General Portland Discussion

We had the University of Maine come up with plan for another sheet of Ice where the barn is. I believe the barn is also under historical status. Jon Jennings was at the time, to build an athletic facility between the ice rink and the expo. Currently there are no dedicated locker rooms at the Troubh, so the kids must go across the parking lot to the expo. The Troubh is also not equip to handle a Tier level junior team which Biddo just landed. The rink is closed due to the condition of the HVAC unit next to the building., Due to city politics, the fix was delayed to September with a opening the second week of October, fingers crossed
 
If they haven't sealed since then, it would be a handy way for the Press Hotel and the new hotel to share amenities! I don't know what might need to be done for it to be considered publicly available.
 
Dr. StrangeHat said:
Pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if something is in the works around a redevelopment of the whole complex, especially now that the owner of the Mariners has purchased a minority stake in Hearts of Pine? I had heard from a credible source that the owner of the Mariners was looking to build a new practice facility for the team, ideally somewhere near I-95 or I-295. Trouhb is also closed through October for a bunch of repairs, because the rink is really starting to show its age. You could conceivably add a another sheet of ice north of Trouhb that could also house locker room and fitness facilities for Hearts of Pine and Mariners, as well as skyboxes overlooking Fitzpatrick.

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Again, total speculation, but it would make a lot of sense. Sure, you'd lose ~40 parking spots, but parking on site is already limited and mostly supported for Sea Dogs, Celtics and Hearts of Pine games by other area lots, garages, and street parking.
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If they're going to redo the entire complex, they might as well just tear down the Expo and Ice Rink entirely and start over. That's my humble opinion. Perhaps they could include the overhaul of Fitzpatrick too and have one major sports center.

If we're getting really ambitious, they could take the land where the Iris Network is too. And if we're going to go all-out crazy ... King Middle School (and build a new school somewhere else).

Thought if they dig up anywhere around the Expo I wouldn't be surprised if they still stumble upon some forgotten human remains from the pauper's cemetery that was there (until they were moved to the Western Cemetery, thus making it fall out of favor and making Evergreen more favorable).
 
Dr. StrangeHat said:
Pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if something is in the works around a redevelopment of the whole complex, especially now that the owner of the Mariners has purchased a minority stake in Hearts of Pine? I had heard from a credible source that the owner of the Mariners was looking to build a new practice facility for the team, ideally somewhere near I-95 or I-295. Trouhb is also closed through October for a bunch of repairs, because the rink is really starting to show its age. You could conceivably add a another sheet of ice north of Trouhb that could also house locker room and fitness facilities for Hearts of Pine and Mariners, as well as skyboxes overlooking Fitzpatrick.

View attachment 67153

Again, total speculation, but it would make a lot of sense. Sure, you'd lose ~40 parking spots, but parking on site is already limited and mostly supported for Sea Dogs, Celtics and Hearts of Pine games by other area lots, garages, and street parking.
Click to expand...

So much for that idea. The Mariners chose Scarborough Downs instead.
 
A proposal for 130 apartments, 13 3 story buildings to build in the area or 410 Auburn St Portland. Application just submitted
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Auburn St - if I remember right - can get pretty busy. At what point do you have to put in a light?
 
Is anyone taking bets on when Metro merges with the Biddeford-OOB-Saco agency? There's a massive political fiefdom waiting to be seized!

In theory, I could see two Scarborough routes: one going down Route 1, the other down Payne Road, looping through the Downs, back to Haigis Parkway via the new connector they've built to Cabela's, then continuing down to Route 1 from there. They meet in the parking lot of Dunstan School (I can't imagine the current owners need what the restaurant had), which becomes a transfer point with OOB and Saco routes.
 
That would be nice, but Scarborough needs more density and more walkable infrastructure before it can support more than one basic bus route. It's hard to justify bus stops on Route 1 if riders need to cross 5 lanes of lethally high-speed traffic on their way to or from their destination.

The basic rule of thumb is that a frequent-service bus route needs 15 homes or 40 jobs per acre to be viable, and a basic local bus route running every 30 minutes needs at least 8 homes or 15 jobs/acre.

The Downs currently has 700 homes on about 70 acres, and the next "town center" phase will have more, so that particular neighborhood merits bus service, but everything that surrounds it does not – too many parking lots, not enough actual destinations.
 
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Build a tunnel from Franklin to SOPO, it will allow options when the bridge is up and stuck and free up access to SMCC/Cape
 
I stopped by here with a friend of mine yesterday after hiking Douglas Mountain out by Sebago. He had never been and I was excited to show him the overall architecture, density, vitality, scenic viewpoints, and convoluted layout that lends itself to exploration. While I did convey all of these to an extent, the lasting impression that he continuously brought up was the level of homelessness in the city. I'll admit, while I've always noticed the groups of drugged out vagrants here and there, it just seems so much more prevalent today than in the past. The backside of the peninsula is the worst, and Congress Street has always (unfortunately) been a bit sketchy, but it's bled into all the more touristy areas too.

Honestly there needs to be some drastic changes. It's not just a safety issue, but also optically you can't have functional neighborhoods where half the population is completely smacked out of their minds. I shouldn't have to constantly cross the road to avoid homeless encampments in the middle of a downtown area. In fact, I'm going to take this a little bit further. I always thought of Portland as a safe city, at least as far as cities go, but it appears that's a very limited view and much of the city is a total dump. I hate to say it, but it's clear that unacceptable behaviors have become normalized in Portland and it's dragging the city down.
 
Every city is struggling with encampments right now – even big towns like Augusta and Sanford. The politicians' preferred solution – harassing the homeless with repeated arrests – makes the problem even worse, and it also destroys police morale, since the cops can see better than anyone how pointless that strategy is.

And it could be getting a lot worse very soon...

www.pressherald.com

Maine among 20 states suing Trump administration over limited funding for long-term housing supports

The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Rhode Island accuses the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development of illegally upending supports for those at risk of becoming homeless.
www.pressherald.com www.pressherald.com
 
Here's one I didn't see coming: the LDS Church announced that they're going to build a temple in the Portland area. Precise location is undetermined but the Portland Stake "consists of the Casco Bay YSA Branch and Cornish, Oxford, Portland, Saco, Topsham, Windham and Yarmouth wards" so they have some room to play with (the announcement itself was made at a gathering in Yarmouth).

www.deseret.com

Maine’s first temple announced during stake Christmas fireside

"Such an announcement by a member of the area presidency has never occurred before," Elder Allen D. Haynie told Latter-day Saints in Portland, Maine. "Tonight will be the first time."
www.deseret.com www.deseret.com

Earlier announcement of the formation of the Portland stake, my source for the above list: https://www.thechurchnews.com/leade...anized-stake-presidencies-mexico-to-mongolia/
 
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