The Journal
Guides and deep-dives on living in the Twin Ports, written from the ground rather than the search results.
Duluth Loses a Festival After 14 Years, and It Says Something About the City's Summer Economy
All Pints North, at Bayfront Festival Park since 2012, announced in June that 2026 would be its last Duluth year and confirmed in...
In One Superior Neighborhood, the Railroad Pays to Wash Your House
Households within half a mile of the taconite loading facility in Superior's Allouez neighborhood can claim reimbursement from BNS...
The Best Bakeries in Duluth
Three bakeries worth the trip: a naturally leavened bread operation with three counters and a 6am door, a worker-owned cooperative...
Where to Get Breakfast in Duluth
Five Duluth breakfasts and one worth driving up the shore for, from a downtown brunch room in the old Coney Island space to a 7am...
The Best Burgers in the Twin Ports
Seven Duluth and Superior burgers worth planning around, from a twelve-burger smash menu in Lincoln Park to a Tower Avenue tavern...
Where to Get Coffee in the Twin Ports
Six confirmed coffee stops from downtown Duluth to Two Harbors, including a roastery with its own brunch room, the only all-day ca...
The Best Ice Cream in Duluth
Four places worth the stop, including a Lincoln Park creamery that took a statewide gold medal, a Lakeside counter that also sells...
Duluth's Best Overlooks, and the Road That Connects Them
Five places to stand above Duluth and see why the city is shaped the way it is, strung along the ridge road that links them. Inclu...
Lake-View Dining and the Best Patios in the Twin Ports
Six confirmed outdoor rooms across Duluth, Superior and Two Harbors, split honestly into the four where you sit beside Lake Superi...
The Best Pizza in Superior, Wisconsin
Superior has two genuine pizza destinations, not twenty, and pretending otherwise does nobody any good. Here they are, with what e...
Where to Get Tacos and Mexican Food in the Twin Ports
Four confirmed places across Duluth, Canal Park and Cloquet, from puffy homemade taco shells in Lincoln Park to a Tex-Mex room in...
The Best Taprooms in the Twin Ports
Eleven taprooms across Duluth, Superior and Two Harbors, sorted by the question that actually decides where you go: does it have a...
The Best Trails in the Twin Ports
Nine trails with confirmed mileage, sorted by what you actually want to do: a 70-mile paved rail trail, a 43-mile hiking ridgeline...
The Blatnik Bridge Closes Early Next Year for Four to Five Years
Minnesota and Wisconsin transportation officials have unveiled the design for the $1.8 billion Blatnik Bridge replacement, with th...
Most Superior Small Businesses Say a Quarter to Half Their Revenue Crosses the Bridge
Two spring surveys, 126 businesses and 576 consumers, put numbers on what the Blatnik Bridge closure will do to the Superior side...
Buying a Condo or Townhome in the Twin Ports: Read the Reserve Study, Not the Dues
Wisconsin gives a condo buyer five business days to walk away for any reason after receiving the association documents. Minnesota...
Buying Land or Lakeshore Near the Twin Ports: Wells, Septic, Shoreland and the Access Question
Minnesota makes a seller disclose every well on a property before you sign, files a certificate at closing, and leaves them liable...
Carlton County Is Rewriting Its Land Use Plan for the First Time Since 2001
Commissioners have reviewed the first draft of the Carlton County 2050 Comprehensive Plan, a 25-year land use, housing and transpo...
Carlton and Wrenshall Are One School District Now. Here Is What Changed.
Wrenshall voters approved consolidation with Carlton in May, the merged district took effect July 1, and both school buildings wer...
Cirrus Is Hiring 240 People in Duluth. Where Are They Going to Live?
Cirrus Aircraft opened a 22,000-square-foot Talent Center on Stebner Road in Hermantown in June and says it plans to add more than...
Cloquet Signed Off on an $11.8 Million Rebuild of Highway 33, Starting in 2028
The Cloquet City Council unanimously approved the reconstruction plan for Highway 33 from Big Lake Road to the St. Louis River bri...
Which Twin Ports Restaurants Close Which Day
Nobody publishes this and everybody needs it. A day-by-day map of which Duluth and Superior restaurants are dark on Mondays, Tuesd...
Downtown Duluth's Office Vacancy Is 22.7 Percent, and the City Is Answering With $500 Grants
The Duluth Economic Development Authority has been running a small grant program along First Street, the downtown corridor a block...
Duluth Is Spending $12.25 Million Rebuilding the Lakewalk So the Lake Stops Taking It
The Endion Station to 27th Avenue East reconstruction runs through the end of 2027 on $8.2 million of federal money, $2.05 million...
Duluth Is Considering a Ban on Vacation Rentals in Single-Family Houses
Duluth's yearlong short-term rental study recommends prohibiting the conversion of single-family homes to vacation rentals, allowi...
The Cross-Border Math: What Buying in Duluth Instead of Superior Actually Costs You
Minnesota and Wisconsin do not have an income tax reciprocity agreement, and a lot of people who cross the bay for work find that...
Duluth Just Spent $7.3 Million on Enger Park Golf Course, and Got a Trout Stream Back
More than two-thirds of a mile of Buckingham Creek has been pulled out of warming ponds and rebuilt as a cold-water channel throug...
3,400 Acres in Carlton County Are Changing Hands, and a $22 Million Tourism Hub May Follow
The University of Minnesota's Cloquet Forestry Center, 3,400 acres inside the Fond du Lac Reservation, is on its way to the Fond d...
The Data Center Question: What a Google Campus in Hermantown Would Do to the Local Housing Market
Google's proposed data center in southwest Hermantown has become the biggest development story in the Twin Ports, and on August 24...
