Moving from Colorado

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by RANDRE

What is up with heating with oil? We use gas here, so this is something very new to us... ...We realize the winters are cold, but the rest of the year is sounds perfect!!!

Heating oil is kind of like kerosene and has been around for a long time. It is (was) the more popular way to heat homes in New England and in random parts of the Northeast along the Great Lakes to Minneapolis, where heating oil is not as popular, but it does exist. It is pretty much unheard of everywhere else.

Heating oil was practical for two reasons: There are no pipelines to maintain, as heating oil is delivered to your home via truck and stored in a tank in the basement (the same way that coal was delivered to homes back in the 20's); and two: the cost of oil was much more affordable in the past.

Originally Posted by erteel

A lot of places are heated with oil, I think that is because we get tankers oil right into the ports here, which for a long time was a good thing. The economy of Portland may be best described a slow, but steady.

The oil from those tankers is owned by Canada and the oil is pumped up to Canada with pipelines.

[portlander10]

I noticed in your thread that you were moving from Colorado to Portland, and I am looking forward to moving to Colorado from Portland...Portland has a good deal to offer people in many ways- good dining, many bars, shopping, low crime, etc. However, it is in my opinion that it lacks key ingredients for the active outdoors lifestyle. For all of the beauty of Maine in general (being so wide open and the most forested state) many people do not take advantage. Many Mainers prefer motorized activities such as quad-riding, or snowmobiling, etc. There are cross country options here and there, but some have become defunct up north especially- due to the overwhelming majority of folks preferring more sedate outdoor hobbies. Often in beautiful state parks one will find fewer people snowshoeing, skiing, hiking, than would be expected. This is not a bad thing if one likes solitude, however. Maine has a big "out of shape" problem, which took me by surprise and still does after five years of living in Portland. It is hard to create social contacts with active persons here. Many people it seems, tend to hunker down in winter here, and do very little outside- and to me it is too bad. Colorado is much more active.

[megonow]

I used to live there and went back Oct 1 thinking i
would retire in Portland, remembering how great it
was 20 years ago.

Walk down congress st and encounter drunks, homeless,
mentally ill, drugged out freaks.

the old port has been destroyed. buildings taken down
and monstrosities put up all out of human scale.

restaurants all tourist traps serving bad food at top prices.

go up the coast or down the coast but avoid portland like
the proverbial plague.

[lrfox]

^I don't know if I'd go THAT far.

I am VERY disappointed with the state of the Old Port. It's not a very urban neighborhood at all. There are far too many street-level parking lots, garages that pay no matter to pedestrians (I'm looking at you, Fore St. garage), and new constructions that look like they were designed for suburban Phoenix. There are many cities in New England (NOT named Boston or Providence, either) that have far more engaging, well-preserved, historic urban neighborhoods.

As far as the "druggies" and "homeless" go, we're in a recession and Portland is a city (albeit a very small one). There are going to be druggies and homeless and they will roam. Portland is far from bad in either the homeless, drug, or other crime categories when compared to other cities its size. It still has a working waterfront (which is a good thing); and unfortunately, working waterfronts can bring a lot of undesirable illegal products and people around... I for one, think Portland is doing pretty well in keeping it to a minimum in that regard.

I am probably one of the harshest critics of Portland's culinary scene as I think most places in town are a bit uninspired and over-rated, but I don't think they serve "bad food at top prices." In fact, I would argue that places like Fore St and Hugo's, etc. are very affordable considering what they serve. Even pub fare in Portland is nice and reasonably priced. I've come to terms with the fact that Portland is a comfort food town and as such, the food may not be especially creative, but it's certainly not over priced.

Even with its flaws (all cities have them), Portland is a great place for someone who wants a big town/small city atmosphere, low crime, outdoor lifestyle and laid-back entertainment to settle. I would NEVER suggest that someone who is sure they want those thing and want to be in Maine avoid looking at Portland.