Observations: The State Of The State. (Auburn, Augusta: for sale, real estate, credit)

[Maineah]

DW and I have been driving around Maine the past several days checking out our favorite scenic spots and towns surrounding them. It's been several years since we just drove around with no particular destination in mind and really took the time to observe what's going on.
Last Friday we went up 201 from Topsham to Bingham then crossed from Bingham on RTE 16 to Abbot then on to Greenville, eventually following the Golden Road past the West Branch of the Penobscot ending up in Millinockett after a night in Greenville. Yesterday we took 26 to Bethel, route 2 into New Hampshire for a while, back on to 16 and back into Maine hitting route 4 in Rangeley then down 4 to Auburn and home to Freeport again.
Something we both noticed right away were the very large number of businesses closed, boarded up or completely gone buildings and all. A good number of these are in newer buildings! Many small shopping malls have several empty store fronts each.
Dozens of roadside cafe's, stores, and other travel related businesses are simply gone. Gas stations are fewer and further apart. Most of the ones still open are Big Apple , Puffin Stops or Irving's owned by larger oil companies. It seemed like most of the small independent gasoline sellers are out of the business.
Places we once stopped by to pick up supplies or have a bite to eat were simply boarded up. Rockwood was a good example. The store in the "village" area is gone as is the little restaurant and pool hall across the street where we used to take our snow machines and have dinner.
Pray's Big Eddy cabins on the West Branch are all boarded up and the store is closed.
Greenville seemed to be holding it's own but I noticed several restaurants and cafe's missing since we last visited. They have been working on the roads finally though I think that has much more to do with the Federal stimulus than any plan Augusta has come up with.
A few larger motels in Millinockett were closed. These places did real well in the 70's 80's and 90's. They were empty, boarded up, and for sale. The only businesses taking the place of the closed roadside stores seemed to be "Dollar Stores". They are popping up all over the place. How much Chinese "dollar junk" can anyone use??
Wilton and Jay are really depressed. Lots of empty buildings and nearly every house we passed has a for sale sign in front of it.
The trips have been an eye opener for us and frankly kind of depressing! We knew it was bad out there but to see this level of reversal of fortune in such a short period of time is heart breaking.
We feel insulated from the rest of Maine here in Cumberland County. Dw has a good secure job and we're doing ok. The parts of Maine (and New Hampshire) we visited, however, are not doing so well at all. It seems like time has reversed itself in many of these towns and it's almost like it was in the mid 60's again before the economic boom of the late 70's and 80's.

[tcrackly]

Hard times for uas Mainers once again. Count your blessings if you are one of the fortunate staple or even prosperous ones. Many of us are struggling or just treading water.

[teachertype]

It's not just Maine. It's worldwide. If I say what caused it and where the money went it will just generate a lot of divisiveness and empty, polarizing talking points. Someone got all the country's wealth and it wasn't the citizenry.

[mrs1885]

It's definitely not just Maine. Here in TN the town is trying to revitalize our downtown. Adorable little historic district. The government has pumped money into it to make it grow and *shock* it hasn't worked.

Sorry. Not trying to start anything, just annoyed.

The economy is bad. Any businesses that don't have a good rainy day account will fall quickly. We went through it in the early 80s. But once everyone backed off and let the market do it's job we re-bounded. As it always does. But for now, yes, it sucks.

[OutDoorNut]

Originally Posted by Maineah

DW and I have been driving around Maine the past several days checking out our favorite scenic spots and towns surrounding them. It's been several years since we just drove around with no particular destination in mind and really took the time to observe what's going on.
Last Friday we went up 201 from Topsham to Bingham then crossed from Bingham on RTE 16 to Abbot then on to Greenville, eventually following the Golden Road past the West Branch of the Penobscot ending up in Millinockett after a night in Greenville. Yesterday we took 26 to Bethel, route 2 into New Hampshire for a while, back on to 16 and back into Maine hitting route 4 in Rangeley then down 4 to Auburn and home to Freeport again.
Something we both noticed right away were the very large number of businesses closed, boarded up or completely gone buildings and all. A good number of these are in newer buildings! Many small shopping malls have several empty store fronts each.
Dozens of roadside cafe's, stores, and other travel related businesses are simply gone. Gas stations are fewer and further apart. Most of the ones still open are Big Apple , Puffin Stops or Irving's owned by larger oil companies. It seemed like most of the small independent gasoline sellers are out of the business.
Places we once stopped by to pick up supplies or have a bite to eat were simply boarded up. Rockwood was a good example. The store in the "village" area is gone as is the little restaurant and pool hall across the street where we used to take our snow machines and have dinner.
Pray's Big Eddy cabins on the West Branch are all boarded up and the store is closed.
Greenville seemed to be holding it's own but I noticed several restaurants and cafe's missing since we last visited. They have been working on the roads finally though I think that has much more to do with the Federal stimulus than any plan Augusta has come up with.
A few larger motels in Millinockett were closed. These places did real well in the 70's 80's and 90's. They were empty, boarded up, and for sale. The only businesses taking the place of the closed roadside stores seemed to be "Dollar Stores". They are popping up all over the place. How much Chinese "dollar junk" can anyone use??
Wilton and Jay are really depressed. Lots of empty buildings and nearly every house we passed has a for sale sign in front of it.
The trips have been an eye opener for us and frankly kind of depressing! We knew it was bad out there but to see this level of reversal of fortune in such a short period of time is heart breaking.
We feel insulated from the rest of Maine here in Cumberland County. Dw has a good secure job and we're doing ok. The parts of Maine (and New Hampshire) we visited, however, are not doing so well at all. It seems like time has reversed itself in many of these towns and it's almost like it was in the mid 60's again before the economic boom of the late 70's and 80's.

