Category: Business

Row houses in Eastport. PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Affordable around New England

Maine is not the only state to grapple with a lack of affordable housing. A combination of aging populations and aging housing stock has created an acute affordable housing shortage throughout the region. Because of the steep costs and massive needs to build such housing, many nonprofits and local governments… SEE MORE
Dr. Tiffany Manuel

Working Waterfront

Affordable housing—from ‘they’ to ‘we’

An outsider might be baffled by Maine’s housing statistics. Some 70 percent of us own our own homes. Yet according to MaineHousing Director Dan Brennan, housing is now at “crisis levels we’ve never seen before.” Brennan spoke at MaineHousing’s Oct. 20 conference, which the state agency hosts every other year.… SEE MORE
The Brooks family; from left: Mark, Sally, Julie, and Stephen. FILE PHOTO: JULIA NEMY

Working Waterfront

Worker shortage impacting lobster fishery

You see the signs everywhere: “Help Wanted” or “Hiring Now.” Businesses in every sector of Maine’s economy have found it difficult to hire the number and type of workers they need. The problem has become acute in the businesses that supply lobstermen with their traps and other equipment. “Sadly, we’ve… SEE MORE
Stonington harbor. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Lobstermen’s Association sues over whale rules

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association filed a lawsuit in early September against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Secretary of Commerce in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the federal government’s ten‐year whale protection plan. The suit claims the plan will all but eliminate the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The Maine coast, 50 years ago

Thanks to the Farnsworth Art Museum for use of these photos shot by George Tice in several Maine coastal towns in 1971.     [caption id="attachment_28820" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Bertram Peabody and son clam digging on Beals Island, 1971.[/caption]   [caption id="attachment_28821" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Painted lobster buoys, Stonington, 1971.[/caption]   [caption… SEE MORE
A lobster boat cruises past some of Portland’s wharves in late fall. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN

Working Waterfront

GMRI to buy Portland’s Union Wharf

The past and the future of Portland’s working waterfront will be melded together when the Gulf of Maine Research Institute completes its purchase of Union Wharf from the Poole family, owners of the historic wharf since at least 1861, later this year. GMRI announced the impending purchase on Nov. 15.… SEE MORE
Rental house in Bar Harbor region.

Working Waterfront

Bar Harbor voters cap vacation rentals

In a referendum on Nov. 2, a strong majority of Bar Harbor voters chose to cap the number of vacation units at 9 percent of the town’s total number of housing units. The 1,260-840 vote on Amendment 4 to the town’s land use ordinance came despite concerns from some owners… SEE MORE