JP, I used to work on 1st st and 1st ave east, at a publishing company housed in the bldg for women and you really capture the essence of 1st street, especially in your last sentence. It indeed is a difficult street to categorize. There's a lot of sadness and poverty on that street, but also a lot of laughter. A lot of anger, but also a lot of love and cameraderie. Anti-abortion protesters marching around the BFW while drunks try to avoid them, making a beeline for the liquor store. We'd walk along 1st st. to Paper Hog, and there were always characters outside the bar that used to stand on the corner of Lake and 1st. They'd always say the oddest things to us and we half suspected they might have been actors secretly filming our reactions to their oddness -- a la Candid Camera. I sometimes miss 1st St before the wrecking ball destroyed some of those ramshackle buldings and those characters went elsewhere. But glad to see the street life hasn't been diminished, despite the huge parking ramps along the street east of Lake. I honestly had more frightening encounters with the anti-abortion protesters (one of whom chased after me into the BFW once, yelling, "You'll have the blood of your murdered child on your hands," when I was like 6-7 months pregnant), than I ever did with the people hanging around outside the Kozy or any of the other bars. It sure is one colorful neighborhood.

I too enjoy taking pictures at this spot: http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/photogallery/id/1066/

welcome to the 
Not-Mister-Rogers-Hood and
im a cartoon

those shoes have been there a long time. 
i think it means somethin about dope being available. 

next time youre around, note the video camera atop the Kozy Bar, pointing at the rooftop. i marvel at the sight. everything here is like props. surreal. and its a bitch living downtown. im not so worried about the ghetto goings on.. 

what concerns me are men driving in circles round the one-ways looken for a date.  its flippin crazy. A non-hooker chick cant walk anywhere without being stalked by those magpies. 

ohhhhhh 
theres not anything to worry about regarding prostitution in duluth. theyre not hurting anyone..  ive heard THAT before.


ever seen the desert? you dont want to. 
nor would your wife or daughter. 

think about it. 

thats my $.02 about shoes