Portland, ME - The Existing Environment

Manchester wishes to be like Portland when it comes to commerce, culture, and just having the urban feel. I live right off Elm street in Manchester and it is a great city, but it's urban core is lacking the foot traffic and bustle of Portland. Portland is such a great city in the sense of quirky and unique identity. While Manchester is just like other north east mill cities with more people. I was in Roswell, New Mexico and it's downtown felt like downtown Derry, NH but the population is much greater with less culture. We take for granted how close you are to everything when you live in the Northeast.
 
Sean, any updates with any potential downtown Manchester developments? Have they finished construction of the new hotel across the street from the arena yet? Manchester has improved in recent years especially with the addition of new restaurants on the southern end of Elm Street and some new investment in the Commercial Street area. I actually respect Manchester, but I'll never understand or embrace Nashua and would actually prefer to live in Concord if I had to chose between the two cities.
 
Portlander said:
Sean, any updates with any potential downtown Manchester developments? Have they finished construction of the new hotel across the street from the arena yet? Manchester has improved in recent years especially with the addition of new restaurants on the southern end of Elm Street and some new investment in the Commercial Street area. I actually respect Manchester, but I'll never understand or embrace Nashua and would actually prefer to live in Concord if I had to chose between the two cities.
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There are two hotels being built in the downtown area. One is in the mill yard (a Hilton Tru hotel) and the a Marriot residence across from the arena. Both should be open by the fall. I totally agree with you on Concord is much more appealing than Manchester or Nashua. Manchester continues to improve as they are putting in some nice apartments in former Mill buildings. Also SNHU has built a massive parking garage near the ballpark. Manchester will continue to grow, but not being from New Hampshire I notice people in the area think it is a ghetto when I. Reality it is a very safe city with the typical problems as any other urban center. Hopefully we can get some new tenants in the arena and get the train going to Boston for commuters.
 
Walking north on Congress Street

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The reason I took a photo of this is because I've got a new branch opening in my town. Only 4 blocks from my house.

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One of my favorite dinning options. Damn it was closed because of lack of staff. Gee I'm missing my dose of bacon fries.

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General walk about.

Have not seen one of these since a visit to Dublin. Nice surprise.

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Looks like the Cabin Masters have been in town.

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Just noticed they are working on the parking lot at 11 Forest Ave - was hoping it was something substantial, but no. Anyway, they were removing the underground bowling alley that was causing the lot to sink. Found some photos posted on Reddit 11 months ago by u/HorrendousHobo2GF of what, I suppose, was the condition until it was removed. I guess this should actually go in the "recently existed" thread.

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I'm amazed those gutters were still there!
 
A couple great articles about closing down Wharf and Dana permanently, creating a pocket-park, updating the sidewalks, and continuing the outdoor dining experience.

www.pressherald.com

Portland makes closures for outdoor dining permanent, eyes remake of iconic Old Port streets

City Manager Jon Jennings says his staff is recommending a project to remake Wharf and Dana streets in the Old Port using money from the American Rescue Plan Act.
www.pressherald.com www.pressherald.com

www.pressherald.com

Dine Out Maine: An in on continued outdoor dining

As the pandemic continues, a number of Portland restaurants plan to continue outdoor seating into the fall and even winter. Here are a few favorites.
www.pressherald.com www.pressherald.com

Years ago (possibly 10?) there was a proposal to replace 72 Wharf Street and 442 Fore Street with a couple buildings that would fit in better. There was an idea of a public market here or office/retail space. It'd be awesome to see that resurface.

This is the only thing I can find of it now:
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I'm really glad to see the permanent closures of Dana and Wharf St. I do hope that the idea of closing Exchange St will be revisited in the future.

However, I am a bit dubious of spending COVID relief money on a project that will disproportionally benefit the tourist sector. I don't think this is necessarily the best use of those funds. These funds should be allocated with social equity in mind.
 
I'd also like to see Fore from Exchange to Union closed as (I believe this was my first post on here?) - pedestrians already cross wherever and whenever they feel like. I hate driving that stretch most of the year and I think it could be really cool - Exchange from Middle down to Fore and across to Union. I've gotten used to the closure of Fore from Silver to Pearl without cursing.
 
Went up to Portland for the first time last week to be a tourist for 24 hrs. Had a good time checking it out. Did some daytime bar hopping at Deweys, The Kings Head, and Broken Arrow. The Porthole was not open yet. Also caught a fun Honky Tonk band - The Barn Burners at Blue on Congress. I highly recommend. And the next morning waited for a seat at Hot Suppa!

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A few more pics. The new Canopy Hotel down on Commercial Street. There are some nice masonry details going on; brick recess around first floor windows, protruding accent color bricks and precast ledges all provide nice shadow lines. The steel elements on the Commercial Street side provides a relief to the continuous brick warehouse architecture along the street front.

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A crane in action at the top of Temple Street. Steel going up on Federal Street?

