“The city has provided precisely no redevelopment of any kind in the area surrounding the reservation,” referencing the Fond-du-Luth site.
The document goes on to say: “This is while the city has spent hundreds of millions of dollars improving businesses remote from the reservation. As a result, the area surrounding the reservation has continued to deteriorate and is a haven for vagrants, hustlers and inebriates.”
Am I wrong to think this might be better for Duluth? Giving the land back to the Indians seems pretty drastic and makes me suspect big money in the casino going under table to white man...somewhere, but it also kicks the bums out and revitalizes the city with something a little more likely to provide work to some.
Yes. The band and the city are engaged in a legal dispute over the casino that is downtown. The band paid the city annually in exchange for the property and the promise for no other Indian gaming in Duluth. Recently the band sued to get out of its obligations to pay under a signed contract. The trust fund the city built up using that money is a big reason Duluth isn't bankrupt now.
There is a lot of bad blood here and it's only going to get worse.