Today I feel like talking about Duluth. Before I start I want every Duluthian who reads this to know that I don't harbor any ill feelings towards you. I'm just stating how I feel and if you have any gripe with that feel free to bring it up. Some of you already know I feel this way and if you don't want to hear it all over again don't bother reading any further.
So here it is: Duluth Minnesota is the worst place I have ever lived in in my entire life. Granted I've only been around for 23 years, but I'd like to think I've lived in enough places to give me a good idea of what I look for in a place of residence. I've lived in Cornucopia, Washburn, Ashland, Sun Prairie, and River Falls Wisconsin, Healy, Alaska (sort of), as well as Minneapolis, and Stillwater Minnesota. I also lived briefly on an Indian reservation. The reason I feel like Duluth is the worst is because never before have I felt so unwanted in a city for seemingly no reason. It's not just me either, it seems like college students as a whole are frowned upon and alienated in this city year round.
Duluth does provide a lot of things for college students, but usually just not enough of those things. I cite my bus rant of course, but there's also an issue of housing, parking, and general acceptance of the student way of life. You can get a ticket for parking, well, mostly anywhere. (You can actually get a ticket or even be towed for being parked in the same legal spot for more than 24 hours) Most of the rental companies that allow students to rent houses charge more than anywhere I've ever seen and often times because of the poor quality of the houses themselves the cost of utilities like water and heat (which the occupants have to pay separately for) skyrocket. UMD itself is an extremely overpriced school that could care less if it's student graduated. (when I say UMD I refer to the state agencies that control the college, not the professors, many of whom I am sure care a lot about their students)
The police here are terrible as well. Never in my life have I seen a police force so hellbent on making sure that if college kids want to have fun they had better be out of sight and and earshot or they WILL be punished. Rightfully so, because I can't see why the DPD would want to spend their time doing things like solving the last dozen or so rapes, the murder of that Sly kid, or even the obvious problems of theft, gang violence, and drug trafficking that Duluth has.
Lastly I want to bitch about the citizens of Duluth. A lot of the people I've met in my two year sentence here are extremely kind, thoughtful, and loving individuals who encompass every good virtue I want in a human being. Sadly, a lot of the businesses here have taken it upon themselves to make sure that their customers are nearly unnecessary. Take for instance Grandma's Sports Garden. I've seen people thrown out of bars, but that place for some reason will find any and all excuses to eject someone for things like "looking too drunk". LOOKING. It sucks enough dealing with the asshole tax the state charges people for alcohol without having to worry about someone thinking I've consumed too much of it, but I guess I don't always have that 20 bucks for three beers anyways. Pussies.
Another thing. What is this "Minnesota Nice" bullshit? Since I've heard about it I've been trying to look for a demonstration of kindness from a Minnesotan that was distinguishable from the rest, but for some reason it seems that people can either be nice or dicks no matter where they come from. If Minnesota absolutely had to have some sort of zingy shtick it should be more realistic. Something like the "Minnesota change lanes without using your turn signal" or the "Minnesota can't parallel park without leaving a half a car space both in front and behind the vehicle"
I'm sure if any Duluthians have bothered to read this far they might be more than a little upset. That's too bad, I'm not taking any of this back, but I want you to know that I think everyone, no matter what state they're from, has the potential to either impress or disgust me. Some of the people I've hated the most in the past are my friends now because I either grew into them or they just started sucking less. I hope that in the future maybe I'll either get over myself, or this place and the people in it will get less shitty. Until then these rants are really the only way I deal with it. So if you don't like it, don't read it.
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