Charting Maine’s Future

In case you missed it, yesterday’s Kennebec Journal featured an article about recent downtown revitalization efforts in Gardiner. These investments in Gardiner’s downtown serve as great examples of how Maine’s — and in this case, Gardiner’s — Quality of Place attracts residents and business owners who, in turn, enrich the local economy and community.

Also, this article appeared in today’s Mainebiz about LD 1389, the Maine Quality of Place Council’s bill to create a regional, asset-based economic development strategy that encourages investment in Quality of Place. We’re tracking the progress of LD 1389 — stay tuned to this blog for updates.

President Obama announced today that the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority will receive $35 million in ARRA funds to expand the Amtrak Downeaster route from Portland to Brunswick as part of an $8 billion national investment in high speed passenger rail. Senators Snowe and Collins released a joint statement about the grant explaining,

“Since its inception, the Downeaster service has enjoyed steady ridership increases, providing tremendous benefits to Maine, including reducing road congestion, cleaner air, commuting options, and easier access to the state for tourists and economic development opportunities for businesses and communities. Extending this critical rail service to Brunswick will not only build upon the these successes but also create jobs and further boost tourism in the Midcoast region, giving the Brunswick area, which is coping with the closure of Brunswick Naval Air Station, a much-needed economic shot in the arm.”

Read more about this announcement from the White House Press Secretary, the Press Herald, Trainriders Northeast, or Sen. Snowe and Rep. Pingree’s websites.

Check out GrowSmart’s latest “Charting the Course” column in Mainebiz. “Better Branding” explores how Maine’s public-sector economic development agencies are focusing on enhancing Maine’s “quality of place” assets in order to attract new jobs and businesses.

“All kinds of businesses — not just L.L. Bean, but also hunting camps, boat builders, bed and breakfasts, wedding caterers, furniture makers, horror novelists and thousands of others — have been making hay from the Maine brand for decades. This romantic idea of Maine also helps attract talented workers and businesses who bring their talents and incomes into our economy.”

Also, Ron Bancroft takes a look at how the gubernatorial race is shaping up in his column in today’s Portland Press Herald.

“What we do know is that the key issue in the campaign will be the economy and how to position Maine for job growth.

“The state desperately needs a real growth plan. With more jobs, many things are possible, without them the state will continue a slow downward spiral as chronic budget deficits and an aging workforce make needed investment for the future unlikely.”

Whether any of the candidates embrace the economic development plan laid out by the GrowSmart-Brookings Report, or introduce a new strategy, 2010 promises an engaging debate about how to move Maine forward.

We recently received a press release for an event that may be of interest to many of our readers…

AUGUSTA, September 22, 2009– Maine’s first comprehensive wind conference has been scheduled for Tuesday, October 6th from 7:30 a.m. – 6:15 p.m. Sponsored by the Wind Powering America Program, Maine Public Utilities Commission, USDA Rural Development, and others, the conference features Opening Remarks from Governor Baldacci, who will have just returned from a trade mission tour of European wind companies and will offer his views on growing wind energy in Maine. This will be followed by morning plenary presentations and an afternoon set of five breakout sessions with topics of interest to municipalities, schools and science teachers, developers, entrepreneurs, farmers, small businesses, manufacturers, vendors, innovators, and others. The conference will feature a full day of updates, information and previews of forthcoming programs and events, as well as exhibitors – something for everyone who is interested in growing wind energy in Maine.

Read about the program and register online at www.mainewindenergyconference.com.

The Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey has released its findings for 2008, and there are some interesting findings about how Americans are getting to work. USA Today reports on some of the big national trends.

Nationwide, there are more households that own only one car, or no cars at all. And the percentage of workers who are driving themselves to work alone, with no other riders, dropped half a percentage point in the last two years.

That means that the number of cars on America’s roads during rush hours has dropped by more than ten million vehicles.

I just looked into the Maine data, which shows even bigger changes.

