By Colin W. Sargent<\/p>\n
“Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there’s no room for the present at all.” \u2013Evelyn Waugh<\/p>\n
“I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade.” \u2013D.H. Lawrence<\/p>\n
<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Reflections from a Bookstore Window<\/strong><\/p>\n Gary Lawless & Beth Leonard, Gulf of Maine Books<\/strong><\/p>\n “Twenty-five years ago, people were buying Thin Thighs in Thirty Days<\/em>,\u201d Gary says. \u201cNow it would have to be Thin Thighs in Thirty Hours<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many people in the U.S. are conducting a mass funeral for the book. But we went to the Frankfurt Book Fair a few months ago and discovered it\u2019s only Americans who are saying this! We went to the publishing booths of the Mongolians, the Iraquis, and the Iranians, among others\u2013there are over 100 countries with booths there, it was amazing\u2013and it was still exciting for them to be bringing their authors to the rest of the world. Many of these books are not written in English. And they probably aren\u2019t even on Kindle yet.<\/p>\n \u201cAs for bestsellers, in 1986, we had It<\/em> by Stephen King, Hollywood Husbands<\/em> by Jackie Collins, Wanderlust<\/em> by Danielle Steel, and I\u2019ll Take Manhattan<\/em> by Judith Krantz.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we have George W. Bush\u2019s book, Sarah Palin\u2019s book, Glenn Beck\u2019s book, and Keith Richards\u2019s book. Still good fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Personal Space: the Final Frontier<\/strong><\/p>\n Crandall Toothaker<\/strong><\/p>\n In the mid 1980s, many trend-setting apartments and condos in the Old Port were outfitted by Singh Partners IV. Developer Pritam Singh [the former Paul LaBombard of Brunswick, who also developed The Truman Annex in Key West, among many other major properties] restored an impressive portfolio of Victorian warehouses and office buildings and installed, in many cases, identical beige Kenmore stoves and matching refrigerators, along with orange Formica counter tops (eat your heart out, Frank Sinatra).<\/em><\/p>\n Crandall Toothaker owns, re-<\/em>restores, and rents many of the most beautiful apartments in the area, including some former Singh units.<\/p>\n \u201cTwenty-five years ago, a swanky kitchen would have shiny, all-black appliances in enamel or glass,\u201d\u00a0 Toothaker says. \u201cAnd believe it or not, \u2018almond\u2019 was still hanging in there! It was pretty amazing to hear prospective tenants say, \u2018Oh, I like those appliances\u2019 on the same day others might say, \u2018Oh, I love these cool black ones!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThe exposed brick and beams of the late 1970s were still popular. You\u2019d see Berber carpets [peach and teal, anyone?] which were supposed to wear like iron and look like wool in the bedrooms, and 12- by 12-inch ceramic floor tiles as opposed to the 18- or 20-inch ones we install today.\u201d<\/p>\n How about the eternal Vermont Castings woodstove in a corner, with a Jon Legere or Alfred Chadbourn painting on the wall? Black spiral staircases, Corian counters, and big, big digital clocks?<\/p>\n \u201cTrack lighting. Incandescent lighting with the large cans!<\/p>\n \u201cNow, everything\u2019s becoming green, from flooring to recycled carpet materials. There\u2019s a lot of glass in the tile work. The spiral staircases are there, but more stainless steel and glass.\u201d<\/p>\n Understatement, then dazzle.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s more pin lighting, too\u2013LED lighting on cables. There\u2019s still exposed brick, but a lot of people are painting the brick today as opposed to leaving it natural. Loft-style living is still extremely popular, and people take to the open concept much more than the closed rooms. Granite counters are opening up to concrete and recycled glass products. You\u2019ll see materials like limestone, porcelain, bamboo. People used to try to hide air-conditioning vents, especially in loft-style spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n Now they\u2019re statement pieces.<\/p>\n As for emerging trends, \u201cWe have a couple of apartments with the 1950s look, and people love them. I\u2019m in Miami right now, and there\u2019s a store with very high-end retro appliances. For our next project in Portland, we\u2019re going to put in metal cabinets (remember the Sears cabinets of the 1950s?)\u2013very lime-green, yellow appliances that are very energy efficient but look like they\u2019re from the 1950s. Clean lines, modern.\u201d<\/p>\n The most telling thing about apartment dwellers in 2011?