Maine Population Shifts (Bangor, Orono, Camden: 2015, home, income)

[7th generation]

Originally Posted by OpinionExperience

So what is "our way of life", what did I miss?

...where to start....having Mom wake you up an hour early on a school morning and Dad would help you out the front window so you could shovel the door so he could go to work. Taking your rifle or shotgun to school to hunt after because it would be dark by 5:00 pm and the bus ride home was 1 1/2 hours.....walk to school in the primary grades to a one room school house that had 21 kids in grades 1-5.....being the oldest son that went to the wood shed before and after school to bring fire wood upstairs for Grandpa and Grandma....Fall heralded in hunting season, out the back door, through the back field where partdridge and deer were plentiful...Fall also meant cutting and splitting wood for the winter....helping Dad after Thanksgiving haul a toboggin to cut a Christmas tree and many years bringing a rabbit(s) home from this excursion for Mom to make a delicious stew.......walking to our pond on a hot summer day with neighbor kids to a glacial formed lake that was never warm and fishing our way home in the brook that ran out of it...getting home and gutting the brookies and inevitably Mom would remind us to make sure and place the guts back in the woods so bear wouldn't be attracted close to the house...wrenching on vehicles with your friends in the driveway....Mom would take us out back in the woods and explain everything nature and picknicking at the Ledge, high above town with a stunning view of the valley and the Presidential range.......many town celerbrations were held two doors down in the Union Aid Society building with no heat or indoor plumbing, weddings, Christmas, Easter, May Day, funeral gatherings, birthday parties, Haloween parties.. The whole town came together to celebrate here........and on and on...it was the best of the best and I cherish the memories of my family and friends past and present....

[WannabeMainer]

Originally Posted by Nor'Eastah

I hope it does. Why does every place have to be hoppin'? Maine is the last frontier of the east, the last refuge of a New England that is increasingly urbanized and paved over. As an escapee of Rhode Island, I can't tell you how much it meant to have Maine nearby.

Not everybody loves the cities and big business. Give me the pines, the lakes, the haircap moss, the stars on a quiet night, the moose, the soft sound of a heavy snowfall. I don't mean to get overly romantic. It's just that I love my freedom and my privacy up here.

And it's posts like these that keep me working hard on the necessary steps needed to also be an urban escapee I'm sure eventually everywhere will be paved over besides tracts of green park areas and necessary farmland, but hopefully as a man in my early 30's, I'll get 30-40 years of that before I drift away peacefully.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

People want to be on the ocean with a view and a good anchorage or pier. They would like to find this for under $1,400,000.

Others want to find a secluded piece of land on a dead end road with a water source on the property. There is a nation-wide tiny house movement. In some communities it is not possible to build a tiny house because there is no such dwelling in the municipal zoning ordinances.

Maine has communities with NO zoning ordinances. They are low hassle towns with beautiful homes and neat low income homes. People there do not find that as incompatible because there is not a snob in town. Such places exist and the people who live there want to preserve their way of life.

[Submariner]

I moved to Maine in 2005. Since then I have seen many articles in the Bangor Daily News about Maine's population shifts. Young adults leave Maine seeking high paying careers, while retirees move to Maine seeking the low COL peaceful rural lifestyle offered by Maine.

I am not sure any of this is 'bad'.

I enjoy living in a rural area.

[svband76]

Originally Posted by Submariner

I moved to Maine in 2005. Since then I have seen many articles in the Bangor Daily News about Maine's population shifts. Young adults leave Maine seeking high paying careers, while retirees move to Maine seeking the low COL peaceful rural lifestyle offered by Maine.

I am not sure any of this is 'bad'.

I enjoy living in a rural area.

Exactly. It is what it is. If Maine becomes an older population or doesn't grow so be it. It was meant to be.

This is the greatest state law ever devised.

§2079-A. Excessive sound system noise
1. Prohibition. A person may not operate a sound system in a vehicle on a public way at a volume that is audible at a distance of greater than 25 feet and that exceeds 85 decibels or that is greater than is reasonable with due regard to the location of the vehicle and the effect on persons in proximity to the vehicle. It is a prima facie violation of this section if the vehicle is located near buildings and the buildings or windows in the buildings are shaken or rattled by the sound of the sound system.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by maineguy8888

I would like to think you’re right, but realistically it will take a century or more for rural Maine to start growing again, I think.

Hate to be this guys but no. Odds are, Maine’s rural areas will never grow again.

Actually I take that back maybe after 100 years because who knows... but not in the next 100 years.

[OutdoorLover]

So, I didn't mean for this thread to be a bummer, sorry. I just like data and I like to understand what's going on. And I will point out that many towns in Maine are either stable or gaining population, so even to the extent that declining population is "bad news", it's certainly not bad news all over. The state as a whole is actually slowwwwly gaining population and that's expected to continue. Moreover, as some have pointed out - for some people, whether they seek inexpensive housing or solitude, declining population can be a good thing. :-)

[Submariner]

I am not convinced that growth for the sake of growth, is a good thing.

I often see people talking about their cities growth, or comparing the growth numbers of one city compared to another, rarely does anyone mention the cost of that growth.

Does population growth gain you something? Is there some advantage to having 10% growth, as compared to only 1% growth? Is it somehow better than losing a bit?

I do not want to live in a place with street lights. I do not want to hear police sirens every night. Does anyone actually enjoy commuter traffic gridlock?

[RMoore007]

I visit Dover-Foxcroft when I can and my brother is kind of an information junkie about Maine and its population. He showed me the numbers in Dover and how the population hasn't changed in the last 8-10 decades. Dover has a population average of about 4300 people. There is a little more in the summer months because of Sebec Lake. Looking back each decade, give or take a couple hundred people, the population has been the same since the early 1900's.

Dover is the county seat and has much more in services than any other town this size. My family lives only a couple miles from town and even living in the center of Maine, we are not without conveniences. There are several large and small grocery stores, several eating establishments, 3 hardware stores, 3 gas stations, DMV, library, jail, courthouse, theater, hospital, consolidated school system (SODAMOCHA), etc. The biggest big box store is 25 miles away in Palmyra (Newport). Plus the largest lake in Maine, Moosehead Lake, is only 35 miles away.

There are no population shifts here. Only stubborn people (relatives) that won't move or care to move. They always ask me when I'm coming home and how I can stand it out there (CA).

[svband76]

Originally Posted by Submariner

I am not convinced that growth for the sake of growth, is a good thing.

I often see people talking about their cities growth, or comparing the growth numbers of one city compared to another, rarely does anyone mention the cost of that growth.

Does population growth gain you something? Is there some advantage to having 10% growth, as compared to only 1% growth? Is it somehow better than losing a bit?

I do not want to live in a place with street lights. I do not want to hear police sirens every night. Does anyone actually enjoy commuter traffic gridlock?

Yes. I want a population decrease! Leave me alone in my quietness.