Portland’s future viability will be the way for Maine. Cities have long been the vanguard for America and the world. Urbanism will increasingly be the hope for humanity’s future.
The world will become 75 percent urban by the year 2050. The last census already shows three of every four American residents living in urban areas. And that proportion is growing, highlighting the connection between the success of Portland and of Maine overall.
Greater Portland, about one-third of our state’s population, is younger and faster growing. The region’s 12-month rate of job growth is twice the state’s rate, and its 4.5 percent unemployment rate is a full percentage point lower.
This means cities have an expanded role in leading the way on needed policy changes.
Where does this changing economic reality leave Maine in any public discussion regarding its fiscal future and that of its largest city? With a new state Legislature and a re-elected governor, negotiations are taking place over how Portland will be impacted by this year’s state budget. Will Portland’s economic value to Maine be recognized with commensurate state investment? City leaders believe that Gov. Paul LePage’s budget proposal, which would decrease state taxes and eliminate revenue sharing with towns and cities, will profoundly damage Portland’s contribution to Maine’s economy.
City leaders’ decisions related to economic development, immigration, affordable living, public education, and environmental costs are equally relevant.
While the governor’s tax proposal is at the forefront of the Portland-Maine relationship, Portland residents are also confronting ongoing conflicts over city growth and issues related to middle-class housing, mobile issues (traffic flows, parking, car use, public transportation), public schools and park use (green spaces). Portland’s future commerce and sustainability are at the heart of these debates. Paul Hawken, in his best-selling book “The Ecology of Commerce,” reminded us over 10 years ago that these two factors integral to urban growth are “antithetical by design, not intention.”
This year’s Maine-Portland fiscal policy discussions require more than a resolution of differences. Portland needs a future fiscal resolution that answers questions related to state policy toward Maine’s largest city in addition the city’s own policies toward development.
How will Gov. Paul LePage’s tax reform proposal alter revenue important to Portland? Is the city too generous or inefficient in addressing its general assistance needs? Or, is it doing what Maine’s largest city must do? Will the governor’s proposal help or hurt the city’s “Life is Good Here” brand? Will it grow Maine by accelerating Portland, its economic engine?
Within Portland, residents’ aversion to growth is based on past evidence of City Council support for development undermining Portland’s quality of life. They see recent city planning decisions as versions of “urban renewal” that threaten to scar the city’s glowing national reputation. This explains activist conflicts with City Hall over green spaces and affordable housing in Portland’s Westside and Midtown areas. In the booming Munjoy Hill Eastside region, divisions exist over the impacts of growth on middle-class housing, parking and streets. And in this mix, Portland must still contend with changes in public schooling, homelessness, immigration, job growth and livable wages.
On Monday, March 30, the First Parish of Portland at 425 Congress St. will hold a “Portland future” forum from 5-7:30 p.m. It is an example of how the public needs to hold dialogue over Maine’s state budget and its tax impacts on Portland. Moreover, those attending might better understand how neighborhood opposition to City Council decisions relate to broader issues so crucial to sustainable commerce.
This is a small step toward a more collaborative dialogue. The aim is to address a changing economy and a new urban world in which Portland is an integral part of a Maine that is both “open for business” and reflective of the “way life should be.”
Ralph C. Carmona is adjunct professor at Southern Maine Community College and chair of the First Parish Faith in Action Committee. He will moderate the March 30th Portland Future Forum and can be reached at ralphcarmona@gmail.com.