Duluth weighs slow street plan for downtown revitalization

Duluth is testing whether a slower First Street can help pull people back downtown. The city adopted its Downtown Development Strategy on June 29, after making downtown revitalization one of Mayor Roger Reinert’s five strategic goals and pairing that push with a skywalk study aimed at shrinking the elevated system and sending more activity to street level.

The practical test is already happening in the downtown business district. First Street Friday, launched June 26, closed First Street between First and Second avenues E from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and filled the block with food trucks, buskers, local business highlights, dance performances, fitness activities, planting activities, art interactives and history tours. City officials said the event series is meant to invite residents to reimagine the First Street corridor, not just move through it.

The city also put money behind the corridor. First Street Growth grants offer up to $500 for eligible applicants with an address on First Street between Fourth Avenue W and Fourth Avenue E, alley to alley, including building owners and businesses with valid leases. The grants can pay for exterior cleaning, graffiti removal, exterior painting, buskers or musicians, live art, planters, seating, window displays, lighting and pet-friendly amenities, small changes meant to make the sidewalk feel active enough to keep people downtown longer.

That effort lands in a city with bigger street-system problems. Duluth says 55% of its 450 miles of local streets are in poor condition, and the 1/2 percent sales tax street program approved by voters in 2017 generates about $8 million a year for street preservation. The 100 block of East First Street was temporarily closed beginning April 30 for steam-line and road-repair work, a reminder that any slow-street plan has to fit around maintenance, reconstruction and daily access for downtown businesses, deliveries and drivers.

For downtown Duluth, the question is no longer whether First Street can host an event. It is whether a calmer, more pedestrian-friendly block can become the kind of street that keeps shops, restaurants and residents in the city center after the music stops and the barricades come down.