Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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Thinking that downtown Duluth can be revitalized by turning part of Interstate 35 into a parkway in the city ("Duluth pushes for I-35 parkway," front page, June 12) and adding a passenger train between there and the Twin Cities ("Get on board with the train to Duluth," editorial, June 11) is a pipe dream. As with most downtowns, Duluth's along Superior Street began its decline in the 1970s with the building of the Miller Hill Mall. Until the 1980s the Canal Park area was mostly a combination of warehouses and bars and strip clubs, a destination mostly for sailors in earlier years. The park existed as a small plot of grass in front of the maritime museum with a statue of Neptune in the center. This whole area was cut off from downtown by a massive train yard. The way the freeway eventually was built through Duluth was nothing short of a miracle.

Today more than half the people who head "Up North" see Duluth as more obstacle than destination. On summer weekends there is a traffic nightmare between where the freeway ends at London Road until it reconnects to Hwy. 61 again at the Lester River. Imagine complicating the trip.

The same argument would apply to any train proposal. Duluth is only a destination for the three short months of summer, and you would need shuttles to go literally everywhere. It is a cold, windy place in the winter. That train would rust between November and May.

Duluth could be a ski destination in the winter, but the city has let Spirit Mountain degrade.

Thomas Jesberg, East Bethel, Minn.

Although I like the idea of more passenger train service in Minnesota, I am wondering how safe it would be for a passenger train to run between Duluth and the Twin Cities when there is already so much freight train traffic on those rails. Here in Cambridge, the trains come barreling through very fast, and they are also very long in most cases. That freight traffic is heavy and often carries hazardous cargo. Has any of the big money for planning looked at this issue?

Anne Baynton, Cambridge, Minn.

I read the delightful article "Very good year for Lake Superior herring" (June 22). I seriously doubt I could find anything in the Star Tribune of an equally positive nature. In fact, in order for us to find plentiful herring, other positive things needed to happen. The waters of the big lake needed to be cold enough. Even past all the naysayers claiming it could never happen, it happened. A very good year indeed.

Brad Larson, St. Paul

The small-town situation

While I cannot put my hand on the report at the moment, it seems to me that 40 years ago Minnesota faced a dilemma similar to now ("It's time to talk about small-town problems," Evan Ramstad column, June 11). As I recall, the Legislature created a number of responses to the collapse of tax bases and lack of economic opportunities that were highly effective. The savings-and-loan implosion triggered immense suffering and instability. Minnesota FoodShare was one emergency response, but structural changes were needed then, as they are now. Perhaps someone can find the Commission on Poverty in Minnesota report and the follow-up response from the Legislature to reflect on what might be applicable to the current economic environment.

Cyndie Tidwell, Corrales, N.M.

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On the topic of saving our small towns, I think it might be too late, but if we are really serious about saving small towns and business we should stop our socialist tax system (income tax) and adopt a capitalist system (taxing net worth).

Timothy Wessel, Eagle Lake, Minn.

George Hutchinson, Minneapolis

I'm probably an anachronism when it comes to English grammar. Nobody seems to be teaching it anymore. But I expect my wonderful daily newspaper to be edited by knowledgeable grammarians. The heading of a recent letter threw me into a tizzy — "The duty of we the public." If you need an explanation "of" is a preposition which takes the objective case. But you don't even need an explanation — just listen to it: the duty of we or the duty of us.

I'm awfully old, but if you could use a teacher of grammar, especially when it comes to prepositions and personal pronouns, I could do it.

Judy Starkey, Wayzata

Opinion editor's note: True, and we did think about it, but the phrase written that way doesn't have quite the same referential ring? (Though probably we should have capped it as an entity like "We the People.") (And if you care to know, we also had a healthy discussion that day on whether the proper usage is "soda" or "pop.")

Farm radio importance (and also the station I switched from when allowed to drive the family station wagon.)

Hunter Biden's sweetheart pleading.

State workers needing reasonable raises.

Convicted vehicular transgressor charged with murder after a Minnesota license renewal.

Claustrophobic readers sucking in air regarding the Titanic mystery.

Trump's loose lips sinking his own ship.

But the highlight of the front section is the editorials, Readers Write and Opinion Exchange page.

Wow! A full half page on chocolate milk.

A reader's warm paean to summer with more adjectives and adverbs per column inch than imagined.

A dedicated teacher leaving the profession because of cellphones!