Portland --- Lifestyle, crime, etc.?

[jbeecherrusso]

Hi Mark,
Portland and surrounding areas are considered a small city. The opportunities in education and culture far outweigh the crime. The opportunities for crime in Portland are no way near that which I have seen in other cities of a smaller size in New England. The large percentage of residents are educated and of a family values vein. I was born here, moved away for 20 years, and came back. We love it in Saco, which is 20 minutes south of Portland!

[Auntie Em]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

Thanks for the advice!

Are there any neighborhoods or parts of town in Portland that one should avoid? I'm thinking in terms of safety issues. I don't really care about restaurants and entertainment, but I want to live in a safe and quiet neighborhood. Are there any places to avoid? Any I should particularly check out?

Yes. Falmouth. We moved here about thirteen years ago after checking out everywhere along the entire Eastern seaboard. We're only minutes away from the center of Portland and five minutes from movies, shopping etc. but the town has very carefully controlled sprawl so there's plenty of "woodsy" areas in Falmouth still.

The schools are really great but what we like most about is that we are so close to a charming public beach and harbor. Real lobster boats; fishing from a pier, islands in view -- the whole iconic Maine "thing"! Be aware that the closer one gets to the water though, the higher the house prices. But it's been so great living here especially in summer, that we hardly ever leave to vacation elsewhere so we save on travel costs.

Yes, winters are long and can get tedious but if this neighborhood is within an hours drive of some good skiing; the town has three ice skating rinks and a movie complex. (If you're desperate for entertainment LL Bean in Freeport is about twelve minutes down the road.) Falmouth also has some terrific walking nature trails. Good luck!

[Sburgh11]

As far as places to avoid, definetly the East End, Munjoy Hill, Deering Oaks park to some degree (Grant St. Sherman St. Cumberland Ave, Deering Ave,) pretty much draw a square starting at the corner of State & Congress, down to Park Ave, Over to the baseball field and back up!

Portland is "safe" but one can certainly feel unsafe walking around in the evening. I've lived in Portland, Boston, Canada and elsewhere and while in Boston there is often threatening looks they are mostly to appear unapproachable in order to help keep beggers away (not that it works).

My two biggest complaints about Portland are the job market and the freaking idiot punks who walk around and think they are the most hardcore people to ever walk the earth!

The job market mostly sucks... unless you are in the healthcare profession. As far as the punks go my only theory is that since Portland is a smaller city there aren't really any "real" tough guys so pretty much every idiot gets to act like they are Billy Badass or something! These jokers are all talk and normally crumble as soon as you stand up to them. While overall crime may be higher in cities like Boston you will see these types of idiots less because those cities actually have tough guys who won't put up with these punks.

And as someone else posted, yes there is a drug problem in the city (where isn't there?) and yes the city is so small that there aren't any areas of greater or lesser crime. Anyone with two legs can walk the entire city so there are no "affluent" areas which escape the floods of homeless and lazy asses who come here for our extreme government handouts this city loves to extend.

Overall though, the Portland area is a decent place. Falmouth, Cape Elizabeth, Freeport, Scarborough, etc etc are exteremely nice places to live, just make sure you enjoy skiing and stairing at trees and you will do fine here!

[island mermaid]

Welcome to the Maine forum Sburgh11.

I'm sure we'd all like to thank you for your well thought out response. So enlightening for us all. Great job.

[Mark S.]

Wow. You know, I just realized I was the original questioner who started this way over a year ago. We've been in Maine almost a year now!

So thanks for the answers, everyone. Keep answering if others are interested, but my questions have been answered. We love Maine. I wish we'd moved here 10 years ago.

[Moxie]

So where did you settle?

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by Sburgh11

As far as places to avoid, definetly the East End, Munjoy Hill, Deering Oaks park to some degree (Grant St. Sherman St. Cumberland Ave, Deering Ave,) pretty much draw a square starting at the corner of State & Congress, down to Park Ave, Over to the baseball field and back up!

My two biggest complaints about Portland are the job market and the freaking idiot punks who walk around and think they are the most hardcore people to ever walk the earth!

As far as the punks go my only theory is that since Portland is a smaller city there aren't really any "real" tough guys so pretty much every idiot gets to act like they are Billy Badass or something! These jokers are all talk and normally crumble as soon as you stand up to them. While overall crime may be higher in cities like Boston you will see these types of idiots less because those cities actually have tough guys who won't put up with these punks.

And as someone else posted, yes there is a drug problem in the city (where isn't there?) and yes the city is so small that there aren't any areas of greater or lesser crime. Anyone with two legs can walk the entire city so there are no "affluent" areas which escape the floods of homeless and lazy asses who come here for our extreme government handouts this city loves to extend.

I definitely agree with what you are saying about the tough guys. The GF and I have often talked about how these people are lucky that they live in Maine because if they tried to pull half of the stuff that they get away with here in any other city then they would get their sh*t handed to them twice over; and a few of them would be found dead.

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by Moxie

So where did you settle?

We're in Brunswick. Close enough to Portland to go, but we're also out of the city proper.

[oceanfit185]

The violent crime is mostly isolated to the old port. Mostly drunken bar fights. People in Maine usually don't shot or stab each other. But when drunk, we will throw down in fisticuffs from time to time.

Some bad stuff happens here too. But not anywhere near what you will see in bigger cities. I wouldn’t want my wife (or myself) to walk around in some neighborhoods after dark. Some common sense will keep you more than safe.

The property crime is for real. I had my car stolen earlier this year. And have had my house broken into a couple of times. I also used to get my car broken into from time to time. But I moved and it stopped. Again, an ounce of prevention will go a long way.