Skyline & Aerial photos | Portland

Real question: are there FAA restrictions on height in Portland? I know buildings in certain areas near DCA have to undergo FAA approval.
 
matt.greeson said:
Real question: are there FAA restrictions on height in Portland? I know buildings in certain areas near DCA have to undergo FAA approval.
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There are some restrictions along the western waterfront / Fore River parkway area, but nothing that would ever realistically impact development.

For instance, The FAA did weigh in during the 2017/2018 western waterfront rezoning debate to say that allowable heights should be no more than 100 feet for the IMT/ Sprague area and no more than 75 feet for the Merrill Terminal / Fore River Parkway area. I remember way back almost a decade ago there was also some concern from the FAA about the original (Still unbuilt) Thompsons Point plan, which called for a couple ~120-140 foot buildings.

I'm surprised they haven't required the Port Authority to install lights on the top of the cranes at the IMT. Those are by far the tallest structures along the "River Visual" approach to Runway 29

There may be more, I'm certainly not an expert.
 
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Norwegian Pearl lit up and heading out of Portland
 
Let's hope the city's residents don't vote on restrictions. They fail to understand the fees the city gets for these ships, and the P.R. from the passengers talking up Portland on social media. It's a win/win all-around for cruise ships coming to Portland.
 
TC_zoid said:
Let's hope the city's residents don't vote on restrictions. They fail to understand the fees the city gets for these ships, and the P.R. from the passengers talking up Portland on social media. It's a win/win all-around for cruise ships coming to Portland.
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Not to mention the many (mostly union) harbor related jobs.
 
There are definitely upsides and downsides to cruise ship tourism. For me, it's a big mixed bag

The biggest one obviously being pollution. A big cruise ship idling on the waterfront is emitting as much CO2 and sulfur dioxide as several THOUSAND diesel trucks. If there are two cruise ships docked at once, they're emitting more than every single car and truck in Portland combined. It's a big issue that, in fairness, the city is working to gradually address. Other cities globally have also taken steps to restrict cruise ship visits on the grounds of pollution and overtourism, so Portland isn't alone in dealing with this.

Visual pollution can also be an issue, but much more of an abstract concept. Personally, I find these floating petri dishes to be hideous. But that's down to personal taste.

Generally, cruise tourists don't spend as much locally as overnight visitors, but they also aren't driving their own cars and stay fairly concentrated in the Old Port area, so they aren't as disruptive

I'm also advocating from a position that we need an economy less reliant on tourism, and that large-scale tourism is having an increasingly negative impact on the city. I do think we're at a point where "Overtourism" is going to become an issue in the next 10 years.
 
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Cosakita18 said:
The biggest one obviously being pollution. A big cruise ship idling on the waterfront is emitting as much CO2 and sulfur dioxide as several THOUSAND diesel trucks. If there are two cruise ships docked at once, they're emitting more than every single car and truck in Portland combined. It's a big issue that, in fairness, the city is working to gradually address.
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I think CMP was at the last Transport and Sustainability Committee meeting (a day or two ago?) and - amongst other things - were asked about adding shore power capacity for the cruise ships. I know nothing about how cruise ships work - and I didn't watch the meeting - but I assume if they had shore power they wouldn't have to idle? Of course electricity has to come from somewhere...
 
Cosakita18 said:
There are definitely upsides and downsides to cruise ship tourism. For me, it's a big mixed bag

The biggest one obviously being pollution. A big cruise ship idling on the waterfront is emitting as much CO2 and sulfur dioxide as several THOUSAND diesel trucks. If there are two cruise ships docked at once, they're emitting more than every single car and truck in Portland combined. It's a big issue that, in fairness, the city is working to gradually address. Other cities globally have also taken steps to restrict cruise ship visits on the grounds of pollution and overtourism, so Portland isn't alone in dealing with this.

Visual pollution can also be an issue, but much more of an abstract concept. Personally, I find these floating petri dishes to be hideous. But that's down to personal taste.

