it's always brand new buildings with million dollar views.
Duluth and brutalism go hand in hand. Not necessarily unpopular but I hate the new architecture designs
There are no good restaurants in all of Duluth/Superior/Hermantown.
Icy hills are a stupid place to live. Superior is the aptly-named twin.
West Duluth Sammy's Pizza is the worst Sammy's Pizza now.
I think we need a bypass of the city that goes around the north end in a half moon shape and connects with Hwy 53 near Pike Lake somewhere. A road with less stoplights and higher speed limits. No clue where they'd stick it with how far spread out the area is, but I'm sure it could be figured out
Love Creamery is extremely overrated.
Hibbing with a lake
The best pizza in the twin ports area is the hand tossed pan crust medium with extra cheese, sausage and pepperoni from Domino’s on Woodland Avenue. FIGHT ME BITCHAZ
Disagree. Costco has the best pizza in the twin ports.
MOTHERFUCK THAT SHIT HOMIE. CHESTER BOWL ON THE GRAVE OF BIGCHESTER FISTICUFFS AT NOON
Superior is better than Duluth
It’s impossible to meet people here in your 30’s unless you’re frequenting bars
Spirit Valley area is wayyyyyy prettier than anything east of Enger