Why is Maine a good place to move to? (Portland: short sales, foreclosure)

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by pc-not

Without getting too philosophical, it's treat others the way you want to be treated. Coming off as arrogant and wanting to have it "like where I came from," does not work well in most places. I always try to treat others with respect and show interest in them.

In a un-philosophical way; that is very non-arrogant and respectful.





btw. Maine is still a great place to move to.

[nyctovt]

It's no longer a good place to settle.That boat sailed about 30 years ago and it;s a shame.

[crb01]

Originally Posted by nyctovt

It's no longer a good place to settle.That boat sailed about 30 years ago and it;s a shame.

Well that was quite informative.....The vagueness of your statement tells me you have a chip on your shoulder.

There are so many different parts of Maine that just about anyone can find a lifestyle to thier liking.

[Submariner]

Everywhere has changed during the past 30-years.

From my travels and searching for a place to settle, I found what appears to me to be about the 'best'.

[redgoast]

Originally Posted by crb01

Well that was quite informative.....The vagueness of your statement tells me you have a chip on your shoulder.

There are so many different parts of Maine that just about anyone can find a lifestyle to thier liking.

That is not completely true. The brain drain problem that exists in Maine is a very real problem and sort of shows that young educated people don't see a great deal of opportunity for themselves in Maine. It would be great if the state was willing to offer incentives to modern companies and industries to move into the state.

I know we all wanna keep maine "the way life should be" and there are advantages to that of course, however on a state-wide level it's not helping young people to feel like they can stick around and earn a living doing something they want to do. With the exception of a handful of people, almost all of my peers whom stayed in Maine are struggling working in retail positions while trying to pay off an insane amount of debt due to student loans. It would be great if they were more willing to modernize and attract diverse industry in a specific area such as portland or bangor, but I don't see that occurring anytime soon.

I remember upon graduating, the State offered me really great tax breaks in exchange for staying in the state, It would have been great and I would have stayed... If I could have found a job in Maine that payed me a decent amount and used the skills I learned in College. I think offering tax breaks to graduating students is/was a poor strategy. What good are tax breaks if there are no jobs? They should have offered those tax breaks to companies and business owners who are willing to employe graduates in various disciplines.

If I were in the Healthcare, Education, Tourism, Forestry, Hospitality, Trade Service (Lawyer, Electrician, Plumber, etc.) then I could probably have stayed and made a good living, but anything beyond those few fields really doesn't seems to have the same opportunities that exist elsewhere in the country. Which is interesting because the University of Maine is one of the top Engineering Schools in the country and most of those graduates can't really use their degrees in the state. It's sort of sad really..

I am just one of many who left after college to have a career, I miss Maine but chances are good i'll never return. Even when I'm in retirement, states such as Texas and Florida offer much better climates and no incomes taxes which at the moment seems much more practical.

[beltrams]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Everywhere has changed during the past 30-years.

From my travels and searching for a place to settle, I found what appears to me to be about the 'best'.

I second that.

So many parts of this country are so sprawled out and over-paved, with people needing to spend so much time in traffic to buy or do just about anything, with so many corporate chain stores at every major intersection, (parts of CA, FL, Georgia, AZ I've been to come right to mind) and every major interstate interchange a hopeless jumble of junk stores, repeated endlessly, with huge, corporate builders throwing up thousands of cheap tract homes, only to create entire counties of foreclosures later (AZ, NV, FL), with industrial pollution rampant (parts of the Gulf Coast and urban/suburban Midwest and California), and with many other rural parts of this country just as bad, if not worse, than Maine's rural areas job-wise, and with crime in so many other parts of the country FAR worse than Maine (Maine being the lowest violent crime state, or some years being tied with, or just losing to VT), not to mention the much bigger drug and gang problems than Maine has, or the fact that there is nothing for kids to do in much of the cities and suburbs of most of the US to do except stay inside, away from the broiling sun during the summer in their over-built suburb and play with the XBox or hang out in the (cookie cutter, chain store-infested) mall with the other kids if they can get somebody to drive them to it (ever been to the I-5 corridor in CA's Central Valley?) No, there are a lot of other places that have sunk far lower than Maine.

The reality is, almost no place in this country is as good of a place as it was 30 years ago because the country as a whole is less, in so many ways, than what it was 30 years ago. (More to the point, I think the US isn't what it once was because its very people are less, character-wise, than they used to be.) Of course Maine has slipped some too.

[pc-not]

The last two posts lay out different aspects concerning the OP. I agree pretty much with what you both have stated. Another example how so many things in life are a trade off.

Here's a personal observation. I came to Florida almost thirty years ago mainly for a chance to better my income. We settled in a fairly pristine part of the Gulf coast that was not unlike parts of Maine with low population and much natural beauty. In that timeframe, growth has been the double edged sword that has benefitted/destroyed this area. When I first got here we could walk for miles along the white sand beaches, seeing very few people and a few simple houses.

Now that we've been "discovered", it's not a whole lot different than south Florida. When I drive along the beach in Destin, it's now six lanes and you can no longer see the beach due to all the high rise condos. I live on the other side of the bay from there, but even the growth here is bad due to Eglin and Hurlbert Air Force bases. Great economy but too much traffic for the unique geography. Gulf, bay and countless bayous make for alot of congestion. That's why I want to get back to Maine in the summers so I can avoid our tourists.

[redgoast]

I agree with beltrams too. I WISH i could live in maine and work as a graphic designer. I'd like nothing more than to go home and get away from the long commutes, heavy traffic, and just go back to Bangor where everything is 15minutes away, people leave me alone, and i don't need a brita water filter. But It's not an option... I Hope one day it will be.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by redgoast

I agree with beltrams too. I WISH i could live in maine and work as a graphic designer. I'd like nothing more than to go home and get away from the long commutes, heavy traffic, and just go back to Bangor where everything is 15minutes away, people leave me alone, and i don't need a brita water filter. But It's not an option... I Hope one day it will be.

Last night at market I was talking to a customer and asked what she did. She is a student at UM studying Art Education. I asked her about job openings in that field. She has no hope of finding a job teaching art. She did laugh though, at least 'Art' is better then a 'mommy degree' like Early-Childhood-Development.

I am not sure how many current college students will be able to pay back student loans while asking people if they want fries with their burger.

[redgoast]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Last night at market I was talking to a customer and asked what she did. She is a student at UM studying Art Education. I asked her about job openings in that field. She has no hope of finding a job teaching art. She did laugh though, at least 'Art' is better then a 'mommy degree' like Early-Childhood-Development.

I am not sure how many current college students will be able to pay back student loans while asking people if they want fries with their burger.

in college i had a girlfriend in the art education program... she works at hannaford in the seafood department in portland and lives with her parents. yeah...... she's hoping to get a clerical position somewhere in an office...

my studio art education helped but only because I spent more time learning and developing my artistic skills for commercial application in photoshop/illustrator/indesign then i did painting (and my professors hated me for it.. in retrospect it was the right thing for me to do regardless, and it was worth the b.s. i put up with) after college i was able to build a client-base/portfolio and was willing to leave Maine for opportunities.

EDIT: my sister got a degree in web design from husson... she still lives in maine and the best she could do for awhile was 4 hours a week at the newspaper and 12 hours a week at a small web design company. She's thinking of going back to dunkin donuts so she can move out of my mother's house.