Rockland Area (Waldoboro, Waldo: find a job, movies, school district)

[Coaster]

Rockland IMO is rather a nice place, especially these days, where you can still find affordable homes (try that in Camden!). There are several very nice restaurants -- easily the equal of any you'd find in Portland with the possible exception of Street & Co. The red-brick downtown is active, the newly renovated Strand Theater has first-run movies and hosts various lectures and meetings, and there's a doughnut shop to die for. There is also a more conventional multiplex on the south end of town if you're a serious movie buff.

Crime rate: Back in the days when Rockland had a big fishing fleet and several fish factories on the waterfront, it was a pretty rough place, very blue collar. The fleet and the factories are gone, but some of the people linger today. IMO that element is rapidly being pushed out as Rockland improves. Besides, with its small population, it doesn't take much to move the crime rate significantly in either direction.

If the opportunity arose, I wouldn't hesitate to move there.

[399083453]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

U.S. average crime rate is 325.2. In 2005, Rockland's was 390.5! Yeeouch!

But what does this average crime rate number mean? does it mean anything? How is it figured? Does 1 murder in 5 years weigh in more than 1 theft?

I'd just look at the actual stats (with a grain of salt). They are all very low.

Like I said, I wouldnt think of Rockland as a high crime town at all.

[Mid-Coast Moto]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

Why is the crime rate so high in Rockland?

Check out the crime stats: https://www.city-data.com/city/Rockland-Maine.html

I don't know where they're getting their data from but there is no significant crime in Rockland, ME. I've lived all over the US and there is only one other place where I possibly felt safer and saw less crime.

Yes, I live in Rockland and I don't work for the city or the chamber of commerce or anything like that. I could live wherever I like but, I'm here on the Mid-Coast. Except for Maine having fees and taxes for everything because the state wastes huge amounts of money, it's a wonderful place to live.

[island mermaid]

Originally Posted by Coaster

Rockland IMO is rather a nice place, especially these days, where you can still find affordable homes (try that in Camden!). There are several very nice restaurants -- easily the equal of any you'd find in Portland with the possible exception of Street & Co. The red-brick downtown is active, the newly renovated Strand Theater has first-run movies and hosts various lectures and meetings, and there's a doughnut shop to die for. There is also a more conventional multiplex on the south end of town if you're a serious movie buff.

Crime rate: Back in the days when Rockland had a big fishing fleet and several fish factories on the waterfront, it was a pretty rough place, very blue collar. The fleet and the factories are gone, but some of the people linger today. IMO that element is rapidly being pushed out as Rockland improves. Besides, with its small population, it doesn't take much to move the crime rate significantly in either direction.

If the opportunity arose, I wouldn't hesitate to move there.

20 years ago Rockland was seedy. They've worked really hard to clean up the waterfront and it's actually very nice now. I was just there 2 months ago. The downtown area is also cleaned up. I don't think there are many seedy areas left. It's quite pleasant now.

[Midcoaster]

Rockland only works if you leave here frequently. The only people who are not miserable are the ones that are not part of the day to day to day to day of the place. It is a mean town. The downtown may have tons of galleries, but it is ugly, and the ugliness is not only due to an abject lack of aesthetic sense -- and be assured, that all the new "hip" people coming here contribute nothing to change this, (remember, they have that other place to go to to escape all this).

The winter is not a problem. There are worse winters many other places. The weather is, however, incredibly changeable, and even if you have lived other places, as I have, you will find it impossible to adjust physiologically.

Medical care is among the worst seen, including by practioners who claim they are "wholistic". Perhaps the better docs who are naturopaths, are okay, but you need, literally, a fortune to go to them anyway, and that is true everywhere.

People are heavily invested in ignoring solutions to problems, by using old adages -- "Rockland by the smell, Camden by the sea", is heard daily. Why work towards solutions when you can lay back and hold to negative things? And this, people, is the thinking here. No. Rockland is the most negative, heavy town I've ever lived in.

Too, you would think this was northern siberia in terms of getting goods and services. With great regularity, "the truck didn't come" to the two major chain grocery stores. It's just plain screwed up.

There is no "Yankee ingenuity" here. That would be seen as suspicious behavior, and fought tooth and nail. I truly believe that everything about Maine is fictitious - at least it has been past the 1950s.

Maine, in general, with the exception of Portland - though I can't truly imagine spending years there - is a place to visit, not to develop a life.

[Nancy-NJ-NY-ME?]

Midcoaster - Not sure why you revived this thread after 10 months, but all I can say is "Ouch!".

[Mainer61]

All I can say is...Midcoaster is being very negative...I've lived in Rockland my whole life....it is not ugly....however, it has become an artsy town....all galleries, with the Farnsworth taking over. The hospital is excellent....traffic is annoying in the summer, but probably not to someone from CT or NJ. The crime rate is pretty low and the population is becoming more diverse.

[Shuffler]

Rockland didn't appear all that shoddy to me, though I didn't spend a lot of time walking around town. I saw a few hooligans, but you see sketchy people everywhere these days.

I think Maine in general can be a good place to live simply and get back to basics if you set your expectations and plan accordingly, and are willing & able to work for it. Even the best laid plans aren't going to ensure an easy life there... but then again that's a chance you take wherever you go.

And I think it'll always draw the wealthy/fancy element who come seasonally to throw their money around and 'play', but who will never truly 'get it' nor understand what the State is really all about. Sort of like the folks who frequent the Colorado high country in the summer months.

[dmyankee]

Unfortunately, the Moonbat contingent is conquering the coastal towns one by one.

Up here, we stop 'em at the gate and frisk 'em for weapons of mass confusion.

[txmom]

Originally Posted by Shuffler

Rockland didn't appear all that shoddy to me, though I didn't spend a lot of time walking around town. I saw a few hooligans, but you see sketchy people everywhere these days.

I think Maine in general can be a good place to live simply and get back to basics if you set your expectations and plan accordingly, and are willing & able to work for it. Even the best laid plans aren't going to ensure an easy life there... but then again that's a chance you take wherever you go.

And I think it'll always draw the wealthy/fancy element who come seasonally to throw their money around and 'play', but who will never truly 'get it' nor understand what the State is really all about. Sort of like the folks who frequent the Colorado high country in the summer months.

When you wrote that I was reminded of the end of The Old Man and the Sea, when the tourist lady and her male companion look upon the remains of the old man's giant marlin carcass and mistake it for a shark. The old man had poured his life into bringing that marlin in, and to them it was merely a curiousity.