I learned SO much from this newsletter. Thank you Arik for compiling and sending this out to community members. My extended family would have been around for the historic Incline railroad at the turn of the century. I loved learning more about the project and think they would approve of the plans to return that space to the community.
Thank you for this impressive update!! Very informative about the happenings on the City Council - I greatly appreciate the time and effort to put this forward.
Regarding the Library - there should be a Library presence downtown, but it can’t be the sole occupant of a building. I agree with combining Library foot print with the Career Force resources, and private businesses to take advantage of that location.
Looking forward to the opening of the Cat Cafe — I have nieces who will want to visit the cafe simply for the cats! Thanks again.
This new iteration of the library with housing, shopping, and office space could be where CareerForce goes. Then, it would be the core impact what was needed to begin with.
Arik, thank you for providing such great content and summarizing council happenings. It is always refreshing to have the information in digestible chunks. Keep up the good work!
Be aware of politicians and their reporting on what is happening. Not independent at all, and this councilor seems to have forgotten about some items and cherry-picks what he likes to share.
He has now, as of March 30th, turned off comments so those of us who like to add to Ariks comments with some follow-up questions and thoughts are no longer able to engage with him here. Seems odd for a councilor that represents the entire City to not accept comments on his distribution of his point of view alone. The modern politician refuses to ask tough questions but loves sharing their view with little to no questioning of it. Pete Stauber's style, I guess, of town halls held via phone so he can share only what he wants with no follow-up, it answer to hard questions. I call Pete a coward for not having in person townhalls. Arik is operating as close to this as one can get.
Mike, thanks for your engagement. It’s unfortunate you seem to always assume the worst when engaging with my content here or elsewhere over the years. I crosspost these editions on Facebook where comments have always been welcomed. Happy to turn them back on for Substack as well, although this tool was always intended to be an email update and not another social site to manage. As to your views on the 333 project, I made it very clear the city was not allowing VDU’s within the building prior to approval and staff is working to further clarify that intent in the agreements. The audio of that meeting is available on DEDA’s website. I was already planning on a DEDA update for next month and will be happy to cover that and more.
Sorry, you do not like it when I call out things that I see as an issue. In my career, it was often "no news is good news", but I guess you prefer pleasantries before we enter the meat of the matter.
Anyway, I suggest that you visit the DEDA website and find out how available the recording is. I'm still waiting to hear back from my request for the latest. The one there is from March 2024. I only noticed this when listening to it and seeing that it didn't match the latest agenda, which was listed one day different from the recording, minus the year.
I sent my request for the latest and also a note on the issue of the recording. Why would one need to request a recording in the first place? Maybe you can work on this so that transparency inside DEDA is more modern.
Question: Will the council vote on the amendments to this development plan and TIF? Or is it done all within DEDA? I would say the short-term piece is significant and should be brought to the council with enough time for citizens to be aware of and comment on. I think the other pieces should also have council approval seeing that there is a TIF subsidy. This should see daylight along with the one you voted on, not only the tweaked one you say staff is working on. The public needs to know about the abuse of the use of TIFs. It helps folks to know what’s happening behind closed doors or meetings that folks cannot attend.
Pleasantries:
I hope you and your young family are doing well. I'll be traveling for a month and hope Duluth makes up its mind if it's winter or summer when we return.
Arik, thanks for this Substack. It's nice to get a quick rundown on what is happening at City Hall.
As for the library question: I chose "other". What I would like to see done is anything. There have been plans for the library since at least the Ness administration. Not to be a jerk but, less talk, more action.
I learned SO much from this newsletter. Thank you Arik for compiling and sending this out to community members. My extended family would have been around for the historic Incline railroad at the turn of the century. I loved learning more about the project and think they would approve of the plans to return that space to the community.
Thank you for this impressive update!! Very informative about the happenings on the City Council - I greatly appreciate the time and effort to put this forward.
Regarding the Library - there should be a Library presence downtown, but it can’t be the sole occupant of a building. I agree with combining Library foot print with the Career Force resources, and private businesses to take advantage of that location.
Looking forward to the opening of the Cat Cafe — I have nieces who will want to visit the cafe simply for the cats! Thanks again.
This new iteration of the library with housing, shopping, and office space could be where CareerForce goes. Then, it would be the core impact what was needed to begin with.
I like the housing too, shopping too, and CareeForce, all of it! 😁
Arik, thank you for providing such great content and summarizing council happenings. It is always refreshing to have the information in digestible chunks. Keep up the good work!
Thank you, Arik. This newsletter = the transparency, in real time, that we all crave. It's a game changer for the residents.
Great info, Arik!
Be aware of politicians and their reporting on what is happening. Not independent at all, and this councilor seems to have forgotten about some items and cherry-picks what he likes to share.
He has now, as of March 30th, turned off comments so those of us who like to add to Ariks comments with some follow-up questions and thoughts are no longer able to engage with him here. Seems odd for a councilor that represents the entire City to not accept comments on his distribution of his point of view alone. The modern politician refuses to ask tough questions but loves sharing their view with little to no questioning of it. Pete Stauber's style, I guess, of town halls held via phone so he can share only what he wants with no follow-up, it answer to hard questions. I call Pete a coward for not having in person townhalls. Arik is operating as close to this as one can get.
Mike, thanks for your engagement. It’s unfortunate you seem to always assume the worst when engaging with my content here or elsewhere over the years. I crosspost these editions on Facebook where comments have always been welcomed. Happy to turn them back on for Substack as well, although this tool was always intended to be an email update and not another social site to manage. As to your views on the 333 project, I made it very clear the city was not allowing VDU’s within the building prior to approval and staff is working to further clarify that intent in the agreements. The audio of that meeting is available on DEDA’s website. I was already planning on a DEDA update for next month and will be happy to cover that and more.
Sorry, you do not like it when I call out things that I see as an issue. In my career, it was often "no news is good news", but I guess you prefer pleasantries before we enter the meat of the matter.
Anyway, I suggest that you visit the DEDA website and find out how available the recording is. I'm still waiting to hear back from my request for the latest. The one there is from March 2024. I only noticed this when listening to it and seeing that it didn't match the latest agenda, which was listed one day different from the recording, minus the year.
I sent my request for the latest and also a note on the issue of the recording. Why would one need to request a recording in the first place? Maybe you can work on this so that transparency inside DEDA is more modern.
Question: Will the council vote on the amendments to this development plan and TIF? Or is it done all within DEDA? I would say the short-term piece is significant and should be brought to the council with enough time for citizens to be aware of and comment on. I think the other pieces should also have council approval seeing that there is a TIF subsidy. This should see daylight along with the one you voted on, not only the tweaked one you say staff is working on. The public needs to know about the abuse of the use of TIFs. It helps folks to know what’s happening behind closed doors or meetings that folks cannot attend.
Pleasantries:
I hope you and your young family are doing well. I'll be traveling for a month and hope Duluth makes up its mind if it's winter or summer when we return.
Arik, thanks for this Substack. It's nice to get a quick rundown on what is happening at City Hall.
As for the library question: I chose "other". What I would like to see done is anything. There have been plans for the library since at least the Ness administration. Not to be a jerk but, less talk, more action.
Thanks Dan, appreciate the note!