As you probably already know, GrowSmart Maine has been working with the Town of Standish, through our Model Town project, to facilitate citizen-led efforts to implement “smart growth” strategies from Standish’s new Comprehensive Plan.
We’re now reaching the conclusion of our work in Standish, and the ‘Lessons Learned’ - what worked and what didn’t work - from this demonstration project will be applicable and valuable to numerous communities across the State. In these workshops, we’ll share the wide range of innovative planning techniques and methods used throughout the Model Town project, including keypad polling technology at public workshops and cutting edge visualization techniques, and creative public engagement activities with other communities working to implement their comprehensive plans. Read below or visit our website for more information about these workshops, and to register.
Also, you may be interested in this video produced by Standish town officials and Saco River TV that explains the concepts of the Standish Village Plan.
Workshop #1: Caribou
Date: June 21
Time: Noon – 4:30 pm
Location: Northern Maine Development Commission, Conference Room
11 West Presque Isle Rd, Caribou, Maine Click here to register!
Workshop #2: Farmington
Date: June 28
Time: Noon – 4:30 pm
Location: The Granary Brewpub & Restaurant
147 Pleasant Street, Farmington, Maine Click here to register!
Workshop #3: Topsham
Date: June 30
Time: Noon – 4:30 pm
Location: The Highlands at Topsham
Holden Frost House Ballroom, 24 Elm Street, Topsham, Maine
* In partnership with the Friends of Midcoast Maine Click here to register!
Today’s Mainebiz features GrowSmart Maine’s new Executive Director Nancy Smith in its “Newsworthy” section. Read the full article here.
And if you’re flipping through the print version of Mainebiz, Doug Rooks also wrote a piece about Kevin Mattson of Mattson Development, one of GrowSmart’s partners in advocating for the Historic Preservation Tax Credit and Communities for Maine’s Future.
Stay tuned to this blog in the coming weeks for more about the Communities for Maine’s Future bond vote on June 8th.
The Sunday, March 7, 2010, issue of the Kennebec Journal published an op-ed from our Board Chair Bonnie Pothier in support of the Communities for Maine’s Future bond that will go before Maine voters in June. Communities for Maine’s Future would support investment in Maine’s downtowns and Main Streets, helping communities create more vibrant local economies and enhance the unique Quality of Place of these special places. Read the full op-ed here and learn more about the Communities for Maine’s Future bond here on our website.
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.
GrowSmart Maine is moving to its new offices in downtown Portland today. Here’s our new contact information:
New postal and physical address:
309 Cumberland Avenue, Suite 202, Portland, Maine 04101.
New phone number:
699-4330
In the next couple of weeks, as soon as we settle in, we’ll host an open house, and we hope that you’ll come visit us in our new quarters. We’ll schedule that event soon, and when the details are worked out, you’ll be able to find out about it right here.
Maine’s budget had to shrink by $500 million this year - an 8% reduction on the previous biennium’s $6.3 billion budget. But if you think we’ve got it bad, just look at California, which is struggling to deal with a $64 billion shortfall in an extremely divided state legislature.
This week’s edition of MPBN’s Maine Watch hosted a discussion of what we’ve achieved in recent years and what’s next for GrowSmart Maine. Featuring founder and former President Alan Caron, Board Chair Bonita Pothier, and Interim President Maggie Drummond, the program was broadcast on Friday on MPBN radio and television.
In case you were outside enjoying the long-awaited summer weather, MPBN.net is hosting the program online for the rest of the week. Watch it here.
If you subscribe to our e-mail newsletters, you probably received the distress call we sent out yesterday, which has since been reported on in the Forecaster and Mainebiz.
GrowSmart Maine is a nonprofit organization that relies exclusively on private donors and foundation grants to do our work. Those funding sources have been considerably constrained through this recession, to the point where GrowSmart Maine must now seriously consider ceasing its operations. In the past few months, we’ve cut our staffing and other spending in half, to become a more lean, efficient organization.
The good news is that we have strong prospects for funding later this summer and during the fall, but we must raise $60,000 over the next few weeks to ensure that the organization is still in place when those funds become available.
So we’re asking our supporters to pitch in a few dollars - whether it’s $10 or $1,000 - to get us through this financial emergency. If you’ve been following our work but have never made a contribution, now is your chance to make a real difference in GrowSmart’s future.
A new issue of Mainebiz is out on newsstands, and it includes the latest edition of GrowSmart Maine’s monthly “Charting the Course” column.
This month’s column surveys the trend in real estate markets moving into Maine’s downtown areas:
“In the past year, the recession has put the brakes on growth in general. Nevertheless, smart growth real estate developments seem to be more resistant to the downturn: This year, projects that are already under construction in or near the state’s downtown areas — such as the Hathaway Creative Center in Waterville, the North Dam and Island Point projects in downtown Biddeford/Saco, Freeport Village Station and Brunswick’s Maine Street Station — will likely constitute the lion’s share of new commercial and retail space built in Maine.”
And examines the role that state and local governments have in promoting this “smart growth” development:
“In a business environment that thrives on public spaces, walkable streets and civic vitality, the public sector has an important role to play. Modest public investments in downtown infrastructure — sidewalks, parks, community centers, or shared parking lots — mean big responses from the private sector.”
In the face of this unprecedented economic downturn and shrinking resources for almost every non-profit, we are reviewing and evaluating our priorities and programs, to ensure that our work is as effective as possible and focused in the areas where GrowSmart Maine can have the greatest impact.
We need your advice and guidance as we decide which activities to continue, which to put on hold, and which to move out of altogether.
Please take five minutes to take our priorities survey, linked below. Your comments are, of course, confidential.
Governing Magazine spoke with GrowSmart Maine a few weeks ago about the state’s budget struggles, and its outlook for the future. The article has just been published in the July 2009 issue - 