New Fuse Duluth Study Results in Shoulder-Shrugging All Around

Survey: Duluth is nice, but lacks jobs, vibrant social scene

By: Patrick Garmoe , Duluth News Tribune

Fuse Duluth's survey of area young professionals was released this week. A new survey shows that while young professionals think highly of their quality of life in Duluth, they wish the city was more business-friendly and offered a more vibrant after-hours scene. That was the bottom line from the second annual survey of 217 young professionals primarily in their 20s and 30s, many of whom are part of Fuse Duluth, the local business organization geared toward those generally between ages 20 and 40. The survey results were released this week. Eric Hill, 37, one of the respondents of the survey, wasn’t surprised that more than 75 percent of those surveyed didn’t think Duluth provided a broad choice of places to work or an entrepreneur-friendly environment. Hill said that stems in part from people too often trying to compare us to the Twin Cities. “Duluth is not a bustling hub of activity like Minneapolis,” he said. So here there’s generally fewer places to work and more people who remain at those jobs longer, leading to younger workers not able to advance as quickly. “One of the big pulls of the big city is their infinite possibilities,” said Drew Digby, a Northeast Minnesota labor analyst with the Department of Employment and Economic Development. “We’re right on that cusp of being a town the size where it’s hard to have choices for professionals in every area.” Digby said some of the older business leaders in town at times take a negative attitude toward new business ideas, which probably plays into people’s perceptions of Duluth as an unfriendly place for entrepreneurs. Hill said that while the area might not have as many jobs, that lack is offset by other benefits such as short commutes and close proximity to the outdoors. “You get a lot of value without having to deal with a lot of the big headaches of a larger city like Minneapolis,” Hill said. The community’s “vitality” also is considered lacking by slightly more than half of those who responded. That figure didn’t surprise Digby. “We don’t have lots of great ‘third places,’ ” he said, defined as meeting spots like bowling alleys, coffee shops and parks where lots of people interact outside of work and home life. While the Lakewalk is a third place, because a lot of people congregate on or by the Lakewalk, many trails and parks in the city are geared toward the solitary hiker, Digby said. Hill thinks there’s a lack of spots where people in their 20s and 30s who don’t want to hang out in a bar can go. Digby appreciated that 59 percent of respondents considered the area a diverse place where lots of residents get involved in community life, saying it’s an important factor showing the city is open to future growth and change. “We’re definitely above average for a town our size,” he said.

I'm still not sure what it is these guys do exactly other than do surveys that tell us what we already know, but after two of these it's apparent that they don't have any solutions. Most dismaying is that they don't seem to have any advice for what the community at large can or should do to promote growth in Duluth. The main issues Fuse points to are those relating to perception, not to actual growth. People need to stop comparing Duluth to Minneapolis, older residents shouldn't perceive younger generations as a threat and they should try to see growth as a good thing. Maybe that's been the problem all along, we should imagine we're in a much smaller town and just let the icing flow when we're pleasantly surprised.