Portland Maine: I do not recommend it.

Well, what reasons?

[quote] I’ve decided that, especially the Portland Maine area is one big headache for several reasons. Please forgive me while I engage in “pointless bitchery”.

And then..... nothing.

Good thread, op!

Mainers are cranky SOBs anyway. Why would OP be different?

Is this supposed to be some sort of cliff hanger where we have to wait a week for elaboration?

Maybe OP is suddenly down with The Covid.

Nancy Drew and The Case of the Vanishing OP

I went to Portland when it was a stop on a cruise. Very pretty town, but I felt bad for the residents who had to deal with ships arriving which spewed thousands of tourists at once onto the town.

There is little existence of a sense of business when it comes to service providers and locally owned retail services. Businesses here will close on a dime. National chains or bigger businesses may service customers on holidays but even in the midst of summer ,after a particularly harsh spring and early summer of low business, few local businesses want to deal with opening on Sundays or holidays or even Saturdays. You know, the days they would stand to make plenty of money? Want to shop for patio furniture? Sorry, most of those types of businesses close early on Saturdays if they are open at all. They shutter on Sundays. One would think the summertime, particularly along the coast would bring lots of business for outdoor items. Nah, “we’re all set” is the prevailing attitude among most local business. That goes for many restaurants, food delivery services, furniture stores... anything one might think would be normally available for most consumer based business... Particularly if it is a locally owned and managed business chances are, you have to take a day off from work to shop there are engage them for services of any kind.

Trades service providers are impossible to secure. The state does not require builders and contractors to have any type of license. Plumbers and electricians yes but not the others. Many of the people who do the skilled trades we’re not very educated and have, to their credit and make themselves very valuable. But if you are an every day homeowner with a small plumbing need, or if you need a new bathroom put in that isn’t related to a large commercial project, or if you want to hire one of the mini handyman type services, the ones who have Nice vans driving all over the area which say “no job too big or small“, get ready to be disappointed. They do not want your business. You cannot throw money at them. They all are gorging at the trough of business brought in by those bulldozing the little neighborhoods and Whorfs and waterfronts for their chain hotels Are mega houses that they come to live in in the summertime. The former meth addict who has taught himself plumbing and has come down from the rule county doesn’t care if you’re a fellow Mainer who offers him a $5000 plumbing job or needs an emergency service visit. He can hold out and tell you he’ll call you back when he “has time“ while he focuses on subcontracting to one of the big out of state development firms. If you’re poor, working class or even middle class, don’t even think you will get someone on a phone at a business who will commit to coming to your house or committing their services to you on a exact date. They’re really big on “let us look at the schedule and get back to you on that“. That typically translates to “we’re not interested“.

The climate around Portland, Maine is increasingly erratic. Not that you can blame the people but weatherwise, it is a miserable area. One or two beautiful sunny days typically come with a heavy price; they will be followed by days or weeks of humid and/or unseasonably cold and/or perpetually rainy weather. Regardless of it being called “Vacationland“, Maine is no place for anyone who loves sunshine and summertime. Local weather forecasters are unable to forecast the weather here. And no, I don’t mean like most places where people say their local weather changes a lot. The weather here is consistently gloomy or miserable. Winter will last from very early October through the end of May or first couple of weeks in June. That is to say, short pants are only for the most hearty of people during that time. Nothing grows. If May and June are warm, which they sometimes can be, they are always soggy, consistently rainy, a humid day may turn into a 55° high by noon, with cloudy skies overhead. Always cloudy skies overhead. Normally, one can count on the summer being a strong 90 day period. Maybe. But even that isn’t the case anymore and cannot be counted on. Southern Maine has also been invaded by many trustfunders and affluent empty-nesters in the 50s and 60s. Lots and lots of white “woke“ types. They have gutted the old neighborhoods and put up boxey modern mansions, they’ll fly specially made Black Lives Matter or gay pride flags in front of their homes while driving the Audi’s and wearing their Canada Goose. And they feel really edgy doing it. But none of them will ever be seen at a community event or neighborhood mixer or park cleanup day. But it Isn’t just those from away. Even many locals who come down from the northern part of the state can be sanctimonious. To find anyone or any small social group with a warm, relaxed sense of humor is very rare. Particularly in southern Maine, people seem to have grown sticks up their asses. In Portland itself, it is politics: 24 hours a day 365 days of the year. It’s as if little Portland wants so terribly bad to be something it is not, but is trying everything or can to get there. In Portland, the city government is very provincial but attempts to respond to what it thinks are the progressive voices in town. Meanwhile, with all the revenue, you will not find streets or sidewalks that are kept in worse condition, that are riddled with potholes and broken curbs, with lots of overgrown weeds and grass. Portland itself is a very poorly groomed and cared for town.

