My Top 10 cities of Northern New England

[Portlander]

Years ago I started a thread that ranked the top 15 cities of New England by importance which received plenty of interest and spirited debate so I thought I'd eliminate the three densely populated states to the south and focus on the more remote portion of New England. My rankings take into account all of the attributes that make up a city including population, entertainment, restaurants, education, shopping, culture, natural beauty, tourism, skyline, history, transportation, economic importance and overall relevance to the region. The northern New England cities I would actually prefer to LIVE in would be a little different from this list.

1) PORTLAND, 2) MANCHESTER, 3) BURLINGTON, 4) NASHUA, 5) BANGOR, 6) PORTSMOUTH, 7) LEWISTON, 8) CONCORD, 9) BRATTLEBORO, 10) DOVER

Where to rank Lewiston, Maine's second largest city was a difficult decision. When included with Auburn its stature is more prominent but I prefer to judge it on it's own merit and have never sipped the "twin cities" marketing kool aid. They are no more related to each other than Portland/South Portland, Bangor/Brewer, Manchester/Bedford or Burlington/South Burlington. Portland and Manchester was a close call but my tie breaker came down to PWM surpassing MHT in airport passenger counts along with having AMTRAK service along with a port gave it an edge in the transportation arena.

Honorable mention: Rutland, Augusta, Montpelier, Keene, Waterville, Presque Isle, Bennington

 

[PlantArch]

Years ago I started a thread that ranked tho top 15 cities of New England which received plenty of interest and spirited debate so I thought I'd eliminate the three densely populated states to the south and focus on the more remote portion of New England. My rankings take into account all of the things that make a city livable including population, entertainment, restaurants, shopping, culture, natural beauty, tourism, urban vibe, skyline, history, transportation, economic importance and overall relavance to the region.

1) PORTLAND, 2) MANCHESTER, 3) BURLINGTON, 4) NASHUA, 5) BANGOR, 6) PORTSMOUTH, 7) LEWISTON, 8) CONCORD, 9) BRATTLEBORO, 10) DOVER

Where to rank Lewiston, Maine's second largest city was a difficult decision. When included with Auburn its stature is more prominent but I prefer to judge it on it's own merit and have never sipped the "twin cities" marketing kool aid. They are no more related to each other than Portland/South Portland, Bangor/Brewer, Manchester/Bedford or Burlington/South Burlington, etc. Portland and Manchester was a close call but my tie breaker came down to PWM surpassing MHT in airport passenger counts along with having AMTRAK service along with a port gave it a big edge in the transportation arena.

Honorable mention: Rutland, Augusta, Montpelier, Keene, Waterville, Presque Isle, Bennington

Have you ever lived in Manchester? For 4 years I split my time between Manchester and Portland and I would rank Manchester much lower than #2. Manchester has nothing like the Old Port or Congress street that has a cool vibe. If you truly wanted to do something fun other than a concert at the arena, you left Manchester to do it. Burlington is a great city as well as Portsmouth. Both are head and shoulders above Manchester which in its feel is much more like Lewiston/Auburn in it's grittiness.

 

[mainejeff]

My rankings:

1. Portland
2. Burlington
3. Portsmouth
4. Manchester
5. Bangor
6. Nashua
7. Augusta
8. Concord
9. Lewiston
10. Waterville

 

[Portlander]

Nice list mainejeff and I see you're giving Augusta a lot more love than I am but I do respect your position for Waterville, it's up and coming with an assist from Colby!

 

[TC_zoid]

11. Bar Harbor in the summer. Have you been there lately? OMG. I didn't recognize it last summer. And next summer and fall will see 1.5 times the number of cruise ship visits as Portland, and if you look at Portland's schedule for 2023, it's kind of scary. They are starting earlier, in May. This year is nothing compared to next year. Even the Disney boat is coming. PortCall.com

 

[Portlander]

Thanks for the link TC and I might have to put Bar Harbor in the top 3 during the fall season! The town is currently struggling with an overload of cruise ship passengers and are considering limits (4000 pax daily) in the future and are already requiring the larger vessels anchor (hide) behind Bar Island which will increase the ferry ride distance to the town pier. Upside for Portland is that the mega ships can come pier side and the city is large enough to handle higher volumes of tourists where Bar Harbor struggles to accommodate the influx and cruise passengers dislike having to be transported from ship to shore and back especially when there are elevated sea states in the harbor..

 

[TC_zoid]

I was there last September on a day with no cruise ships, and the town was still busy. My friends and I decided on Indian food, and there were at least 5 Indian food restaurants filled with people of that race. I looked at car license plates and many were D.C, Pennsylvania, NY, and CT. Is there a connection of more people in town due to Jackson Labs? Even without the cruise ship passengers, Bar Harbor is impressive with its hotel and restaurant offerings.

