{"id":11907,"date":"2016-09-29T17:05:54","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T21:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=11907"},"modified":"2016-09-29T17:05:54","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T21:05:54","slug":"portland-in-renaissance-vital-statistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/portland-in-renaissance-vital-statistics\/","title":{"rendered":"Portland in Renaissance: Vital Statistics"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 2016 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Portlanders act younger, more cosmopolitan, and hungrier than ever.<\/span><\/h3>\n

From Staff & WIre reports<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"vital-stats-oct16\"Th<\/span>e last time anything like this happened in Portland, Maine, was never. <\/span>Sure, the Forest City enjoyed a sugar high in the 1860s; flickered into incandescence in the 1920s; and converted many of its warehouses into condos in the 1980s, a big \u2018tell\u2019 that we were moving from a manufacturing to a service economy. <\/span><\/p>\n

But this is different. Call it a small-batch economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you listen to people talking, you hear hyperbolic enthusiasms like \u201cCan you believe what\u2019s happening in Portland?\u2019 \u2018There are so many people here now!\u201d \u201cThat building wasn\u2019t here last month!\u201d And the thoroughly unexplored \u201cThere is so much going on here!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, but what exactly? \u2018It\u2019 can be shown in photos (imagine a before and after of the old Joe\u2019s Smoke Shop\u2013transformed today as Joe\u2019s Variety<\/strong>, topped by four floors of soon-to-be residential living space), even suggested by the effervescence of First Friday Art Walk<\/strong>, but that\u2019s a national phenomenon. What is peculiar to \u2018us,\u2019 right now? And who do the numbers say \u2018we\u2019 are, exactly? Here\u2019s a clue for you all. We\u2019re younger than the rest of Maine\u2013quite dazzlingly, actually. The median age for a Camden resident is 54.7 years. Lubec is 54.3, Eastport 56.1. Our median age in Portland is 36.1.* The difference seems even be more stark now that Portland\u2019s sign is ascending.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since we\u2019re so young, maybe we\u2019re thirstier, too. According to the vodka scholars at Drizly (think Deliveroo or 2 Dine in, with intoxicants), who chose Portland as their beachhead in Maine when they opened in April 2016, the statistical \u201cwe\u201d may have been drinking Moscow Mules in December of 2015, but this second, we\u2019re guzzling Raspberry Mules<\/strong>. But then, consumer numbers can be such a reproachful mirror.<\/span><\/p>\n

Portland\u2019s \u201cthirstiest\u201d neighborhood, according to Drizly order data, is zip code 04101, which includes Downtown, the East End, and Parkside. Following 04101 are 04102, 04103 and 04106.<\/span><\/p>\n

Portland\u2019s favorite items to have delivered by Drizly, and certainly subject to its inventory, are Tito\u2019s Handmade Vodka, La Marca Prosecco, Pinnacle Vodka Original, Corona Extra and Bieler Pere et Fils Ros\u00e9.<\/span><\/p>\n

To give you an idea of how this differs from the national average, Drizly\u2019s top products overall are: Tito\u2019s Handmade Vodka, Stella Artois, Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc, and Coors Light.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Drizly universe, liquor makes up 37 percent of purchases in Portland compared to 24 percent on average across all Drizly markets nationwide.<\/span><\/p>\n

Driving the Engine<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

For more subtle inquiries, there\u2019s Portland Research Group<\/strong>, with offices on 1 Union Wharf. Here, Bruce Lockwood looks below the surface of demographics for clients like IDEXX<\/strong> and Unum<\/strong>, both of whom need to know what makes this city tick in order to match future employees to the area. He\u2019s quick to point to craft-beer manufacturers as a key to Portland\u2019s calculus of cool. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole craft brewery situation in Portland may have begun in Boston with Sam Adams, but something about the independence of Portland drew people like David Geary <\/strong>to set up shop here,\u201d and he has numbers to prove that. <\/span><\/p>\n

Asked what he means by \u2018independence,\u2019 he says what the new micro-brewery startups were looking for here, and have so strikingly discovered, is a statistical hiccup: Portland\u2019s near reverence for small businesses is etched into our subculture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look, we have more micro breweries than most large cities.\u201d (More, by the way, than Dublin, Ireland.) \u201cThat\u2019s because Portland has some large businesses at the top of a graph of businesses above 500 employees,\u201d viz. Maine Medical, Idexx, and UNUM, \u201cbut the drop to small businesses is very fast.\u201d This energizes opportunity for new launches to answer demand from an incredibly cultural influx of new residents. \u201cWe may be unequaled as a great craft brewery launching pad.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

According to Lockwood, 60 percent of Portland\u2019s businesses (the Portland, Maine, statistical area) have zero to four employees, greater than Boston\u2019s 57 percent. In the middle ranges, Portland ever-so-slightly lags Boston in businesses with 10 to 19 employees; 20 to 99 employees; and 100 to 499 employees. The effect is a cliff-like drop from Portland\u2019s 5 percent of businesses over 500 employees, which invigorates the customer base for Portland\u2019s small businesses. <\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, just because \u201cwe\u201d have great craft beer to drink doesn\u2019t mean \u201cwe\u2019ve\u201d found an apartment. A report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in October 2015 concedes, \u201cThe rental housing [in Portland] is tight.\u201d According to their data, the Portland rental housing market has a vacancy rate of only 5.5 percent, down from 8.3 percent in April 2010.\u201d The report goes on to say that, \u201cduring the next three years, demand is expected for 2,000 new market-rate rental units.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The report says things are even tighter in the apartment market, where vacancy rates have lowered rapidly in the past few years. \u201cFrom the third quarter of 2014 through the third quarter of 2015, the apartment vacancy rate declined from 3.6 to 2.9 percent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The MaineHousing yearly Affordability Index from 2015 reports that, while housing continued to be affordable on a statewide basis, in Portland rentals continue to be vastly unaffordable. Their report suggests the average cost for a two-bedroom rental has increased from $1, 023 in 2011 to $1,426 in 2015. By this measure, 73.1 percent of renter households are unable to afford the average two-bedroom rent, based on the city\u2019s median income. <\/span><\/p>\n

Our Points of Origination<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Reporting on Portland\u2019s cultural diversity, the Portland Press Herald<\/em>, using U.S. Census figures, lists 28.2 percent of Portlanders \u201cborn away\u201d in 1980, 40.9 percent of Portlanders \u201cborn away\u201d in 2000, and 50.7 percent of Portlanders \u201cborn away\u201d in 2015. <\/span><\/p>\n

All of which is an indicator of how popular Portland is becoming.<\/span><\/p>\n

Comparing Portland\u2019s population to the rest of Maine: In Maine, the female\/male ratio is 51.1 percent to 48.9 percent. (In 1790, Maine\u2019s percentage of females to males was 48.8 percent to 51.2 percent. In 1990, it was 51.3 to 48.7.) In Portland, it\u2019s 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent. Contrast this to Camden, which is 56.5 to 43.5. Portland\u2019s population is increasing, too. From 64,358 in 1990, it rose to 66,881 in 2015.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The age of a Portlander, however young compared to the rest of Maine, has had a slight uptick over the last few years. This may have to do with luxury condos with price points that shut out many millennial buyers. These senior \u2018new lifers\u2019 are high-net-worth life learners here for the culture, for the restaurants, for the walkability and sense of community. Give up the mansion, have a yard sale, give up the second car (and buy a Vespa\u2013see above), but for God\u2019s sake, make sure there\u2019s an elevator for the dog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 2016
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