• The percentage of Mainers driving to work alone dropped from 79.2% in 2007 to 77.3% in 2008.
• The percentage of carpooling workers in Maine spiked from 9.7% in 2007 to 10.9% in 2008.

Also noteworthy: the percentage of “Occupied Housing Units With Fuel Oil, Kerosene, Etc. as Principal Heating Fuel” in Maine dropped substantially, from 77.7% in 2007 to 75.1% in 2008. It looks like we’re finally making a dent in our state’s reliance on oil.

More statistics are available here, from the Census Bureau’s web site.

The City of Portland recently established a new “Creative Economy TIF district” along Congress Street’s Arts District, the home to dozens of studios, galleries, sole-proprietorship businesses, and entertainment venues. In the past two decades, these businesses have grown into a major cluster and a driving force in the regional economy. The new TIF (or Tax Increment Financing) district seeks to support this cluster by directing a portion of property tax revenues from new projects in the area towards a new “Creative Portland Corporation,” which would invest in economic development projects focused on fostering and growing the city’s creative economy.

Now, the Creative Economy District has received its first major development proposal: a plan to rehabilitate the old Baxter Library (pictured above - until recently, the building was used as classroom and studio space for the Maine College of Art) as offices for the VIA Group, a thriving creative-economy business with offices in Portland and New York City.

Here’s how the TIF would work: when complete, the project would generate an additional $46,000 in new property tax revenue in the city (the building was previously owned by a nonprofit). Under the proposed TIF arrangement, for the next nine years, about $30,000 of that new revenue would be returned to the developer, to help finance the project and its historic preservation elements, and the remaining $16,000 would be invested in the Creative Portland Corporation. In the tenth year, the TIF would expire and all of the building’s property taxes would go into the City’s general fund.

Presumably, the developers will also be taking advantage of state-level historic preservation tax credits, the passage of which was a major focus of GrowSmart Maine’s work in the Legislature two winters ago.

VIA already employs 64 people in Portland, and the new space would give it room to expand, along with the less tangible benefits of collaborating and interacting with other tenants and businesses in the neighborhood.

Critics of TIF districts sometimes complain that they rob tax revenue from other city obligations, like schools or fire departments. But without the TIF investment, it’s hard to imagine a complex historic rehabilitation project like this one happening - the only alternative is to let a beautiful historic building sit empty, which wouldn’t benefit anyone. With the TIF arrangement, City Hall will have to wait ten years to receive the new property tax revenue - but in the meantime, the rest of the city will receive new creative vitality on Congress Street, a beautifully renovated building, new commerce, and new creative economy investments.

This is a public investment that will not only benefit Portland’s economy, but will also enhance its “quality of place” by preserving a historic landmark and by bringing more creative workers downtown. Kudos to the developers for taking on this project, to the VIA Group for supporting it, and to the City of Portland’s highly-creative “Creative Economy TIF” policies for letting it happen.

Our latest column in Mainebiz, which follows up on this blog post about walkable neighborhoods having higher real-estate values, was published yesterday and is already generating a bit of buzz - thanks for reading!

The topic has also recently been discussed on the environmental blog Grist, where former GrowSmart Maine board member Stacy Mitchell wrote an essay last month about the environmental benefits of walkable neighborhood shops. In addition to the benefits of increased property values, there are also substantial environmental benefits:

“So far, the public debate about cars and climate change has been dominated by fuel economy. But driving has been growing at such a rapid pace—total miles driven in the U.S. rose 60 percent between 1987 and 2007—that even a big advance in fuel economy is likely to be wiped out by ever more miles on the road…

This is where local stores come in. Academics who study travel behavior say that the presence of neighborhood businesses is a major factor in how much we drive. Dozens of studies have found that people who live near small stores walk more for errands and, when they do drive, their trips are shorter.

