The Harbor Line There was a time when converting port property to public parks or tourist traps would have been unthinkable. Anyone with the temerity to even think out loud in those terms would have been branded a nut. But as waterborne transportation has lost its public visibility
— something I’ve written and talked about a lot over the years — this once
laughable idea has not only gained acceptance, it’s become a highly popular public objective throughout North America. City planners see the success of urban waterfront reformation in places like Baltimore and San Diego and say, "Why not here?" So, as a case in point, the City of Minneapolis imposes a 12-month moratorium on riverside industrial development while analyzing a proposal to close down barge operations in favor of more green space, parks and biking or hiking trails. And the City of Detroit is trying to relocate three of its port’s cement terminals in favor of a major casino development. Meanwhile, there are preservationists who want to save old port structures because of perceived historical significance. A huge old grain elevator is left standing in the Port of Montreal, forcing port development down river, and in the Port of Cleveland a major facility expansion is stymied by citizens enamored with antiquated dockside unloading equipment. Until the past few years, the Port of Duluth-Superior seemed safe from such conflict. Our huge, sprawling harbor left plenty of room for peaceful coexistence between the maritime industry and downtown waterfront renewal. Our city planners and policy makers, in fact, did an absolutely superb job of converting a seedy area near the Duluth Ship Canal into a magnet for tourists and local residents alike: Canal Park. New hotels, restaurants and shops, novel statuary and the entrance to a shoreline walkway attract big crowds, summer and winter. Just to the west of Canal Park, where once there were warehouses and a scrap yard, we have witnessed the success of the DECC, the Duluth Entertainment & Convention Center, now in the midst of a $10 mil-lion expansion. Next door, where The Flame was once Duluth’s most famous restaurant, construction has begun on the $35 million Great Lakes Aquarium at Lake Superior Center. But as we keep advancing westward, we get uncomfortably close to the working port — and if the city’s latest redevelopment proposal materializes, we are already there. The latest of three recent schemes for an area now called Bayfront Park is "HarborPlace," a name coined by a New York consultant hired by the Duluth Economic Development Authority to develop a "vision" (yet another fad term I have grown to dislike). This plan succeeds failed visions (hallucinations, I suppose) of an outlet mall and a veterans’ park featuring a retired Navy ship. Smack in the middle of HarborPlace stands Lafarge Corp.’s Duluth Terminal, which receives bulk cement by ship and delivers it to regional customers by truck or rail. The facility is surrounded by city-owned property, including vacant land to the west that borders another port enterprise, Cutler-Magner Co., one of only two locally-owned dock operations in Duluth-Superior Harbor and one of the region’s oldest businesses (see story on Pages 4-5). The consultant’s proposal includes two scenarios, one including Lafarge, the other without it. The latter assumes the eventual HarborPlace developer would buy the Lafarge property. In a starkly ironic touch, the theme of this plan is to create a virtual port featuring "ship wheels, ropes, knots, buoys, ship charts …" plus a "Shipwreck Wall Mural." Given that this may mark the beginning of an erosion into the port’s business, a mural glamorizing shipwrecks does seem appropriate. The HarborPlace name, by the way, is said to be a temporary suggestion. The consultant’s report says the eventual name "should be synonymous with The Vision of a ‘Working Port’." Maybe I need a reality check, but somehow I thought those were real ships and real people working at Lafarge and Cutler-Magner. Oh, that’s it … I need an eye exam.
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