Houses in Portland's East End. A report has concluded that almost half of the city's residents are paying too much in rent.

Working Waterfront

City acts to ease Portland housing shortage

Like many cities in New England and across the country, Portland is facing a housing crisis. There’s not enough housing to meet the demand and the cost of housing often far exceeds what many people can afford to pay. And just like their peers, Portland’s leaders are making easing the… SEE MORE

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Island book club lands George Mitchell as speaker

There are many things that set Vinalhaven apart from the rest of the world but what really distinguishes us is our Gentlemen’s Book Group. Begun about ten years ago by an enterprising lobsterman trying to rise above his station, the group at first numbered about 15 island men. Of these,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Downeast to Casco Bay, coastal conversations float all boats

It must have been six years ago now that this paper made a concerted effort to add Washington County content. I recall raising grant funds to make it possible. The thought back then was that Washington County coastal communities shared a great deal in common with the island and remote coastal communities elsewhere in Maine. A… SEE MORE

Landowner Mark Alley and Island Institute Fellow Jessi Duma at the garden Alley is allowing Duma and her colleagues to bring back after a long period of lying fallow.

Working Waterfront

Cranberry Islanders reseed a growing tradition

Here and there around Great Cranberry Island, a flock of geese runs as one around its pen, a trio of sheep explores a grassy apple orchard, a brace of goats peer through a fence, and a whole lot of gardens in various sizes and configurations bloom with delicious vegetables and… SEE MORE

Some of the early members of Maine Coast Artists

Working Waterfront

Maine rocks the arts, the arts rock Maine

In 2012, according to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, arts and culture production accounted for $698 billion, or 4.32 percent of the nation’s economy. Surprise: that’s more than construction, transportation or tourism. In Maine, by 2014, there were 3,262 arts-related businesses sustaining 10,667 jobs. In other words, the arts account for… SEE MORE

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Downeast leaders draw on region’s lessons

By Katherine Cassidy Washington County Leadership Institute, begun in 1997 as one of Maine’s first professional leadership programs, has just completed its 20th year. More than 300 employees, supported by their employers, plus additional artisans and assorted self-employed folks, have taken part in the nine-session course offered every spring, dodging snow days and… SEE MORE

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A year of teaching social justice

Life on North Haven can have an insular, sheltered feeling to it. This can be blissful—children roam free, parents confident in their safety, rides are freely asked for and given, and babysitters are abundant and trustworthy. The downside to our little Mayberry is that awareness of social injustice can be… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

June as a junk drawer

When a knee issue went from sporadic to constant in February, my doctor suggested physical therapy. One-hour appointments two days a week don’t sound unreasonable, but scheduling them when you live across the water is one of the banes of island living. My PT appointments were on Mount Desert Island, so… SEE MORE

The cover art for the 2016 edition of The Island Reader was created by Islesboro student Cheyenne Houle.

Working Waterfront

The Island Reader celebrates homegrown art, literature

There is a side to island life that might be eclipsed by fishermen’s working lobster boats and pickup trucks, and tourists walking off ferries. Art and literature are alive and well in island communities, and the Maine Seacoast Mission believes they are worth celebrating and sharing. To that end, the… SEE MORE

Jamie Rooney with student Gianna Cilley.

Working Waterfront

A survivor’s story: From poverty and abuse to police department chronicled in Black to Blue

Deep into her memoir Black to Blue, Jamie Rooney recounts the steady sexual abuse she endured from her 16-year-old stepbrother. At this point in the book, it’s not the first such violation she’s had to endure. “I can’t believe no one ever picked up on this,” she writes 20-plus years… SEE MORE