Best and worst places to live in ME (Portland, Lewiston: sex offenders, crime rates)

[Mark S.]

We love living in Brunswick. Still have the small town feel, but we're within easy distance of bigger town stuff.

I also really like Topsham, Freeport, and Gardiner.

As for places I wouldn't want to live: Lewiston, Saco, Biddeford. Crime is just too bad. For Maine anyway. People in Boston and New York probably look at Lewiston's crime rate and laugh.

[peachie_in_maine]

I enjoy the area I live in, but I have lived in an area of Maine that I would not care to live in again.

I can't say really where because it's a personal feeling and it's not fair to say just a personal feeling of something "negitive". * But thats my feeling on "negitive" things.

All area's of Maine have such a great variety of things of beauty for all.

[Maineah]

I have had a number of people ask me over the years why we(or anyone else) would choose to live in Freeport. The retail only down town is very anti-Maine on a lot of levels. The traffic in the summer through town is a real turnoff, on a rainy day in July you can't even get into the town after 12:00 noon. I always say that the down town area is a small part of Freeport and there are some really nice areas in town. Looking around our house you would never even know that LL Bean was in walking distance of our house.We are surrounded by large (by southern Maine standards) open fields on a dead end road with virtually no traffic.. We can hear traffic on I-95 but only when the wind is out of the south. Walking to town the short way means having to cross I-95 (not a smart move). I have done it a couple of times when I didn't have transportation. It takes about 15 minutes to get to LL Bean from my house cutting across the highway and about 45 minutes if you walk the safe way. The safe way is about 20 minutes on a bicycle.. I suspect every "undesireable" town in Southern Maine is the same way. Just off the corridor of route one there are beautiful neighborhoods like in Eliot, Freeport, Wells,etc. I used to deliver milk in the '70's to places like Cape Porpoise, and Kennebunk. The outskirts of route one are very rural. Though city life doesn't do it for me I think there are few places in Maine I would not live.

[flycessna]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

We love living in Brunswick. Still have the small town feel, but we're within easy distance of bigger town stuff.

I also really like Topsham, Freeport, and Gardiner.

As for places I wouldn't want to live: Lewiston, Saco, Biddeford. Crime is just too bad. For Maine anyway. People in Boston and New York probably look at Lewiston's crime rate and laugh.

Lewiston's overall crime rate is lower than Portland's, Augusta, Bangor, Sanford, and Biddaford.

And, Brunswick had the HIGHEST property crime rate out of all of them..other than Portland.

Bottom line though is your right..........compared to anywhere else....every place is safe.

Violent crimes do get skewed because there is so few of them. If Lewiston has one murder and Portland has 2...portland will have twice the violent crime rate as Lewiston.

Thats why assaults, and property crime are great indicators of whats going on...IMO...........Sorry Brunswick

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by flycessna

Lewiston's overall crime rate is lower than Portland's, Augusta, Bangor, Sanford, and Biddaford.

And, Brunswick had the HIGHEST property crime rate out of all of them..other than Portland.

Bottom line though is your right..........compared to anywhere else....every place is safe.

Violent crimes do get skewed because there is so few of them. If Lewiston has one murder and Portland has 2...portland will have twice the violent crime rate as Lewiston.

Thats why assaults, and property crime are great indicators of whats going on...IMO...........Sorry Brunswick

What are you talking about!?! There is no crime in Maine.

[msina]

I wouldn't care to live in Castle Rock.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by K-Luv

What are you talking about!?! There is no crime in Maine.

Well there is crime in Maine.

But when each day has a dozen homicides they no longer get press attention. Rapes, stabbings, muggings, burglaries, there are many cities where these crimes happen dozens of times each day. Those are high crime areas. And Maine simply is not one of those areas.

When we do see a homicide in Maine it does get media attention. So it 'seems' big.

In a neighborhood where everyone knows everyone else, and one person is hit with a heinous crime, everyone knows the victim, so everyone feels it. So it feels bigger.

[RMoore007]

Originally Posted by msina

I wouldn't care to live in Castle Rock.

Talk about a high crime rate in Maine. Maybe we should ask Sheriff Bannerman why all the murders there.

[flycessna]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Well there is crime in Maine.

But when each day has a dozen homicides they no longer get press attention. Rapes, stabbings, muggings, burglaries, there are many cities where these crimes happen dozens of times each day. Those are high crime areas. And Maine simply is not one of those areas.

When we do see a homicide in Maine it does get media attention. So it 'seems' big.

In a neighborhood where everyone knows everyone else, and one person is hit with a heinous crime, everyone knows the victim, so everyone feels it. So it feels bigger.

YES!

Also

On a personal level I view crime very differently. I look at how it will effect me or my family. The realities are that "most" crime involved a certain sect of society and rarley involves people outside of that sect. Just about anywhere in Maine you can live with out really being effected by crime because you do not belonge to that segment of society.

Lewiston could have a really large low income housing complex that generates a large amount of crime and skews the numbers.....but the rest of the city could be uneffected.

There's a lot Bullsh$# crime too. like......."my friend was over drinking and we got in a argument and he punched me".....yada yada yada

Though, as things get really bad....it can drag on the schools sytems, police services, and overall economic development of a city. Like we see in many areas outside of Maine. But I do not see becoming a real issue in Mine ....just yet.

.

[mensaguy]

Originally Posted by msina

I wouldn't care to live in Castle Rock.

Besides Castle Rock, one must consider the crime rate (particularly murder) in the Cabot Cove of Murder, She Wrote, and the semi-fictional Eastport depicted in Sarah Graves.

Seriously things, it seems that the big crimes in Maine are all fiction.