Try not to be too offended by this guy's narrative of his vacation in New England, including Maine, because it's his habit to only see the negative aspects of every state in modern times.

"A dark mood spread through the body politic like a septic infection last week in response to bad numbers in employment, housing, and commerce, not to mention unease about the now complete takeover of the stock market by robot traders. But I left it all behind to trip across New England from the Vermont border to Maine and back, and many a strange thing did I see...."

What I Did On Summer Vacation - Cluster**** Nation

[dmyankee]

Unfortunately, in many mill and woods dependents towns, the money never got there during the booms of the '90s on. As manufacturing moved overseas, the unemployed were offered unemplyment checks and free "retraining"at the Community Colleges. As the woods industry went south, all they were offered was the door. GNP was once the largest employer after BIA.

Once the major employers leave the collateral mom and pop businesses are left struggling until they see the light and shut their doors too. Many of the Northern mill towns are too far from major centers of commerce and tourism to benefit from any kind of gentrification. The same scene plays out in a lot of these regions. The first of the month brings business to the existing shops and the parking lot of the nearest Walmart is packed.

Sometime later, cheap real estate draws second home owners. We will not see a boom of large long term employers in the forseeable future. Most of your local polititions can only see as far as the nearest call center or community block grant.

Make no mistake, the Maine Legislature and polices forwarded by the Executive office are just as culpable as the greenies and NIMBYs for this wide spread disaster that is the Northern Maine economy. They hate the cutting of the forests, but think nothing of clearcutting industry and disemboweling the economies of entire regions.

The Fall of GNP (http://www.damnyankee.com/page1/page63/page63.html - broken link)

[Mark S.]

Last summer killed a lot of motels throughout the Northeast. A combination of the bad economy and the constant rain killed all their business.

We talked to a motel owner in Greeneville over the weekend, who told us that they are having the best year this year in as long as they can remember.

Maine is largely a tourist economy (which is not good). When most of the country is suffering economically, they don't take vacations, which means they don't come to Maine and spend their money at our motels, restaurants, resorts, antique stores, etc. Which has a domino effect on the larger economy. The past 2 years have been very, VERY tough on Maine.

But things are looking up. We aren't out of the woods yet, and I do not thing we are on the verge of a boom. But I do think we are in the midst of a gradual recovery, and that's just going to take a while to get back to something even approaching "normal."

[dmyankee]

Originally Posted by OutDoorNut

Try not to be too offended by this guy's narrative of his vacation in New England, including Maine, because it's his habit to only see the negative aspects of every state in modern times.

"A dark mood spread through the body politic like a septic infection last week in response to bad numbers in employment, housing, and commerce, not to mention unease about the now complete takeover of the stock market by robot traders. But I left it all behind to trip across New England from the Vermont border to Maine and back, and many a strange thing did I see...."

What I Did On Summer Vacation - Cluster**** Nation

The handringing by the anti sprawl, enviro nazi, tree hugging nutjobs is deafening. They can't get enough of this stuff.

[Submariner]

Our car mechanic has three full time guys; they are working full blast. I spoke with him about it. At first folks stopped getting their cars repaired. Who cares if the car is hard to start, so long as it still runs. As the recession has gone longer, now folks are getting their cars towed in. The problem is that now cars no longer have one problem. He is having to diagnose cars with multiple and over-lapping problems. And all of his clients want to get the repairs done on credit.

I towed my old saab to the junk yard and asked them where to put it. "Anywhere out back", as I was towing it out back, I saw that their 20 acre yard was empty. So I asked about it. They once had four kids working fulltime tearing apart cars and cataloging the parts. Now all have been laid off. Folks have stopped replacing fends after an accident. Nobody wants to spend money on car parts anymore. So he had to crush every car and sell them by weight. His junk yard is empty. He even sold his crusher. He said that now when anyone drops off a dead car, he waits until he gets so many then he calls and a guy comes and hauls them away uncrushed. I do not see how a junkyard can stay in business without old cars.

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by teachertype

It's not just Maine. It's worldwide. If I say what caused it and where the money went it will just generate a lot of divisiveness and empty, polarizing talking points. Someone got all the country's wealth and it wasn't the citizenry.

I agree. The number of ramshackle houses, "trouses" (prehistoric mobile homes with houses built around them) and falling down barns where we just visited in upstate NY tells me that we are most certainly not alone.