Maine advice?

[SunDeck]

A friend just sent me some info about a job in Maine. Could use some info to help me decide if it would make sense to consider.

It's in Brunswick.

If any of you Maine dwellers can help, I''d like to PM you with a few Q's.

Thanks.

[Blimpie]

If you are fond of lighthouses, take the job.

[SunDeck]

Rats, I have an irrational fear of lighthouses.
Strike one.

I hope there's not a sock puppet troupe there.

[Yachtzee]

Try the lobster.

Seriously, I had a friend who lived in Portland, ME. I only visited once, but Maine is very nice in the fall. Great place if you like boating, and they had a number of nice pubs serving microbrews. Never been to Brunswick.

[flyer85]

gets very cold with lots of snow in the winter ... if that's your cup of tea, go for it.

It's a great place to visit in the summertime.

[MaineRed]

It doesn't get any colder than most of the rest of the northern US. Coastal Maine is known for mild winters, and Brunswick is on the coast. There are always a few sizeable storms but I wouldnn't say we gets lots of snow. Buffalo, Minneapolis and Fargo get a lot of snow. Southern Maine, in comparison gets a little here and there.

I live on the coast, north of Brunswick. The last two winters have been colder than average but that has been the case everywhere. It is no better in New York City or Boston. We get what they get, just a day later in most cases.

SunDeck, be more than happy to help you out with any answers. I've lived in Maine for 31 years and I know it pretty well. I don't live in the Brunswick area but I know the surroundings.

Any place on the coast of Maine is a good place to live. Let me know if I can help.

[cincinnati chili]

Sun Deck,

Wow. Weird coincidence. My wife was born and raised in Brunswick, and my in-laws still live there. Feel free to pm me with any questions, and if I can't answer them, I'll ask the family experts.

The good news: it's pretty. The modest downtown is your basic cute New England town. There's also tons of forested land, so you get deer running around all the time. Even if you're not quite on the coast, you can often smell the ocean when the wind blows the right way. Also, for a small town, it's got a decent number of good restaurants. Traffic isn't bad.

One very important thing that you should know is that the area is likely about to change dramatically. The big naval air station is closing down in a few years. As far as I know, they're not sure what they're going to do with that base, the base housing, etc.

Up until now, the people of the town have been a mix of the military element, the elite academic element (Bowdoin College is downtown), and the people from "away" like my in-laws, who moved there 30-40 years ago to escape New York City. That's what you'll be if you end up moving there. "From away." That won't change, even if you stay there until retirement. You weren't born there. I’m not saying that they’ll pick on you, or haze you, but you’ll get the typical New England treatment. It’s not hard to meet people up here, but it’s very hard to get to know people well. People are much more guarded than in Southern Ohio where you and I grew up.

My best guess is that, with the military going away, the blue-collar element of the town is going to decrease. This might turn the area into more of a summer home-ish, upper middle class town. (That's just Brunswick, mind you. Bath Ironworks in a nearby town, and some other such employers will continue to be a magnet for middle class wage jobs.) But there’s also a doomsday school of thought that thinks the base closing will turn Brunswick into a ghost town. I think that’s a bit paranoid. As long as Bowdoin is there, for one, Brunswick will attract some of the country’s great young minds. At least a few of them are bound to fall in love with the area and start a business or something.

If ethnic diversity is important to you, then the base closing might end up being a negative. For example, most people of color you see in town are either military or Bowdoin college employees. The former ain't going to be there much longer.

It's 30-40 minutes from downtown Portland, and about 2 1/2 hours from downtown Boston during non-traffic hours. (These are your most viable airport options. Delta, for now, has direct flights from Portland to Cincy. When I got married in Portland, most of my family found good rates). I happen to think that Portland is a very charming city, with plenty of good restaurants, plus sports and cultural options, without much of the crime and garbage of a lot of cities.

I also agree that the winters are often no worse than Boston. And they’re actually BETTER because the snow removal is better and it’s less crowded. But that still leaves the potential for a whole lotta freaking snow. (see attached picture of my car a few years ago. All of that snow fell in 12 hours).

The summers are damn near perfect. Usually not too hot. And on hot days, it’s mitigated by a sea breeze. You're also close to a lot of great summer getaways. Not just stuff for the uber rich, like the Bush family, but more modest stuff too like camping and cabins and such. There are good swimming holes in the area. Like much of New England, it’s spectacular in the fall with the leaves changing.

Having said all this mostly good stuff. It's still a small town. Life there is better in my opinion than any small town I know of in Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana, but it's still quite sleepy.

[TeamCasey]

Everytime I get homesick for upstate New York, I should look at that picture.

*shudder*

[RedFanAlways1966]

Maine Advice? If it is Feb. 1898 and it is heading for Cuba, do not go!!

[Yachtzee]

Maine Advice? If it is Feb. 1898 and it is heading for Cuba, do not go!!

I'll remember that.