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End Confusion and Agree On Lincoln Park
By: Gary Eckenberg, Duluth News Tribune
A Feb. 18 letter writer wrote that she is “sick and tired that people from the media … think Lincoln Park/West End is part of West Duluth.”
Such confusion actually dates back to 1894, when the West End ceased to be the western end of Duluth with the annexation of the Village of West Duluth. Fifteen years ago, Mayor Gary Doty and the Duluth City Council formally changed the name of the old West End neighborhood to “Lincoln Park,” adopting the name of the area’s most treasured natural feature, the city’s Lincoln Park.
Today, the Lincoln Park neighborhood is officially noted on city of Duluth correspondence and on Minnesota Department of Transportation official highway signage. Visitors and residents are welcomed by plaques imbedded in the beautiful stonework along the new Piedmont Avenue.
Let’s just end the confusion. The News Tribune can help. It was hopeless for local media to correctly report the difference between West Duluth and the city’s former western end for more than 100 years. Yet, even today, after resorting to any number of earlier assorted compounds using hyphens, parentheses, and backward slashes that tried to include the old West End identity, the News Tribune has continued to use the clumsy and confusing “Lincoln Park/West End” identifier, seemingly questioning the validity of the 1995 City Council action that officially changed the neighborhood’s name.
Even the newspaper’s own survey of neighborhood residents, conducted less than a year after the name change, showed a majority already preferred the new name. Only 42 percent opted for “West End,” when asked, while 43 percent picked “Lincoln Park.”
Before the name change, when listing homes in the West End, the Duluth Area Realtors’ Multiple Listing Service often used the euphemism “Lower Piedmont” to identify our neighborhood. Since October 1995, the “Lincoln Park Neighborhood” has been prominently identified by real estate agents. Location, location, location.
Did the West End need a name change? When has any local reporter — other than Jim Heffernan — understood the difference in boundaries with West Duluth? Why do West Duluth residents, even today, become incensed when the identity mistake is made?
There always will be local interest in quaint memories of Slabtown, Goosetown, Below the Tracks, Cork Town and other neighborhood pockets long obliterated. I have no argument with those who remember their roots in the West End. It will always be “West End” to my Dad and his octogenarian pals. But to those of us committed to a future of growth and vitality, “Lincoln Park” represents the vision for those united in changing the face of the neighborhood to attract new homeowners to the best housing values in town and new businesses to one of the premier growth areas in the region.
With the success of the Lincoln Park Business Group, the LISC At Home In Duluth revitalization efforts, the Duluth Heritage Sports Center, Clyde Park, a celebrated new Lincoln Park Middle School (yes, the western middle school will be built in Lincoln Park!), and the assured growth that will follow, now is the time to stop confusion and help all new visitors to Lincoln Park find their way clearly.
However the News Tribune decides to settle its style decision about what to call our neighborhood (the decision is published elsewhere on today’s page), the dedicated and successful volunteers and institutions in Lincoln Park will continue to make our neighborhood one that attracts and nurtures caring residents with the values of service, respect for personal property, personal safety, diversity and a desire to help our children develop self-sufficiency and a sense of contribution to community. There are a lot of people like that living here already; there always have been.
Gary Eckenberg lives in Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, is a former at large and 4th District city councilor, and is deputy administrator for St. Louis County.
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