Go vegan for V Day

Since Valentine's Day is a love and friendship day, many people take a special someone out for a special meal.  I hope folks will spread the love by making that a vegan meal. Another chance to spread the love is to choose non dairy chocolate. Little choices can add up to a big difference.  

Karen Moore – Duluth, Minnesota

Promote affordable housing

Some winning candidates in the recent Duluth mayor and council elections espoused developing more housing for “all income levels”, with no emphasis on affordable housing.  Although new homes for wealthier persons should not be discriminated against, City staff should not put special effort there unless they have time and resources left over after doing all they can to improve the community’s affordable housing situation.  A common justification offered for adding more expensive residences is that it gives homeowners who have built wealth while in cheaper housing more opportunities to “move up”, which then frees their affordable properties for others to buy as “starter homes”.  That pipeline used to work pretty well, but in the last 15 years corporations bought many of the owner-occupied homes as they came on the market and turned them into rentals, nationally and locally.  Now more people who want to buy have to rent because there aren’t enough starter homes, so they don’t build wealth in the pipeline.  Many renters pay corporations, whose executives and shareholders can use the profits to buy their own luxury homes or second or third homes.  Over the same time frame, vacation rentals of otherwise private residences proliferated.  That took homes from the housing stock for local citizens and converted them into disguised hotels.  The City put caps on these but has not enforced those limits, as John Ramos and Mark Baker detailed in the Duluth Monitor on December 16.  The quickest way to expand housing for people who actually work here or are part of the everyday social fabric would be to enforce the current vacation-rental limits and consider reducing them.  Meanwhile, the City should keep doing what it can to add to the number of new or rehabbed places for full-time residents.  

David Schimpf – Duluth, Minnesota

Message from Mother Nature

Winter is finally here, but, boy, it was a long wait. I’ve spent 70 New Year’s Days in Northern Wisconsin—14 growing up in Phillips, 10 while home for the holidays in Ashland, 2 in Washburn, and the last 44 here in Bayfield—but this year was the first time there wasn’t enough snow on the ground to completely cover the grass. In fact, on December 29th there wasn’t any snow on the ground at all.  I know that this is an El Niño year, but there have been 15 other El Niño years since 1950, so that doesn’t really explain what’s going on.

It seems to me that this is yet another message from Mother Nature that if we want her to remain as we’ve known and loved her for all of our lives—or at least not to change too much—for our children and grandchildren, and for all those to follow, then we’d better do all we can to further reduce our carbon emissions right quick. Otherwise, the Mother Nature they come to know will likely be far less lovable.

Bill Bussey – Bayfield, Wisconsin

Don't obstruct our views

It’s recently come to light that the zoning code in Duluth currently allows — without a variance — the construction of buildings whose height would obstruct the view of the Lift Bridge from various locations in the city, including from Skyline Drive. 

Duluth residents and its annual 6.7 million visitors will lose if a company decides to take advantage of the zoning code as it stands. The Lift Bridge is one of Duluth’s most beloved landmarks, and it is in the city's best interest to preserve its views for future residents and visitors to enjoy. 

The Duluth Planning Commission will hold a public hearing about this issue on February 13th. Please take time before this date to write to the commission to rationally state your opinion and why they need to adjust the code to preserve Lift Bridge views. Their email address is planning@duluthmn.gov. Reference item PL-23-221 in your letter. You don’t need to be a Duluth resident to state your opinion.

Janet Hill – Duluth, Minnesota