THE COASTAL PACKET: Packing Portland with praise

Saturday, January 16

Packing Portland with praise

Your editor has long maintained that Maine was going to be the new Colorado of the Sixties,  a nationally recognized haven for the true and faux hip, the dissatisfied and the rebel. While that hasn't happened yet for the state as a whole, this collection of articles shows that at least Portland is on the way.

Reverb Press, 2016 - The 12 best hippie cities for stressed-out progressives in 2016...#9 . Portland, Maine. This largest Maine city and long-time top travel destination for bohos has been called the “San Francisco of the East” with its easy combination of laid-back friendliness and Old World charm. It features lots of public access to the ocean, a working waterfront whose docks are laden with lobster traps, an openness that welcomes refugees and same-sex couples, tolerates public nudity, and contains both award-winning restaurants and polite panhandlers. Portland marches to its own drummer but encourages residents and visitors to listen to their own special beat.  … And Marijuana is legal there!

Bangor Daily News, 2015 - WalletHub’s latest research set out to determine the most and least educated cities in America, looking at the largest 150 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas. Of those 150, Portland-South Portland was determined to be “more educated” than all but 12 others, a strong showing when considering the top rankings went to places like No. 2 Washington, D.C., which has a natural gravitational pull for lawyers and policy analysts, and No. 7 Boston-Cambridge, which is home to an absurd number of top colleges, such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Wallet Hub story.

Seth Koenig, Bangor Daily News 2014 -    Since 2009, Portland has been touted by one magazine or another for having some of the country’s best beer, best coffee, healthiest women (and men), best farmers markets, best drivers, best restaurantshippest downtown and best brunches. It’s one of the top cities in America to raise a familyfind a jobstart a second careerprotect the environment, find eligible women and be gay.
Among those singing Portland’s praises have been Travel + Leisure magazine, Forbes, Outside, Parenting, Draft, Women’s Health and Bon Appetit.
Here’s what [Business Insider] wrote about Maine’s biggest berg:
America’s other Portland has been gaining a reputation as a funky low-key destination that prizes quality food and cutting-edge art.More and more talented chefs have been flocking to the coastal New England city, opening upscale restaurants like Fore Street and Petite Jacqueline. But there’s also great casual fare, like tacos, burgers, and cupcakes from food trucks, and of course tons of lobster.Meanwhile, the city’s art scene is thriving. That’s to be expected, since it’s home to dozens of edgy galleries and artist collaboratives, the Maine College of Art, and the Portland Museum of Art, located in the heart of the Arts District. Visit in the beginning of the month to experience a First Friday Art Walk, when artists display their works on the streets and musicians and performance artists entertain the crowds.
In 2014 Buzzfeed listed Portland as one of 14 underrated places you’ll really want to move to. "This super-hip city in southern Maine is equal parts artsy, nature-y, and all-around cool."

According to the Economic Policy Institute, Portland ME is one of the top five cities in coffee shops per capita.

Bangor Daily News - San Francisco-based personal finance site NerdWallet.com released its list of the best places in America for women entrepreneurs... East of Minneapolis, the only places to make the list were Portland-South Portland, Maine, and Bridgeport, Connecticut.The Portland-South Portland metro area was ranked No. 9, while Bridgeport was up at No. 2.

The guy who has been doing the best job of keeping track of these superlatives is Seth Koening of the Bangor Daily News. Last month he published a list of the top ten top ten lists that Portland made it to last year.




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