 

[TC_zoid]

My rankings:

1. Portland
2. Burlington
3. Portsmouth
4. Manchester
5. Bangor
6. Nashua
7. Augusta
8. Concord
9. Lewiston
10. Waterville

I realize that this article link is from the Daily Mail, but does Burlington now still fall into second place? I believe that Portland is still number one, or with a city that has more to offer from all the angles figured in. I'd even put Portland at number 2 for all of New England. Hartford? New Haven? No and no. Providence? Close. Springfield or Worcester? Nope. Portland has substantially more coming down the line with the Foreside development, and Patrick Dempsey was on the Today Show last week talking about preventing cancers and promoting his namesake Dempsey Center. I think this facility will become a big deal in not just Maine but nationally, and more buildings will be built at Rock Row to create a kind of medical campus. It's in a relatively nice setting and a straight shot down 95 to Boston. "McDreamy" is going to make this big.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...melessness.html?ico=article_preview_xp_mobile

https://www.today.com/video/patrick...cancer-patients-his-mom-s-battle-222566981639

**

 

[Portlander]

Burlington is experiencing the same problems with homelessness, crime, drug abuse and mental health issues as other social service centers. I personally think it is more visible in Burlington due to its smaller size and fewer places to "hide" the down and out population, Church Street being a pedestrian mall doesn't help the situation either. Even with some of the recent criticism, I am still keeping Burlington in the third position due to its regional importance as the state's largest city, bustling airport, UVM and beautiful Lake Champlain at the front doorstep. However, I agree with mainejeff and am replacing Brattleboro with Waterville in the tenth spot and moving Dover to ninth. I may have to realign Nashua, Bangor and Portsmouth also, thoughts?

 

[NR2Portland]

After spending my college years in Burlington I would certainly not put it two… or top 5. But that’s just an opinion haha! It’s tough to compete with Portland for sure. I won’t ramble on, but it certainly isn’t what it used to be and certainly isn’t the foliage paradise that the social media influencers want it to be.

 

[HenryAlan]

I realize that this article link is from the Daily Mail, but does Burlington now still fall into second place? I believe that Portland is still number one, or with a city that has more to offer from all the angles figured in. I'd even put Portland at number 2 for all of New England. Hartford? New Haven? No and no. Providence? Close. Springfield or Worcester? Nope. Portland has substantially more coming down the line with the Foreside development, and Patrick Dempsey was on the Today Show last week talking about preventing cancers and promoting his namesake Dempsey Center. I think this facility will become a big deal in not just Maine but nationally, and more buildings will be built at Rock Row to create a kind of medical campus. It's in a relatively nice setting and a straight shot down 95 to Boston. "McDreamy" is going to make this big.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...melessness.html?ico=article_preview_xp_mobile

https://www.today.com/video/patrick...cancer-patients-his-mom-s-battle-222566981639

**

The Daily Mail always comes close to locking up my browser with all the garbage in their code. But I did struggle through most of it, because I read a lot of the same kind of claims on the UVM parents Facebook page. My main takeaway from the article is that they didn't bring much in the way of hard data, but certainly found people willing to complain about perception and thereby contribute to the perception without actually proving accuracy. Here's a typical unverifiable comment:

"Residents recently told Fox News that the area gets 'really dangerous' at night."

What does that even mean? What is the metric, how are these residents measuring it? The only real data I saw was a reference to the total number of unhoused residents, which works out to 795 per 100,000. To put that in perspective, the number in Boston is 800 per 100,000 residents. So it's basically the same level of homelessness. By all means, that's too many, but does that mean Burlington is dangerous for the rest of the population?

Now that my son goes to school there, I'm visiting somewhat often. And while unhoused and other distressed folks are certainly part of the urban fabric, it all seemed quite harmless to me, as somebody not personally suffering those indignities. The previously mentioned parents Facebook page is similarly filled with feeling based reporting, and some really obviously incorrect claims to go with it. I don't know, these are issues everywhere, I think we all wish they were less prevalent, but I don't think Burlington is uniquely worse than other places.

 

[TC_zoid]

The Daily Mail always comes close to locking up my browser with all the garbage in their code. But I did struggle through most of it, because I read a lot of the same kind of claims on the UVM parents Facebook page. My main takeaway from the article is that they didn't bring much in the way of hard data, but certainly found people willing to complain about perception and thereby contribute to the perception without actually proving accuracy. Here's a typical unverifiable comment:

"Residents recently told Fox News that the area gets 'really dangerous' at night."

What does that even mean? What is the metric, how are these residents measuring it? The only real data I saw was a reference to the total number of unhoused residents, which works out to 795 per 100,000. To put that in perspective, the number in Boston is 800 per 100,000 residents. So it's basically the same level of homelessness. By all means, that's too many, but does that mean Burlington is dangerous for the rest of the population?

Now that my son goes to school there, I'm visiting somewhat often. And while unhoused and other distressed folks are certainly part of the urban fabric, it all seemed quite harmless to me, as somebody not personally suffering those indignities. The previously mentioned parents Facebook page is similarly filled with feeling based reporting, and some really obviously incorrect claims to go with it. I don't know, these are issues everywhere, I think we all wish they were less prevalent, but I don't think Burlington is uniquely worse than other places.

The Daily Mail primarily reposts content but will embellish with sensationalistic captions. A while back in Saco, when two teens were brutally murdered by their landlord over a parking dispute in Biddeford (I could see the driveway with yellow tape around it with binoculars from my mom's house across the river), all in Saco and Biddeford wanted to know more but the BSJ only had a pic of the crime scene and details were primarily the standard Maine one of "the police are investigating." That was it. Well, Rupert's Daily Mail, located a bit over 3,000 miles across the pond, had some tidbits to go on and so pulled up photos and profiles and other information of the victims (recent TA grads) from Facebook posts. Those were de facto public postings, and they found them. Instead of everyone in a panic thinking a murderer is on the loose--so stay inside with your guns ready--it quickly became a domestic crime story over parking with the landlord and tenants. I will use the Daily Mail sometimes for supplemental content though mostly as a de facto source for comedy (e.g., Trump). But in the aforementioned incident, it became a public service.