OK, maybe there are more than twelve steps, and maybe they are not-so-easy. But the City of Duluth and the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District promised a “12-year schedule to stop sewage overflows.” That was back in 2004 (I think), so if my math is right we are 8 years into the plan. I don’t know about you, fellow Duluthians, but I am feeling irie!

Here it is early February, and spring is in the air. That means snow-melt, which admittedly won’t be a huge issue this year. But we know from past experience that spring melt and heavy rains can lead to sewer overflows. This is a problem worth understanding, and rather than trying to offer details here, I highly recommend WLSSD’s article on the topic (I and I Solutions – Inflow and Infiltration: When Clean Water Causes Problems!).

Read more about why I love the new storage tank in Canal Park, and overlook some of its less redeeming qualities (and see a photo) by visiting today’s Nature of Modern Life post.

I’m no longer in Duluth, but I found out about a campaign going on there right now and I couldn’t be more encouraged by the people and message behind it, including Mayor Ness. If you haven’t heard about it, check out local news coverage here.

I strongly support the message, which is not, “Hey white people. You are all racists.” Rather it is “Hey white people. You have privileges bestowed upon you because you are white.” Being white can make it harder to see that others in society are not equal because they are not white. I for one am happy to see Mayor Ness using his authority and influence to help open people’s eyes to the issue of racism in Duluth and beyond. Unfortunately Mayor Ness says he is getting death threats because of this.

Check out the Un-Fair Campaign website for more info: http://unfaircampaign.org/

I’d love to hear what people in Duluth are thinking.

Here is what your monitors look like when you spend your Saturday night migrating PDD to a new VPS server. The amount of data currently used by PDD is 3.4GB, needless to say that takes a little while to transfer and reconfigure. If you are seeing this post you are seeing PDD on its new home. Oh side-note, the old server was in Canada the new one is in the USA….
I feel so patriotic right now!

Server Migration

Is anybody else a little freaked out about all the crime in Duluth lately?

A 62-year-old friend of mine was walking home from work a few weeks ago and was brutally assaulted with a hammer by St. Mary’s parking ramp and the perpetrator was never found. There was no report of this in the media.

Now this week we have muggings and a bloody dead body found on Michigan St. How come the media is not covering this? Should we start a Duluth Crime Facebook page to keep each other informed?

What do you think?

It’s visible in Finland — as in northern Europe, not Finland, Minn.
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Carless in Duluth is a short documentary showcasing people in Duluth who walk, bike, or take the bus instead of driving. Notice how easy it is to forget that pedestrians and bicyclists exist when the environment is designed only for cars.

Premiering this March at a local downtown independent cinema near you.

Ann Lockwood, who stands outside her home at 627 E. Eighth St., expresses her gratitude Monday for the help she received from Project Save Our Homes in preventing the foreclosure of her house. She’s flanked by Duluth city Councilor Sharla Gardner (left) and County Commissioner Steve O’Neil.

Duluth News Tribune: “Fighting foreclosures, one home at a time: New group helps Duluth woman keep her home.”

The Newspaper Lady has died. When I moved here, I stubbornly continued to red MSP papers for a year. At every street festival, at every new student weekend on campus at UMD and LSC, she was there, giving out papers and tempting me with deals. After about four free papers and four smooth pitches, I became a DNT subscriber and never looked back.

Thank you, Newspaper Lady. You helped make Duluth home.

See: “Man held on suspicion of drunken driving in Duluth crash that kills woman, injures grandson” for details.

St. Louis County Commissioner Chris Dahlberg has been appointed to the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. This is an excellent move toward economic development in our area. Our state needs to put more business-minded individuals like Dahlberg into theses positions. Better yet, the state needs to get more business oriented across the board.

Google Fiber work in KCK is delayed by dispute over how its wires are hung.

Welcome back to your regularly scheduled Perfect Duluth Day programming. For roughly 24 hours, PDD was blacked out to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Protect IP Act in the U.S. Senate, co-sponsored by senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar.

Now that the silence is over, rant and rave all you want in the comments.

