Kristi Stokes: Initial survey results look good for Downtown Waterfront

With a large workforce concentrated in Duluth’s Downtown Waterfront, it’s important to get their candid thoughts on the state of our central business district and their satisfaction with working here. That’s why we are in the midst of an online survey to gauge the opinions of downtown’s most frequent users.

Within the first week of this survey, initial results are showing some positive trends. More than 70 percent of the respondents feel that the downtown and Canal Park areas of Duluth are more inviting and appealing that a few years ago and the majority of employees are completely or very satisfied with working downtown.

Additionally, 87 percent of those respondents would recommend the downtown as a place to work and 36 percent of the respondents stick around after work between one and five days a week.

Now, granted these are just initial results, but the trend is very encouraging. The Greater Downtown Council exists to promote and support the development of a clean, safe and vibrant downtown.

One of the most visible services managed by our organization is the Clean & Safe Team. This brightly uniformed team provides cleaning and hospitality services throughout the Duluth Downtown Waterfront District on a daily basis. And employees notice them: 97 percent of the respondents were aware of the team and the majority said the team makes them feel safer about being in the downtown and Canal Park areas.

Of course, the survey is also providing a guide for opportunity for improvements in our central business district. Like many downtowns with a critical mass of people, parking continues to be a hot topic. Survey respondents frequently mentioned concerns about parking and its availability as one of the first thoughts that came to mind when they thought about coming downtown and to Canal Park for shopping, dining or entertainment. We are hoping to work with city representatives in the coming months to further discuss a more comprehensive parking plan that takes into account many of the issues raised in this survey and other reports.

In the meantime, it’s also important to remind individuals to take advantage of our Park Plus program. Many downtown businesses offer Park Plus coupons to allow their customers to park in ramps for free. This alleviates some of the demand for on-street parking and it helps you avoid a time crunch at the meter.

We look forward to seeing more results from our workforce in the coming weeks.

If you are a downtown employee who hasn’t seen the survey, please log on at www.surveymonkey.com/s/greaterdowntowncouncil.