OUR VIEW: Music helps make a city hum

It’s no secret that this newspaper was eager to locate its hometown office in the West End of downtown Cloquet. For historic reasons, our neighborhood is the perfect place for us, and it helps ignite the resurgence of a walkable, “parkable” and convenient downtown neighborhood.

So we were excited to see that Kingdom Builders Ministries has finished the upstairs of the old Chief Theater — by adding a back exit for safety, among other things — and plans to offer live music. They kicked it off with the Christian rock “1 Night Music Circus” tour Tuesday. The venue comfortably holds about 250. Judging by the number of cars parked along all the West End streets Tuesday night, the Chief Theater could be a real boon for West End nightlife.

This is the same group that hosts the Wood City Music Festival, an annual event that brings thousands into the heart of Cloquet, Veterans Park. They also run the Common Ground coffeehouse on the ground floor of the theater. So, we’re confident this new venue will be done well.

The new music venue joins longtime businesses such as Wiegert Law Office, Sign Pro and Eclipse Paint, along with newer neighbors such as Wood City Nutrition, the Rock Place, and Skuteviks Floral in the old downtown. All seem committed to the West End, as we are.

The VFW also offers live music with great frequency in the neighborhood, and other nearby downtown establishments do too. That is encouraging. A city thrives when it has successful businesses during the day and vibrant nightlife in the evening.

Repurposing old spaces and concentrating business in business districts has proven good for Cloquet, as evidenced by the resurrection of Cloquet Avenue over the past decade or so. Adding more nightlife to both ends of downtown is a move in the right direction.

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