Local View: Downtown, UMD can help end Duluth s era of stagnant growth
From the column: The populations of Fargo (124,662), Rochester (118,935), and Sioux Falls (183,793) all nearly tripled since 1960. Duluth’s (85,618) shrank by 20%.
Written By:
Doug Pazienza | ×
Construction on Superior Street and Lake Avenue on Thursday, July 9. (Tyler Schank / tschank@duluthnews.com)
Duluth is in trouble. Sixty years of constrictive and stationary population is setting the city up for disaster. Predictions are real of an acute labor shortage, as baby boomers retire from the workforce.
The populations of Fargo (124,662), Rochester (118,935), and Sioux Falls (183,793) all nearly tripled since 1960. Duluth’s (85,618) shrank by 20%.
Those other cities retooled their economies, balanced the books, retained their postmarks, lit their streets, filled job vacancies, maintained lower tax rates, raised per-capita incomes, and filled classrooms. Their insipid cityscapes can’