News and Current Affairs Posts

Noooooooooo!

oh give a guy a break

Classic bars and liquor stores on the outs

The Break Room - Duluth

A few recent booze-related news items we’ve been too busy to mention in detail on PDD:

  • A sign went up last month at 501 E. Fourth St. declaring the former Twins Bar will be reopening as the Break Room.
  • West Duluth’s venerable North Pole Bar is delinquent on property and sales taxes. It was not open this past Saturday night.
  • Last Chance Liquor in the Central Hillside will close in the coming months.
  • Warehouse Liquor on Central Entrance will close and be replaced with a Dunkin’ Donuts.

Reviewing Hedwig and the Angry Inch

So I thought I would like to write a review of the rock-musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

I am new to writing full-blown reviews so I guess by default this will be the worst one ever… but also the best? I am by no means an expert on anything, nor should you hold my opinion to more or less value than you would hold to someone you just met on the street. My opinion is my own, but I would like to share it.

Bent Paddle 14° ESB wins medal at Great American Beer Festival

Bent Paddle 14-degree ESBDuluth’s Bent Paddle Brewing won a bronze medal in the Extra Special Bitter category at the Great American Beer Festival this past weekend in Boulder, Colo. Presented by the Brewers Association, the Great American Beer Festival is the largest commercial beer competition in the world.

This year 268 medals were awarded in 90 categories covering 145 different beer styles. A group of 222 beer experts from 10 countries evaluated the 5,507 commercial entries from 1,309 breweries.

Fitger’s Brewhouse is a past medal winner, taking home a bronze in the American-Style Sour Ale category in 2012 for its Fitger’s Framboise and another bronze in the French- and Belgian-Style Saison category in 2004 for its Farm House Reserve.

It’s always warm at Victus Farm

A recent story on American Public Media’s Marketplace program — “How to grow lettuce and fish indoors, all year long” — explores the wonders of aquaponics. Victus Farm is profiled for growing produce fertilized by fish grown in the same facility. The project is a partnership between the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Center for Sustainable Community Development and the city of Silver Bay. UMD Geography Professor Mike Mageau and a former student, Baylor Radtke, are also building a smaller fish-and-vegetable operation in Radtke’s yard in Duluth.

Lolling across West Duluth and overseas

Loll Designs is moving its production facilities to 59th Avenue West and Waseca Street.

Duluth News Tribune: Loll Designs growing and on the move in Duluth

I bought several Epicurean chopping boards and a trivet where I live now in England over the years at various stockists. They’re great! Hopefully more product lines will be available. Just returned from Denmark and was chuffed to see Epicurean products in Copenhagen’s grandest department store, Magasin du Nord. It would be brilliant if Epicurean/Loll’s webshop could accept payments from international debit/credit cards and customers so I could Xmas shop online for Stateside relatives.

Oh, and every time I see my neighbor’s resin patio table and chairs in our shared back garden, I want to heave. God give me Loll Designs!

Skyline Parkway Corridor Management Plan

Icy Street Panaramic

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.

Ark of the Anthropocene is coming to Duluth and needs support!

Ark-of-the-Anthropocene-DNT-photoMinneapolis-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.

Goodbye Little and Big Chester

Little Chester demolition - MPR photo

MPR: Ski jumps that launched Olympians come tumbling down

Redstone damaged by fire

Redstone

From the assistant fire chief’s office:

At 00:52 this morning, the Duluth Fire Department responded to a structure fire at 1511 E. Superior St. The first vehicle on scene reported a working fire, with heavy fire showing from a first-floor window of a three-story building. The fire had extended to the second floor via a pipe chase.

Outside Magazine “Best Outdoor City” segment on MSNBC

“… but it’s cold! How on earth did Duluth become the number one city?”

2014 Duluth General Election Primer

There are less than three months to study up; the General Election will be held on Nov. 4. Below are the races that will appear on ballots in Duluth, with links to the websites of candidates who have them.
 
 
FEDERAL OFFICES


United States Senator
Steve Carlson (Independence)
Mike McFadden (Republican)
Al Franken (Democratic-Farmer-Labor)
Heather Johnson (Libertarian)

United States Representative, Minnesota District 8
Ray “Skip” Sandman (Green)
Stewart Mills (Republican)
Rick Nolan (Democratic-Farmer-Labor)
 

Duluth 2014 Primary Election Results

With 4,106 of 4,106 precincts reporting statewide, the full results are in. Listed are the races relevant to Duluth.

Upset (at the Mayor) in Duluth

Check out the image that accompanies this DNT article: Meeting with the Duluth mayor (link to full-size photo). Yikes! There’s not a whole lotta love in that room (especially from Ms. Tie-Dye)!

R.I.P. West Duluth Fire and Police Station / Twin Ports Amusement Building

West Duluth Fire and Police Station demolition

The building at 531 Central Avenue in West Duluth was torn down on July 28, 2014. In its early years it served as the West Duluth Fire and Police Station, West Duluth Village Hall, Duluth Fire Department Engine House #8 and Duluth Police Department Station #3, among other things.

For it’s final three decades, the building was known as the home of Twin Ports Amusement, operated by the Kervina family until operations ceased a few year ago. (The business was also known as Twin Ports Vending & Amusement and Twin Ports Arrowhead Amusement). The most recent occupant of the building was Jody’s Auto Werkz, which was in the back of the building.

Prior to the Twin Ports Amusement era, the building served as Puglisi Toyota, an auto sales and service business run by Jack Puglisi in the early 1970s. Prior to that it was Crown Motors, operated by Leonard Caskey.

For more, read the history of West Duluth Village Hall on Zenith City online.

West Duluth Fire and Police Station demolition 2

for sale

Fire and Police Station

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