18 October 2023
DULUTH A large crowd assembled in one of the city’s oldest parks Tuesday to celebrate its reopening and pay tribute to the late Duluth City Councilor Renee Van Nett, remembered as a true champion of the surrounding neighborhood.
Lincoln Park, which first opened in 1890, has been closed since May as it underwent a $4.2 million overhaul, including the restoration of a stone pavilion dedicated in Van Nett’s honor Friday.
In 2018, Van Nett made history when she became the first Indigenous woman to serve on the council, and she went on to be elected president of the body in 2021, before cancer claimed her life in June 2022.
In the wake of Van Nett’s death, the council selected Hannah Alstead to take her place, representing Duluth’s 4th District.
Remembering her friend and predecessor, Alstead said: “There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t ask Renee for guidance and motivation and patience. She has and continues to change so many of our lives for the better.”
Alstead read from the inscription of a plaque to be installed at the Lincoln Park pavilion that said: “Renee lived a bold life as a dedicated mother, dear friend and fierce community advocate.”
The inscription went on to say: “As a city councilor, Renee fought for equity, for justice and inclusion.”
Rick DeFoe, a tribal elder, paid tribute to Van Nett, saying, “She showed us how to walk with one another.”
“The way we treat each other, with kindness, is all about relationships. We will remember her in a good way,” he said.
Jasmine Clark, Van Nett’s oldest adopted daughter, said she and others should draw inspiration from her mother’s example.
“As we honor her and remember her, we should show up as ourselves, authentically and boldly. And we should use our voices to speak up. If it’s true and it’s what you believe in, you need to use your voice. You have a voice for a reason,” she said.
Clark went on to observe: “She walked in the city really slowly so loud brown women like us could run.”
Mayor Emily Larson reflected on the dedication and the reopening of the park, saying, “It is a beautiful heartbreaking day to be here, and there have already been so many tears of joy.”
The city began working on plans to revitalize the 45-acre park in 2016. The improved Lincoln Park includes not only the refurbished stone pavilion but also Duluth’s first fully accessible playground, lighted trails, a new basketball court, a new picnic canopy, public restrooms and reconfigured natural and recreational spaces.
Senior Parks Planner Cliff Knettel said of the project: “It took a long time, but it was worth the wait.”
The redesigned park includes bioswales, biofiltration basins, rock-armored culverts and native plantings that are designed to slow and purify runoff, before it enters Miller Creek, a trout stream that flows through the heart of the recreational area.
“We’ve improved the stormwater management here dramatically, where there was almost none before,” Knettel said.
The park sustained significant damage during the 2012 flood.
Jodi Slick, founder and CEO of Ecolibrium 3, has been a strong neighborhood proponent of the Lincoln Park renovation project and hailed its completion in a neighborhood deserving of additional attention.
“We’re in a part of this community that has significant health disparities. When we think about the lower portion of this neighborhood, you’re in a spot where our residents are in the lowest half-percent of life expectancy for all Minnesotans,” she said.
“So, investing in spaces in which we can have the social connectedness, the intergenerational connectedness … is really important, because research is showing that being connected, not being lonely, being socially connected with others, is important for your health,” Slick said.
“In fact, if you’re not socially connected, it is worse for your health than smoking two packs of cigarettes a day or being obese,” she said. “That’s how important this type of space is to the health and happiness of this neighborhood.”
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