General Portland Discussion

Portland, Maine Monopoly released yesterday - https://www.pressherald.com/2023/10...rtland-themed-monopoly-board-cost-real-money/. Clever business idea to sell the spaces to local business, rinse and repeat from city to city. Aesthetically am bummed the lead photo in the middle is of the concrete side of Franklin Towers, blegh. If you squint you can see one of my photos representing the Eastern Prom.


EN_BoardVisual_PortlandME_2023_MPYStd_3000x3000-1 copy.jpg
 
Does anyone else remember that this was done once before, probably in the 80's iirc? It wound be interesting to find one of those and compare them.
 
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I do and I actually have it in storage and it was kind of on the cheap side as far as quality goes.
 
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I retrieved the "All About Portland" game (1981) out of curiosity and though it is a board game it only has a few similarities to Monopoly. Game was never used because I couldn't convince my wife at the time to play and all of the pieces and cards are there and in new condition. TC's favorite building to save is in the top right portion of the box!
 
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Portlander said:
And some coupons I never had the chance to use from many businesses that no longer exist!
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A few still exist! Handyman and the One-Stop Party Shoppe, Levinsky's was still in North Windham the last I knew, Portland Glass, the Press Herald and Telegram still exist although I don't know if you'd call them the same business, Maine Paint is still somewhere on Forest, the Osteopathic is now Brighton Medical, Portland Air Freight and RSVP are still around, and Tortilla Flat just closed this year. Great to see this, thanks!
 
Seeing there are no expiration dates, maybe I should go in to WGMX and claim my free bumper stickers, ship a delivery from Portland Air Freight and open a free personal add courtesy of the Press Herald. Their reactions to the 42 year old coupons might be worth filming. Am definitely disappointed I missed out on the free magnet from Louis Mack for my fridge due to an expired date!
 
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Can you tell what that restaurant is shown on the board next to the Jetport? That's the only one I can't read, although I'll admit to having zero memory of Sheldon's or Youth World (and I was in high school at the time, so it would have been fashion For! Me! 🤣 )
 
That would be the "Casco Bay Restaurant" which I don' t remember at all unless it was the name of restaurant on the upper level in the Jetport for a period of time.
 
The last wholesale warehouse on inner Washington might be up for sale soon. The owners of Northern Burner, across the street from Amvets and next to the Eastern Prom, have announced their retirement and are merging their operations into The Granite Group near Cash Corner in South Portland:

Maine Wholesale Heating and Electrical Supply Company | Sales and Service | Equipment, Parts and Accessories | Northern Burner Supply Company, Inc.

Northern Burner Supply Company, located in Portland, Maine, is a wholesale heating and electrical supplies company. We offer sales and service on heating, plumbing and electrical equipment, parts and accessories.
www.northernburner.com www.northernburner.com

It's a 1.1-acre site, adjacent to the Eastern Prom, and currently zoned B-1. The current zoning allows 45-foot buildings and up to 120 apartments; under ReCode, B-1 height limits would go up to 50 feet with no limit to the number of homes allowed on the site.
 
This is really one of the best redevelopment sites on the Peninsula! Directly on a high-frequency transit corridor (Routes 7, 9A/B, Breeze) and close to lots of popular restaurants, bars and parks!

I think given their expertise in high quality urban design and Transit-Oriented development @Redfern would be the perfect team to transform this part of Washington Ave ;) ;)
 
They could really build something significant on this site. It'd be a huge disappointment if a developer stops at a stubby 4-story thing.
 
A few years back, maybe 2017? The guy at the T-shirt shop across the street told me that Holiday Inn was trying to buy that lot and building. Well, 6 years later, not a bad idea. But I'd say more the Ritz-Carlton for a micro hotel and condos. And once the bottle redemption center is gone, it's an upscale area.
 
There's a few other structures that would have to be renovated or replaced to make it upscale - for example, the burned out building at 108 Washington, across from the cheese shop. Does anyone know when that burned out? On Google Maps it looks intact in 2019. There's also that slim blue house across from Northern Burner - there's an expired application for 4 units on that site.
 
Whenever I see criticisms of modern architecture....people almost always blame "developers" for building what they see as soulless and generic...but really many cities (Including Portland) essentially mandate ugly buildings through design guidelines that require "Facade variation" and "massing breaks" The result is often a mish-mash of shapes and materials that really can look bad if not done well. On top of that, architectural embellishment is expensive so developers put most of their architectural and design budgets into satisfying those requirements first and foremost.

I tend to take a "beggars can't be choosers" philosophy when it comes to housing....especially affordable housing.
 
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