From time to time I will write a letter to the editors of the Portland Press Herald. If you’ve ever wondered why I’m staring aimlessly into the mid-distance, this is what I’m thinking about:
March 2024: NIMBY Needs a Better PR Person…
A Cumberland voter quoted in a recent Press Herald report on the rejection of an affordable housing proposal said: “We felt there was a lot of uncertainty with who would be living there and thought the income level was a bit low for the people we want to attract to town.”
This is an inhumane outlook. Every Mainer deserves a home to live in that doesn’t bankrupt them. And, note that the income level that this Cumberland resident wants to keep out is $49,000 to $70,980 per year, a typical salary range for many teachers, firefighters, police officers, sanitation workers and small business employees.
The message seems clear: come to our town and serve us and our children, but do not live here; your income level is “a bit low.”
January 2024: DARE to drive slower
Do we need a D.A.R.E. program to reduce pedestrian and car driver deaths? Press Herald articles this month on road user fatality statistics highlight car crashes as a grim source of injury and death for Mainers. Thousands of pedestrians, cyclists and drivers (and their passengers) are injured and killed every year on Maine roads. And while last year was marginally less deadly for drivers, it remained “stubbornly” deadly for people who were just trying to cross the street.
The solution to road violence is not to scold drivers or walkers or run another public service campaign to discourage bad driving behaviors. We know these sorts of behavior-based campaigns, like D.A.R.E. in the 1990s (which focused on preventing youth drug use via scare tactics and cringe-worthy adverts), are doomed to have little to no impact on their intended audience or the underlying systemic issues.
Rather, the solution to saving Mainers from the epidemic of car crashes is to build safer roads. More sidewalks, narrower streets, raised crosswalks, protected bike lanes and roundabouts. Drivers in heavily populated areas must be forced by the road infrastructure to drive more slowly and more safely. When residential roads are designed to allow high car speeds – and the needs of walkers and cyclists are deprioritized – crash-related tragedies and “stubborn” pedestrian death statistics are inevitable.
June 2023: Ticket to Ride
Tony Donovan’s recent commentary about the need for light rail expansion in Maine was spot on (“Commentary: Maine Department of Transportation must take passenger rail seriously,” June 15). Mass transit must be developed in Maine, or we will face the problems of traffic congestion, pollution and vehicular fatalities that come with expanding car infrastructure in growing metro areas.
Plus, the well-studied phenomenon of “induced demand” means that no matter how many lanes we add to the highway or arterial road, traffic will always increase to meet and exceed road capacity. One only needs to look to the 16-lane, traffic-choked highways of Houston, Los Angeles, Atlanta or – closer to home – to the Big Dig in Boston, where standstill traffic is the daily norm, despite billions spent on car infrastructure. To put it another way, we cannot pave our way out of our transportation problems.
But other solutions, like light rail, bicycle lanes, street cars and dedicated bus lanes, can handle large capacities of riders without creating the traffic, pollution and deadly problems that packing thousands of 2- and 3-ton personal vehicles onto Maine roads does.
One common refrain against these greener forms of transit is that they “restrict freedom” of riders. But how free does one feel sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic? At the very least, expanding light rail and other transit options in Maine will increase the freedom of drivers, as us folks who prefer other forms of transportation will get off the road and onto a train or bike.
February 2020: You’ll Roux the Day
The announcement of David Roux and Northeastern University’s plan for a graduate school and research center in Portland is welcome news. However, this investment is merely the beginning of (or catalyst for, as Roux put it) Maine’s journey into the modern economy.
Maine’s public officials should aggressively invest in public goods to foster long-term growth that preserves the state’s natural beauty and quality of life. For example, improvements in the Portland-Boston rail link could cut travel time and improve exchange with the life sciences hub. Public transport projects within Portland could zip visiting researchers from the jetport to the Roux Institute and back. Moving USM (or UM-Portland) to the east of 295 – and building a true campus for it –would attract students from around the world. Marketing efforts in places like New York or Boston could remind big-city dwellers that a better life is only a few hours north.
Of course, ideas like these are not silver bullets unto themselves. But, when combined with private initiative’s like the Roux Institute, they generate agglomeration effects that foster sustained development. Unlike building casinos and giving out-of-state speculators tax credits, investing in public goods benefits all Mainers. Best of all, investing for the long-term pays for itself through efficiency gains and economic growth.
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