Where to Eat Late in the Twin Ports
After 10pm the Twin Ports gets very small very fast. Here is exactly what is still serving at 10, at 11, at midnight and at 2am, w...
A Judge Clears the Way for Housing on the Old Lester Park Golf Course
A district court has ruled that Duluth was right to keep two citizen-written questions about the closed Lester Park Golf Course of...
The Lincoln Park Craft District, Block by Block
Twelve confirmed food and drink businesses inside about nine blocks of Duluth's West End, walked in street-number order, with hour...
Lincoln Park Becomes a Special Service District, and Starts Paying for Itself
Duluth's Lincoln Park Craft District becomes a special service district on August 15, the first time the neighborhood's commercial...
A Redesigned Mine Plan on the Range, and Why the Twin Ports Is Downstream of It
NewRange Copper Nickel has dropped its plan to expand the old LTV tailings basin near Hoyt Lakes, will store tailings in former ir...
Where to Eat on the Drive Up Highway 61
Five stops between Duluth's eastern edge and Two Harbors, in the order you pass them: the fine-dining outlier at mile five, the pi...
A Fire Season That Took Houses Near Two Harbors and Closed the Boundary Waters
The Stewart Trail fire burned 356 acres three miles north of Two Harbors in May and destroyed eight homes and 26 outbuildings. Fir...
Twelve New Houses in Morgan Park, and What It Takes to Build Affordable Ownership in Duluth
The Duluth HRA has proposed twelve affordable, owner-occupied houses at 88th Avenue West and Edward Street in Morgan Park, on land...
Smoke Cancelled Minnesota's Oldest Road Race, and Fire Is Being Brought Back to Park Point
In July, wildfire smoke off Ontario and northeastern Minnesota pushed Duluth's air into hazardous territory, set a preliminary sta...
Where to Go for a Special Occasion Dinner in the Twin Ports
Four places to book when the meal is the point: the region's fine-dining destination up the shore, a lake-view Italian room with e...
Spirit Valley Wants What Lincoln Park Got, and the Plan Reaches the City Council in September
West Duluth's business district held its annual festival this month against the backdrop of a city planning process that reaches t...
Superior Got Its Buses Back in Billings Park. Here Is What Twin Ports Transit Actually Covers.
Route 211 began running to Billings Park on March 1, restoring service the neighborhood lost in a 2023 system redesign, with South...
Superior Is Building a $10 Million Fire Station in the North End
Construction started in May on a new fire station on John Avenue, replacing a 1980s building on Hammond and giving Superior's Nort...
Superior's Schools Are Spending About $9 Million on a Roof and a Field, Without Asking Voters
The School District of Superior is weighing a $7.7 to $8.2 million replacement of the middle school roof out of a capital account...
Superior May Ask Voters in April Whether the City Should Buy Its Own Water Utility
A city committee recommended on August 6 that Superior put a question on the April 6 ballot asking whether to move to a community-...
Closing Costs Across the Bay: Minnesota Charges a Tax on Your Mortgage, Wisconsin Does Not
Minnesota levies both a deed tax on the sale and a mortgage registry tax on the loan. Wisconsin charges a transfer fee on the sale...
What a Twin Ports Home Inspection Can and Cannot Tell You, Season by Season
Home inspection standards do not require an inspector to remove snow and ice to see a roof, or to walk one that looks unsafe. In a...
How Property Taxes Actually Work in the Twin Ports, and How to Pull Any Parcel's Real Bill
Minnesota bills in May and October. Wisconsin bills in January and July, and if you miss the January installment you lose the righ...
Who Provides What: Setting Up Utilities on Either Side of the Twin Ports
In Duluth your gas, water, sewer and stormwater come from a city utility and your electricity from a separate investor-owned compa...
The Lincoln Park Apartment Building That Nearly Did Not Happen Is Open
Urbane 218 at 2011 West Superior Street is leasing, with an affordable rent program intact. Getting 45 apartments built on the old...
Which School District Serves This Address? How to Get a Real Answer in the Twin Ports
A Duluth mailing address can put a child in the Proctor district. A state map that shows attendance areas carries its own warning...
Best Duluth Neighborhoods for Families
Ten Duluth-area neighborhoods ranked on the features families actually shop for: a walkable school, a park you can reach without d...
roundup Best Duluth Neighborhoods for First-Time Buyers
Eight places in the Twin Ports where the entry price is genuinely achievable, ranked with the thing most lists leave out: the chea...
Photo: Jacob Norlund (Jakes19), Wikimedia Commons · Public domainBuying a 100-Year-Old Duluth Home: What the Inspection Will Find
Most of Duluth's housing stock predates 1940, and the inspection report is predictable if you know the city. Knob-and-tube, ice da...
relocation Duluth vs Superior: Which Side of the Bay?
The Twin Ports are one economy across two states, and the state line is the most underrated financial decision in the region. Pric...
Photo: Jacob Norlund, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
relocation How Bad Is a Duluth Winter, Really?
The honest answer, with the actual numbers: 90.2 inches in an average season, 140.1 in the record one, and a lake that makes the e...
Photo: Jacob Norlund, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
roundup The Most Walkable Duluth Neighborhoods (and Why the Scores Lie)
Eight Duluth-area neighborhoods ranked for walkability, plus the thing every national walk score gets wrong about this city: a fla...
Photo: Jonathunder, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
explainer Walking the Lakewalk End to End
Seven miles of paved, flat, car-free shoreline from Canal Park to Brighton Beach, through four distinct neighborhoods and three co...
Photo: Sharon Mollerus, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
relocation Where Newcomers Settle First (and What They Wish They Had Known)
Five neighborhoods absorb most of the people moving to Duluth, and the reasons are predictable: schools, the lake, new constructio...
Photo: Joey1niner, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0