Here are some news links:

Fox 21: “Websites Black-Out in Protest of Possible Internet Censorship”
MPR: Delegation responds to Internet piracy bills
AP: Wikipedia editors question site’s SOPA blackout

Following up on a post from July 2010:

The Canal Park Brewing Co. has the beginnings of a website now, it is expected to open this summer, construction is underway and Wagner Zaun Architecture’s designs look like this:

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Hello Duluthians! My name is Astrid Mazariegos. I am a second year pharmacy student at UMD.

This year I am coordinating a trip to Puebla, Mexico. Usually, only students from the College of Pharmacy Twin Cities campus participate. However, this year I wanted to promote this great opportunity in Duluth. So far I have 15 classmates who have signed up.
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Background: Ann Lockwood is the owner of a modest East Hillside home. She walks with a prosthetic leg after a major medical crisis that also cost her a good-paying job. Ann is now at risk of losing her home to foreclosure by State Farm Bank, even though she is working again and able make consistent mortgage payments.

Please join us on Monday, MLK Day, at 10am to send this message from our community to State Farm: 1. cancel the sheriff’s sale of Ann’s home, and 2. provide Ann with a fixed-rate loan modification she can afford. Gather at 8th St and 7th Ave E, then march to the Washington Center to join the main MLK Day celebration.

This kind of people power is saving homes across the country, and we aim to do the same for our neighbors in Duluth.

What: Save Ann’s Home — March for housing rights

When: Monday, January 16, 10 to 11 a.m.

Where: Meet at the corner of 8th St & 7th Av E, march to the Washington Center

Who: Project Save Our Homes, Loaves & Fishes Community, Minnesotans for a Fair Economy, and hillside neighbors

More on Facebook, and check here for a complete listing of MLK weekend events.

I’ve been having hot flashes. No, not that kind of hot flash. And if it were, I sure wouldn’t be writing about it here. I am talking about something more insidious: a societal hot flash.

Is anyone else losing patience with media references to “unseasonably warm” temperatures? This is a record-busting winter on all counts.

Case in point, Little Angie’s: “Opulent Ice House Coming Soon: December 9 Until Thaw!” High-end cocktails to be offered in a lounge made of ice blocks. But today I noticed the piled shards of melting ice scattered around the enclosure. They just couldn’t get the thing built.

For more ranting about the Duluth climate-change experience, including a couple of photos, please see my latest Nature of Modern Life blog post.

(And, yes, it would seem that the joke is on me. Winter is here today. Gone tomorrow? We’ll see.)

Of all the obvious jabs at MN 8th District Congressman Raymond “Chip” Cravaack for moving to New Hampshire – which reached a fever pitch today for the New Hampshire primary – this is definitely the funniest. (Note to moderators, it’s blatantly partisan, certain to test the new commenting policy).

Not sure if the movie clips are fair-use or not so I suppose it could get yanked at any time.

voted to pass the National Defense Authorization Act , which contains a provision that would allow the military to abduct American citizens, on US soil, without charges or trial, indefinitely. Ex CIA analyst Ray McGovern discusses it here. Both Minnesota senators voted yea. This is a big deal!

UMD  released the name of a student found dead in his dorm Monday. William “Billy” Harper, 19 from Coon Rapids, was discovered dead in his room at Heany Hall on Monday. Lisa Erwin, chancellor of student life, says it appears he died of natural causes.  Billy Harper was enrolled in the Labowitz School of Business and Economics. He was very active in sports and talented football player in high school. My prayers are with his friends and family.

The Daily Beast: America’s 25 Coldest Cities

As someone still fairly new to town, I’m not sure I understand the whole story behind the legalities of the Fond-du-Luth casino downtown.

Is it located on sovereign Indian territory or is the Fond du Lac band just the landlords? Why do we have such an eyesore that encourages anti-social behavior in our downtown at all? Isn’t there some way to make it go away entirely in favor of  say, a museum, or a book store, or affordable housing, or a cafe?

[BTW -- I come from a family of origin where the scourge of gambling wreaked havoc. Yeah, yeah, I know people can enjoy gambling and do it responsibly -- but can't we at least leave that out of downtown and off in Nevada or on reservations? (Of course, I don't think it's really healthy for reservations either, but if that's a sovereignty issue I respect that.)]

Zygi buys new apartment in NY