I was raped there. I hate it. I never want to go back! The memories are just too painful.

Portland and the surrounding area is full of pricey pretentious and precious restaurants. There is a healthy number of eateries consistently nominated for James Beard awards. They cater to those from away and to the tourists. At one popular spot in Portland, which has made itself popular by advertising nationally, you’ll find tiny, two bite lobster rolls which will cost 22 to 26 bucks each. Only God himself knows why. But the yuppies and hipsters from Boston and the recent transplants gobble it up as if it’s edible gold. They Long to see and be seen in these places and many of the local business owners have become addicted to it all, buying in to the hype.

Portland seemed to be having a moment but at this point, it isn’t worth it. Most of those who have flooded in from other states have already begun to drift back away.

Maine is beautiful and can have wonderful people, don’t get me wrong. But the Portland area it’s just inconvenient, filled with odd, inconvenient business practices, miserable ugly weather, not the most friendly people and definitely lacking a sense of community and identity. There is nothing about Portland Maine that Speaks to a consistent identity or that anyone who lives here rallies around. The city leaders seem to miss the need for that as much as they miss the need for appropriate and safer infrastructure, clean streets and making the place more livable and affordable for everyone. There is an absence of sophisticated and inquisitive media and journalism. Like a city of Orcs all wearing human costumes.

Explains all the unpleasantness happening in Cabot Cove . . .

R11, I suggest you contact Jessica Fletcher!

[quote] Trades service providers are impossible to secure. The state does not require builders and contractors to have any type of license. Plumbers and electricians yes but not the others. Many of the people who do the skilled trades we’re not very educated and have, to their credit and make themselves very valuable. But if you are an every day homeowner with a small plumbing need, or if you need a new bathroom put in that isn’t related to a large commercial project, or if you want to hire one of the mini handyman type services, the ones who have Nice vans driving all over the area which say “no job too big or small“, get ready to be disappointed. They do not want your business. You cannot throw money at them.

OP, I suggest you watch the movie Baby Boom.

"Yup."

"Nope."

OP is right about a lot of this. Social services has also been gutted by the massive influx of "asylum seekers" in the past two years, enabled by the virtue-signalling city government, creating even more problems for livability especially for needy native Mainers. The local head of Social Services even phoned other social services departments around the country warning them not to let it happen to their municipalities. Especially bad news for a city battling an opioid epidemic.

That's any "hippie culture" town in the US. And workmen also do this everywhere.

We call it "mountain time" in Asheville.

OP I grew up summers in a cabin quite near Portland and I’ve inherited it, and I plan to spend time there in retirement, perhaps 10 years from now. You’re right about Southern Maine and its incomplete gentrification. I saw that coming over the years, and almost never visit Portland’s gastropub scene, though I know there is good food there. It’s not a great service culture and, like many popular coastal areas, it gets overwhelmed really quickly (long wait times for a table at even mediocre restaurants, and a sense of smirking mediocrity and overcharging of outsiders). I hope to spend autumn in retirement there, though, because my whole adult life I’ve been away from New England in the fall, and I have missed that. My sense is that a lot of the modern resort homes in Southern Maine are probably kitted out with really nice kitchens and screened in porches, and people who really spend time there hunker down on their own properties and maybe host friends at home instead of meeting up at restaurants, at least during peak season. I will probably be like that. I need to sort of engineer things so that I can still enjoy what I like about certain places like NY and Maine. I hope I’m able to do that. My parents are retired in a beautiful spot in southern Maine, and it’s true you need to finesse relationships with contractors, plumbers, electricians. My Mom charms the shit out of them and keeps Dad hidden away. They also rely on service contracts for heating systems and appliances. I watch how they do it and hope to be like them when I’m older. I think other seasonal resort areas go through the changes you describe in Portland. I remember Nantucket was like this. Just before Memorial Day, they’d mark up the price of everything in the grocery stores and shops, and hold their noses while raking in the cash from tourists. You hear a little tone in their voices when they smile and say “how many people in your party? Hmmm, yah...we can seat you in about an hour....”

Imagine is really a beautiful state. Love Bar Harbor.

Super pretty place, but a lot of the people there are unfriendly and/or very odd

Worst. Buzzfeed. Article. Ever.

R11, that’s awful. I’m sorry. Not as bad as yours, but I have sad/bad memories of Maine. My mother retired there, and while we had some good times, our visits were fraught and I have bad associations with the hospital there. Glad to never set foot in Portland or the rest of it. No offense. It’s a lovely state.

R16, my mother was hospitalized in Portland and there were many many doctors and nurses there who were internationals and difficult to communicate with.

[quote] a lot of the people there are unfriendly

Sometimes, being a bitch is all a woman has to hang on to.

Thank good OP came back. I thought a blobfish got him.