Last year, we had a discussion over lunch with David Greenham of the Theater at Monmouth to talk about some of the issues raised in our 2006 “Charting Maine’s Future” report. Greenham had helped produce the 2006 play Taxing Maine, a short play about taxes that became especially relevant on the eve of the first TABOR referendum, and was working on a new project that would put a theatrical spin on growth and development in our state.

The new play, titled As Maine Grows, had its first performances this summer, and is gearing up for a statewide tour this fall. Here’s a description from the Maine Humanities Council, which is helping produce the play:

Maine is changing so rapidly and in so many ways, it’s almost impossible to keep up with it all. There is population growth in some areas and decline in others, new business clusters springing up in some places, dying in others. Maine’s governor wants us to become a leader in wind technology; the proposed school consolidation is intended to provide better education for less money. Meanwhile, there is always lots of conversation around land use: do we want to turn traditional timberlands into resorts, houses and golf courses or leave them as open space? What about public access? How well do we actually do this planning business? How well has Maine ever done it? As Maine Grows brings you some of the stories of past efforts at planning and growth. Silly? Outrageous? Depressing? Insane? It depends on your perspective.

As Maine Grows doesn’t touch on every issue of development, but we think it will help to start a conversation in your community about the important issues we’re facing and how we might want to address them.

So if the GrowSmart-Brookings report was too wonky for you to read without falling asleep - we won’t take it personally - this sounds like an entertaining way to think about the same issues. Here’s where you can see As Maine Grows this fall:

Thanks to Belinda Stewart at the Freeport Library for putting these performances on our radar - you can watch “As Maine Grows” at her library in downtown Freeport on Saturday September 19th at 7 PM.

The renovations of the former Hathaway shirt factory are nearly complete, and the building’s rebirth has brought lots of new jobs and households into downtown Waterville.

Last winter, students at Colby College interviewed the project’s developer, Paul Boghossian (who is also a GrowSmart Maine board member), as well as several longtime employees of the former shirt factory. Here’s the documentary they produced - it’s very much worth watching.

This film is one of a series produced by students in English professor Phyllis Mannocchi’s “American Dreams” documentary film course. You can find more documentaries like this one at Colby’s multimedia website.

Learn more about the new office space and apartments at the Hathaway Creative Center here:
www.hathawaycreativecenter.com

In case you missed them, here are two recent news stories about making government services more streamlined and efficient…

Yesterday’s Kennebec Journal featured an interview with retiring state controller Ed Karass, who had accumulated 28 years’ worth of service to Maine’s state government. He brings a lot of perspective to the issue of Maine’s state spending. Just before retiring, Karass testified to the state’s Appropriations Committee and told them that, “rather than continue to try to rely on consolidation of operations, the merging of operations, which may save a marginal amount of money in the short term, they really needed to determine what government should look like over the next several years.”

Although Karass is enthusiastic about the new school district consolidation law: “I think instead of [cutting down to] 80 school districts, [Baldacci] should have been braver and gone for 16.”

He also offered these sobering thoughts on the next four years:

I think the next governor really has his or her work cut out for him or her.

I would like to see a governor that, and a Legislature, more than balance the budget. They need to address the liabilities that are building up … in the retirement system, retiree health. We need to look at replenishing our cash and come up with a plan to repair the state’s General Fund balance sheet.

It’s going to be a difficult position to be in because the (federal stimulus funds) will be sunsetting, the economy hopefully will be at a turnaround.

But in all reality, the governor coming in will not be able to cut taxes, will not be able to expand programs and will have to concentrate on putting the state’s fiscal house back in order…

This is not something we will grow our way out of.

Notwithstanding Karass’s skepticism of consolidation, today’s Portland Press Herald has an interesting story about the school districts of Portland, South Portland, and Westbrook sharing bus maintenance facilities, coordinating vocational courses, and partnering on staff development in order to blunt the impacts of anticipated budget costs.

Portland’s new superintendent, Jim Morse, had this to say about the initiative: “We tried to pick things that were natural areas of collaboration… A lot of this isn’t rocket science. It’s just getting past tradition.”