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On the way back from Hot Suppa!- Mercy Hospital on State Street is apparently starting demolition - a Maine Biz article indicates it will be housing (165 units!). First phase with more housing to come.

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Drove thru the waterfront area and up the new street (Freedom Way?) to Fore Street which was under construction. Pavement was completely ripped up. I think they were grading Fore St to get the two streets to meet in elevation.
The area was a good walk away from the downtown "tourist area" so I can see why this area may be slower in development. This area is like 4 new blocks of city so it obviously needed years of planning. This is a huge campus of buildings that will activate this waterfront piece in due time and will be a beneficial rec area to the East End residents.

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I was playing around on Streetview trying to figure out how the hell Portland only has 70K people when it feels like such a larger city. I would offer that it's probably the most vibrant US city under 70,000 people. What I came up with is that once you get off the peninsula, it's a pretty strongly suburban, mostly single-family density. Even the more walkable areas - Back Cove, Deering, etc. - seem more along the lines of a Reading, Mass. type environment than an urban one. Has there been discussion about upzoning some of the major corridors - Warren Street, 302, etc. - where you could have higher density multi-story housing?

I was also curious about two areas on the Peninsula that especially stick out from their surroundings. Between Marginal Way and Lancaster Street, there is a large kinda dead space with a lot of vacant parcels. What's the deal with that? Also, there's a pretty large stretch of surface parking lot between Downtown and the Old Port (in the area of Center and Spring Streets near the arena). It just seems so out of place with its surroundings. Was that part of some failed urban renewal project?
 
dhawkins said:
A crane in action at the top of Temple Street. Steel going up on Federal Street?
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Yup! See the 201 Federal Street thread!

Smuttynose said:
I was playing around on Streetview trying to figure out how the hell Portland only has 70K people when it feels like such a larger city. I would offer that it's probably the most vibrant US city under 70,000 people. What I came up with is that once you get off the peninsula, it's a pretty strongly suburban, mostly single-family density. Even the more walkable areas - Back Cove, Deering, etc. - seem more along the lines of a Reading, Mass. type environment than an urban one. Has there been discussion about upzoning some of the major corridors - Warren Street, 302, etc. - where you could have higher density multi-story housing?
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There has been some discussion, but that's as far as it has gotten. Of course, those of us who are single-family homeowners in the off-peninsula neighborhoods have, shall I say, substantial personal investments in the status quo.

Smuttynose said:
I was also curious about two areas on the Peninsula that especially stick out from their surroundings. Between Marginal Way and Lancaster Street, there is a large kinda dead space with a lot of vacant parcels. What's the deal with that? Also, there's a pretty large stretch of surface parking lot between Downtown and the Old Port (in the area of Center and Spring Streets near the arena). It just seems so out of place with its surroundings. Was that part of some failed urban renewal project?
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The large space in Bayside (Marginal Way area) was the proposed site of a large development called Midtown, which has unfortunately collapsed into hate, discontent, and lawsuits (I thought there was a thread specifically for it, but I couldn't find it; maybe it's still in the old forum?) The other section you refer to is Portland Square which is discussed here. (Long story short: Portland's urban renewal history was largely "if you empty it, someone will come." Those lots were part of a proposed four-tower development of which two were built before the 1987 market crash.)
 
Spring Street was a failed urban renewal project that stopped at the Old Port. The plan was build an urban highway through the middle of Portland. Plus Portland Square project had plans to build in the lower lot and upper lot. The recession hit and plans were scrapped. Now another development company has plans for those lots. The city took back one of the parcels for Midtown that was supposed to be a parking garage. Federated is suing the city. I can just imagine if the original plans were developed how much of that area would have changed, now its tumble weeds...
 
markhb said:
Yup! See the 201 Federal Street thread!


There has been some discussion, but that's as far as it has gotten. Of course, those of us who are single-family homeowners in the off-peninsula neighborhoods have, shall I say, substantial personal investments in the status quo.


The large space in Bayside (Marginal Way area) was the proposed site of a large development called Midtown, which has unfortunately collapsed into hate, discontent, and lawsuits (I thought there was a thread specifically for it, but I couldn't find it; maybe it's still in the old forum?) The other section you refer to is Portland Square which is discussed here. (Long story short: Portland's urban renewal history was largely "if you empty it, someone will come." Those lots were part of a proposed four-tower development of which two were built before the 1987 market crash.)
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Two of the different renderings of the failed Midtown project.
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I've never seen that second rendering. Where did you find it?

interestingly, that rendering is superimposed onto the 2019 Google Earth 3D imagery of Portland...so it's definitely much newer than any of the other renderings of the 2015 downscaled version of the project.
 
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Cosakita18 said:
I've never seen that second rendering. Where did you find it?

interestingly, that rendering is superimposed onto the 2019 Google Earth 3D imagery of Portland...so it's definitely newer than any of the other renderings of the 2015 downscaled version of the project.
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It's been a couple of years and I really don't remember where I saw this rendering. I think it may have been the Planning Board website.
 
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