Is It Time To Give Duluth A New Name? Let's Call It Dylan Town.

While doing archival research on another project recently I came across a Jim Heffernan column that was published thirty years ago when Duluth city councillors were again debating the naming of a road after native son Bob Dylan. (This debate went on for two decades, fwiw.) Heffernan, a journalist and humorist, responded by saying the city should honor Bob Dylan by naming giving the city itself a new name: Dylan. He writes:

Let's say we change the name of Duluth to Dylan in honor of the performer Bob Dylan who was born here in 1941. Duluth is such an old hat name anyway. Let's get with the '90s. Dylan, Minnesota 55802. It's got a ring to it, don't you think?

The thing about this Dylan idea that's so interesting is that it also starts with a D so it would work well to existing logos. The Duluth Dukes (a 1990s minor league baseball team here) would be the Dylan Dukes. Students' letter jackets for Central High School wouldn't even have to be changed. Take UMD the University of Minnesota-Dylan. The Bulldog teams could still be UMD.  

Hef also suggested that the City of Superior could be re-named Joan Baez, even though UWS (University of Wisconsin-Superior) would have to be changed to UWJB.

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There's risk involved when newspapers permit columnists to propose such radical ideas. I mean, there are quite a few locals who might seriously want to pursue this. If that happened, the City Council may get bogged down with debating it and using valuable meeting time that could be used to address our city's other problems like the shortage of affordable housing and the cost overruns of roundabouts. 

Nevertheless, Hef did build on his case for a rename noting that "First Bank-Dylan adapts well. Dylan Lighthouse for the Blind--it adapts social services." We could also end up with a Dylan News-Tribune (DNT),  Dylan Entertainment Convention Center (DECC) and a Dylan Missabe & Ir Railway (DM&IR), which all roll off the tongue rather nicely.

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Another major benefit of the city being renamed Dylan is that we'll no longer be confused with Duluth, Georgia, he wrote. I myself can't tell you how many times I've Googled a local store name and ended up with stores in our Georgia sister city. 

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One drawback, a minor one I believe, to this idea would be what to call our Duluth Dylan Fest should this proposal ever get adopted. Would Dylan Dylan Fest (DDF) be the new title for our weeklong celebration each May? It feels redundant, but if you only call it Dylan Fest, one might wonder if we're celebrating the city or the Nobel Prize recipient who was born here. 

In a digression, Heffernan presented a novel idea that might work well as an alternative method of conducting our singer/songwriter contest. Currently contestants sing one Dylan song and a song of their own. Hef suggested a "Freestyle" song competition "in which entrants can sing any Dylan song in a non-Dylan style (as in the rap version of 'Like a Rolling Stone')-- or sing any non-Dylan song in Dylanesque fashion."

Heffernan's column appeared in the DNT on 8/12/92. If I remember correctly, he closed with this witty barb:

There is another, admittedly selfish, reason to change the name of Duluth to Dylan. Duluth has such rotten weather.

Heffernan is a News-Tribune columnist and editorial page associate.

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The Case for Celebrating Dylan's Home Town