UO > Community Profile

Duluth is a small city of 87,000 people with another 34,000 in the neighboring towns of Superior, Hermantown, and Proctor. The medical industry is mostly clustered on the hillside close to downtown. Downtown buildings are connected by an indoor skywalk for shelter from winter cold and summer heat. What is known as rush hour in other American cities simply doesn’t exist here. An errand to the grocery store, the mall, or the book store never takes more than 15 minutes. Accessibility to work, home, and services adds greatly to the standard of living for most people in Duluth, as do clean drinking water from Lake Superior and unpolluted air. In 2002 the American Lung Association listed Duluth as one of the top cities for clean air.

Residents of Duluth who travel to other areas are surprised at the low quality of drinking water, often returning to Duluth with praise for their city’s water taste, clarity, and coolness. The Duluth public works department is constantly upgrading the city’s old water and sewer system. The Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD) is creatively promoting alternatives for waste processing. The sewer treatment plant is completely powered by the biologic process through the capture of natural gasses and the incineration of dried wastes, making it independent of traditional power consumption needs. WLSSD also maintains a free yard waste disposal site, food composting facility for residents and restaurants, oil and household hazardous waste drop off center, and an affordable brush and branches disposal area. All the organic materials are composted and sold back in the spring and fall to area gardeners for affordable prices. It’s a program that resident take advantage of by the truck load.

The urban set will appreciate the cultural activities offered through organizations like the Duluth-based Minnesota Ballet, the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra, and sponsored events at The University of Minnesota Duluth, the College of Saint Scholastica, and the University of Wisconsin Superior. The annual multi-day blues festival, headline acts, and conventions centered in the harbor district of Canal Park, partner well with local organizations which sponsor big band dance parties in the grand ballroom of the 1903 Hotel Duluth to offer residents a wide variety of musical entertainment. An active continuing education program is offered quarterly to engage residents’ interests in everything from home repair to stained glass, and from kayaking to creative writing.

Clean air, good water, and shortened commute times allow city residents to enjoy their leisure time outdoors. Some of this time is spent in the 105,000+ acres of city maintained public space. The same wealthy industrialists who cut down the great timber stocks and opened large holes in the ground to extract the iron ore were also great planners and benefactors, offering Duluth large tracts of land for city parks, trails, and green space. Duluth has 125 municipal parks and playgrounds, 22 neighborhood recreation centers, 8 self-guided hiking trails, 27 miles of groomed cross country ski trails, and 45 miles of snowmobile trails. These combined with a lifeguard-staffed swimming beach, indoor pool, facilities for softball, tennis, soccer, baseball, basketball, horseshoes, hockey, and bocce make the city perfect for active people.

Such attributes sold the staff of Outside magazine, which named Duluth one of the top ten dream towns, along with Santa Fe, Boulder, Santa Barbara, and Bellingham, Washington. Outside magazine correspondent Mike Grudowki writes, “...the ten best outdoorsy communities we found, explored and scrutinized, [were] places where the miles of single track far exceed the miles of six-lane beltway, where you can stroll or pedal to the farmers market, where the arts scene doesn’t stop at the multiplex, where you don’t have to count the number of garages from the corner to tell which house is yours....Places that no one could mistake for Anywhere.”

Rubin certainly wouldn’t mistake Duluth for Anywhere. “A healthy lifestyle is important to us. I like the four distinct seasons and I love all the opportunities here for being outside,” he says. “My wife and I don’t worry as much about crime as when we lived in Minneapolis and I like my colleagues. Everyone I work with is enthusiastic about being in Duluth.” n