Possibly retiring (Brunswick, Presque Isle, Edgecomb: 2009, home, to live)

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by maineguy8888

There are 3 urban areas in Maine, like what you want:
Portland (200,000 or so). VERY expensive. I don't think you can get what you want there, based on what you said about your wish list and available money.
Lewiston/Auburn (100,000 or so). Cheaper, but a very messed up city. No way I would live there. Too much dysfunction and social ills.
Bangor/Brewer (90,000 or so). This may be your only alternative. Sometimes it seems like a decent city and other times it seems like a rough place. It is the social service center of the entire northern half of the state, so you get all kinds of people heading there. Not always good.

There a couple of other areas with 40,000 to 50,000. Too small for you?

Wow! To get the population figures for the cities you mention, you need to use a VERY large circle to make the areas. In order to get 90,000 population numbers for Bangor, I think the circle would have to be around fifty miles in radius, to include Waterville, Belfast and Ellsworth.

It might well be that there are 90,000 people within one hour or so of Bangor, but looking at Lewiston/Auburn, that circle would need to include the entire midcoast and greater Augusta also, it would appear.

I haven't done a count by county or by area, but with 1.3 million people in Maine, and the number of small towns scattered out over this very large state (large for the Northeast), I think describing population by city area is a bit misleading.

I would suggest that retiring to Maine may well involve choosing a center to leave within one hour of. That way in twenty years or so, the population and development may have sprawled out to eat up some of that distance, and more services will be available within, say a half hour commute. There was a time twenty years or so ago, when driving to Bangor from Ellsworth took nearly an hour, and during th early morning on weekdays, it could in fact take longer than that. Now Bangor is merely a half hour from Ellsworth pretty much at worst, even with morning traffic, and once One A gets widened leaving Ellsworth, the time will shrink to a true half hour almost any time except in an ice storm.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

We had a few panicky people in our town about 20 years ago who wanted to enact a zoning ordinance to control growth. I pointed out that if our town continued to grow at that present rate, by the year 2050 our population would be back up to where it was in 1890. The zoning initiative went away. Maine is now the oldest state and will continue to age.

[maineguy8888]

Originally Posted by Acadianlion

Wow! To get the population figures for the cities you mention, you need to use a VERY large circle to make the areas. In order to get 90,000 population numbers for Bangor, I think the circle would have to be around fifty miles in radius, to include Waterville, Belfast and Ellsworth.

It might well be that there are 90,000 people within one hour or so of Bangor, but looking at Lewiston/Auburn, that circle would need to include the entire midcoast and greater Augusta also, it would appear.

I haven't done a count by county or by area, but with 1.3 million people in Maine, and the number of small towns scattered out over this very large state (large for the Northeast), I think describing population by city area is a bit misleading.

I would suggest that retiring to Maine may well involve choosing a center to leave within one hour of. That way in twenty years or so, the population and development may have sprawled out to eat up some of that distance, and more services will be available within, say a half hour commute. There was a time twenty years or so ago, when driving to Bangor from Ellsworth took nearly an hour, and during th early morning on weekdays, it could in fact take longer than that. Now Bangor is merely a half hour from Ellsworth pretty much at worst, even with morning traffic, and once One A gets widened leaving Ellsworth, the time will shrink to a true half hour almost any time except in an ice storm.

I don't think I was TOO far off:
Bangor: 33,000
Brewer: 9,000
Hampden: 8,000
Orrington: 4,000
Hermon/Kenduskeag/ etc. 8,000
Veazie: 3,000
Orono/U of M: 15,000
Old Town: 7,000
Holden: 3,000

That's 90,000.


Lewiston: 45,000
Auburn: 35,000
Lisbon Falls: 5,000
Minot/Sabattus/Greene, etc. 15,000

That's 100,000 right there.

Good advice, though. Some people who have recently bought just outside of Augusta, Lewiston, Portland, Biddeford, etc. are going to be very, very disappointed in 20-25 years. With sprawl.

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

We had a few panicky people in our town about 20 years ago who wanted to enact a zoning ordinance to control growth. I pointed out that if our town continued to grow at that present rate, by the year 2050 our population would be back up to where it was in 1890. ...

As a recent immigrant to Maine, who came to Maine to retire; I ask why did folks leave Maine around 1900?

No doubt other potential retirees want to know as well.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

As a recent immigrant to Maine, who came to Maine to retire; I ask why did folks leave Maine around 1900?

No doubt other potential retirees want to know as well.

They had cut down all of the original growth trees by the early 1900's and people went elsewhere looking for work.

[CoastalMaine]

Originally Posted by Maineah

They had cut down all of the original growth trees by the early 1900's and people went elsewhere looking for work.

They did that to the Cape looooooooong before 1900. They shipped the lumber back to England! The Cape never recovered from it in terms of tree growth. Glad Maine did!

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by CoastalMaine

They did that to the Cape looooooooong before 1900. They shipped the lumber back to England! The Cape never recovered from it in terms of tree growth. Glad Maine did!

I read several books about the golden age of forestry in NewEngland. It was quite a time. It really was unbelieveable how men with saws axes, oxen and horses for the most part stripped this entire area to the bare ground in only about 60-70 years.. By the early 1900's there was barely a tree standing in Maine. Go to a local library to see photos of the towns back then. There were absolutely no trees anywhere.

[deerislesmile]

The development of land "out west" (California, Pacific Northwest, etc) drew a lot of Mainers to emigrate, as well as the development of industrial/manufacturing centers in regions south of Maine, in addition to the decrease of industries such as logging, shipbuilding, quarrying and small scale commercial farms in Maine, all of which had been much more prosperous in the 1800's than in the early part of the 1900's.

[CoastalMaine]

Originally Posted by Maineah

I read several books about the golden age of forestry in NewEngland. It was quite a time. It really was unbelieveable how men with saws axes, oxen and horses for the most part stripped this entire area to the bare ground in only about 60-70 years.. By the early 1900's there was barely a tree standing in Maine. Go to a local library to see photos of the towns back then. There were absolutely no trees anywhere.

Same here on this sandpit Maineah! Even 30-50 years ago it was pretty bare. I remember the mid-Cape highway as a kid... it was wide open. Sand ruled around here because the topsoil had been blown away. Nuts!

[maineguy8888]

Many went west. But MANY moved north to the semi-frontier of the Aroostook in the late 1800s/early 1900s!