Why I’m Here in the First Place!
Scott K Fish’s intro entry on the MHPC blog….
Back Roads/Maine Places
by Scott K Fish
Heard the news? The Portland Press Herald is reporting a York County building boom. The Bangor Daily News is reporting no takers for the Georgia-Pacific Old Town mill and the Baldacci Administration is spending millions of tax dollars to destroy a Washington County railroad by turning it into a hiking/biking path.
That there are two Maine economies cannot be in doubt by any honest person traveling above the State Volvo Line – a straight line running from the Town of Upton on Maine’s western border, through the City of Bangor, and over to the Town of South Trescott on Maine’s eastern border. In practice, the Volvo Line (a term aptly coined by MHPC Advisor Prof. Jon Reisman) is an imaginary line separating urban and rural Maine.
I’m using the MHPC Blog to report on economic news above/below the Volvo Line. Why? To offer fresh views on stale economic policies in rural Maine and, in so doing, to uncover true solutions for rural Maine job creation/retention.
I live in rural Maine (Penobscot County, Town of Dixmont, Population 1,065) for almost 20 years. Also, I worked for the Maine Legislature (1989-2000) and saw how the two Maine’s impacts the making of laws and government policies. I’d love to see a survey of how many Maine legislators have visited Bangor and points north in the last decade. Based on my experience, not many.
Rural Maine should not, need not, become a yuppie “experience