Generally, cruise tourists don't spend as much locally as overnight visitors, but they also aren't driving their own cars and stay fairly concentrated in the Old Port area, so they aren't as disruptive

I'm also advocating from a position that we need an economy less reliant on tourism, and that large-scale tourism is having an increasingly negative impact on the city. I do think we're at a point where "Overtourism" is going to become an issue in the next 10 years.
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I've been saying this for a long time. Portland needs to be wary of so much service industry and tourism based jobs that if the economy tanks, the Old Port isn't boarded up and empty. We need good sustainable jobs, but we also need better incomes. Hopefully Roux and others coming in will help with that. But with that, there's a laundry list of other issues: lack of adequate workforce housing, challenging traffic corridors, lack of a commuter rail line, bus stigma, etc. I'd love to see more businesses downtown instead of out toward the mall.
 
Cosakita18 said:
There are definitely upsides and downsides to cruise ship tourism. For me, it's a big mixed bag

The biggest one obviously being pollution. A big cruise ship idling on the waterfront is emitting as much CO2 and sulfur dioxide as several THOUSAND diesel trucks. If there are two cruise ships docked at once, they're emitting more than every single car and truck in Portland combined. It's a big issue that, in fairness, the city is working to gradually address. Other cities globally have also taken steps to restrict cruise ship visits on the grounds of pollution and overtourism, so Portland isn't alone in dealing with this.

Visual pollution can also be an issue, but much more of an abstract concept. Personally, I find these floating petri dishes to be hideous. But that's down to personal taste.

Generally, cruise tourists don't spend as much locally as overnight visitors, but they also aren't driving their own cars and stay fairly concentrated in the Old Port area, so they aren't as disruptive

I'm also advocating from a position that we need an economy less reliant on tourism, and that large-scale tourism is having an increasingly negative impact on the city. I do think we're at a point where "Overtourism" is going to become an issue in the next 10 years.
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Do they not get shore power at the Ocean Gateway? I guess that would probably be beyond CMP's capabilities.
 
To reduce pollution emanating from the harbor area, I'd much rather see a reduction of the oil cargo economy and diesel fumes spewing tankers in Portland (and the occasional "tiny" spills into the harbor, or the ones we don't hear about). They are also a blight in the harbor and for the city. Perhaps electrical connections could be arranged, though challenging, as I know it's done for the super yachts. But yes, that is a much smaller boat with a dozen people on board instead of several thousand. I do prefer the smaller cruise ships, like the one docked today. It adds a sense of excitement to the area. I'd bet other New England cities wish they had a similar type of visitation excitement. Most are largely depressing to visit. Bar Harbor needs to scale down its cruise ship traffic. Next year the visitations are a third more than this year, and the same with Portland. I do believe that by this time next year most or many Portlanders will say "enough." Even the Disney ship is due in port. That's when you know you've made a national tourism destination impact, when Mickey and Minnie arrive.
 
It's 8:30pm and the Ocean Voyager mini cruise ship is still docked at Ocean Gateway and does not leave until 10pm. Come on, what better time can one have than being in the Old Port on a night in mid-October, with 60 degrees temps? And all that you have to do at 9:45pm is stumble along in your drunken and food coma state to the Ocean Gateway terminal to hop back on board? That's fun. Where else can you do something like this?
 
Judging from the very high price for cruises on that ship, I think the passengers are more likely to be dining at Twelve or Fore Street than participating in Bladder Buster Night at Sharkey's.
 
I was walking around the far side of Back Cove trail recently and looking back towards the city I thought there was a fire in the India Street neighborhood, or perhaps even in South Portland. It took me a few seconds to realize that what I was seeing was the exhaust of a cruise ship smokestack. It looked like a thick yellow/black plume, especially with my polarized sunglasses on. And there have been a couple days walking in the vicinity of Commercial / India streets when the air has seemed thick with the exhaust, it was a very strong and irritating odor.

The ships may bring some economic benefit to the city but damn if they're not floating environmental disasters.
 
Nice shot Matt and it looks like the mechanical penthouse is close to being framed out. This angle really shows off the "cluster" and the proposed 11 story Herald Square hotel should fit in nicely between the new tower and Canal Plaza.
 
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