Downtown Businesses Anticipate Summer Without Last Place

DULUTH - With Duluth’s Sidewalk Days starting Wednesday, organizers are excited to kick it off without the threat of Last Place on Earth ruining a good time. It’s been a year since the head shop shut down and downtown business owners are still feeling the impact Jim Carlson has left behind. "We still continue to feel the effects of what happened when the Last Place was open, but its better," said Mark Fredrickson. He’s the CFO of ShelDon printing. The business has been neighbors with Last Place on Earth for 23 years. "It was putting a black cloud on the overall image of our downtown,” said the president of the Greater Downtown Council, Kristi Stokes. “I don't see anything positive there." It was just a year ago when pan-handlers, drug addicts, and police filled the streets around the store. When the line to get synthetic drugs would wrap around the block, it was ShelDon that took the beating."There was a fair amount of damage done to our building when the line was here,” Fredrickson pointed out. “People lean against it, they'd kick pieces off of it, they'd spit on our windows." He lost a couple thousand dollars a week in sales simply because people were afraid to get through the doors. Since last year's closing, Duluth’s downtown has seen a dramatic jump in business. "We just see more activity and you can tell,” Stokes said. “We have a lot of energy in our downtown and a lot of investment and reinvestment taking place as well." Big investments like the Maurices Tower, the Duluth Transit Authority's Multimodal Transit Center, and reconstruction of Norshor Theatre are all part of the next chapter for the new and improved downtown Duluth."We didn't let this bring us down or make us alter what we do," Stokes said. Just because Jim Carlson’s business stands empty, and many believe justice is being servedm doesn't mean people in Duluth forgot what used to be."Jim Carlson's an idiot,” Fredrickson said. “It's obvious he's an idiot." Carlson is still waiting to be sentenced.