Hartford has become painfully aware of its deterioration over the past decade or so, as other similar cities have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. Yesterday's Hartford Courant ran "Portland; A Jewel By The Sea".
http://www.ctnow.com/news/opinion/edito ... un22.story
any rebuttal from the Maineiacs?
I haven't been to Portland since '95, when I got hammered at Gritty McDuff's new year's eve, so my memory of the place is a bit clouded.....
Portland: a jewel by the sea
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Tim
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Glad to see our little city by the bay has been recognized as a "jewel", at least by the author of that article.
I generally agree with the premise; Portland is a nice small city. The downtown and Old Port are friendly, clean areas for the most part (at least during the day), and the waterfront remains an interesting blend of hardcore working environments and pleasing public areas. I would hate to see it change. In the face of increasing pressure from developers, I'm sure it's been a challenge to maintain a working waterfront--not to mention actually increasing its productivity and usage. Kudos to the city for that.
Portland is not perfect; recently there have been some (in my opinion, anyway) questionable decisions made regarding development in parts of the city, and some rather ungainly structures constructed. And the city faces some serious political and taxation issues that make me very glad I don't live there. (Portland is about 20 miles from where I live in North Yarmouth.) Still, a city could do far worse than use Portland's positive progress as a guideline for its own rebirth--I believe that the decisions made some years ago to maintain the working character of the city have made all the difference.
I generally agree with the premise; Portland is a nice small city. The downtown and Old Port are friendly, clean areas for the most part (at least during the day), and the waterfront remains an interesting blend of hardcore working environments and pleasing public areas. I would hate to see it change. In the face of increasing pressure from developers, I'm sure it's been a challenge to maintain a working waterfront--not to mention actually increasing its productivity and usage. Kudos to the city for that.
Portland is not perfect; recently there have been some (in my opinion, anyway) questionable decisions made regarding development in parts of the city, and some rather ungainly structures constructed. And the city faces some serious political and taxation issues that make me very glad I don't live there. (Portland is about 20 miles from where I live in North Yarmouth.) Still, a city could do far worse than use Portland's positive progress as a guideline for its own rebirth--I believe that the decisions made some years ago to maintain the working character of the city have made all the difference.
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