<\/p>\n \u201cHow energy-sensitive they\u2019re becoming. They\u2019re concerned and really care. All-green paint. They check the thermal qualities of our windows and ask questions. People are now asking what kind of boilers we have in the building and what their energy-efficiency is\u2013even if we\u2019re paying for the heat\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Taking Measure of Our\u00a0 Lives with Coffee spoons<\/strong><\/p>\n Eddie Fitzpatrick<\/strong><\/p>\n Twenty-five years ago, a new wave of restaurants in Portland dazzled diners and earned raves from The Atlantic<\/em> and New England Monthly<\/em>. Among them: Swan Dive, Alberta\u2019s, L\u2019Antibes, Brattle Street, The Vinyard, and 34 Exchange. At the time, <\/em>Eddie Fitzpatrick was editor of the Maine Sunday Telegram<\/em>. Today, he co-owns Pepperclub.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first moved here, Portland wasn\u2019t even a blip on the food map. Fine dining was steak, baked potatoes, and iceberg lettuce\u2013Valle\u2019s on Brighton Avenue. Somehow, Boone\u2019s, without any justification, had a national reputation. It was one of the few places in Portland you could actually eat on the waterfront. The quality of their food was nothing. \u2018Boiled lobster,\u2019 and again, \u2018steak.\u2019 For a while they brought in a genuine French food specialist and things picked up, but then he left Portland for the Samoset and it sank.<\/p>\n \u201cThen there\u2019s The Roma. As I heard the story, the owner had run a speakeasy in Detroit. He bought the Rines Mansion here\u2013you know, Rines Bros. Department Store and WCSH-TV [now home to the Quimby Colony and maybe a cooking school]\u2013and opened another speakeasy. He built a loyal following\u201d for Italian-American cuisine amid richly appointed surroundings that included a breathtaking collection of Portland Glass on display in the front dining room. For generations of Portlanders, there simply was no other place to go to mark special occasions. It was the scene of many engagements, business lunches, and assignations.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore Portland Magazine<\/em> was launched, you had Hu Ke Lau and Pagoda, but if you wanted a good Chinese meal, you had to drive to The Silent Woman in Waterville. For fancy Italian food, you\u2019d go to Marissa\u2019s in South Paris.<\/p>\n \u201cThinking back on it, those really weren\u2019t<\/em> the days,\u201d Fitzpatrick says.<\/p>\n \u201cHuShang was the first good Chinese restaurant in Portland. Ken Ng had the ability to remember names. You\u2019d dine there and then go back a year later, and he\u2019d call you by name. HuShang was always full. He opened [HuShang II] on Brown Street, and it was extremely successful.<\/p>\n \u201cSo successful, in fact, it was hard for him to keep up. He ran into tax problems and spent time in jail.<\/p>\n \u201cWe lost a great <\/em>Chinese restaurant. I don\u2019t think another Chinese restaurant has matched it since.<\/p>\n \u201cJaap Helder, a Dutchman, came to Portland in the 1970s. After running the cafeteria at the Maine Mall, he took over the management of The Hollow Reed,\u201d a beloved vegetarian restaurant on Fore Street.<\/p>\n \u201cThen, Jaap gave Portland its first French restaurant in a tiny building on Middle Street near the police station, where Bresca is now. He brought in [food writer and chef] Dennis Gilbert [now an English professor at USM] and Paul Heroux, and together they ran The Vinyard from 1979 until 1984, when Jaap sold it.\u201d<\/p>\n Also appearing on the scene: \u201cCaf\u00e9 Always, Back Bay Grill,\u201d and the daring idea of DiMillo\u2019s Floating Restaurant on Commercial Street\u2013which helped launch the Old Port as a destination attraction.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the Hungry Hunza closed at 21 Pleasant Street, that location became the launching pad for Alberta\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cJim Ledue filled a big niche. He wasn\u2019t expensive like The Roma. Alberta\u2019s catered to the middle or a little above and served very good food. It was very comfortable there. You didn\u2019t have tuxedo wait staff. People weren\u2019t intimidated as they often are in very expensive restaurants.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat spelled the end for Alberta\u2019s Restaurant was Jimmy\u2019s opening Alberta\u2019s Caf\u00e9 [a.k.a. Alberta\u2019s 2], at Portland Performing Arts Center on Forest Avenue. He had a good idea; he just couldn\u2019t be two places at once to supervise, troubleshoot, and put his personal touch on it, so the Alberta\u2019s magic was diluted, and both closed. If he\u2019d just stuck with the original Alberta\u2019s, it might still be here today, even if Jimmy isn\u2019t [Ledue died prematurely in 2009].<\/p>\n \u201cAfter The Hollow Reed closed, there were no vegetarian restaurants in Portland. Absolutely nothing. In 1989, sensing the demand for something colorful, inexpensive,\u00a0 and heavily vegetarian, Jaap had the idea for Pepperclub. I was working for the newspaper at the time, and I borrowed the money to finance it. It was immediately a success, because there was no competition.\u201d<\/p>\n Fast-forward to today, when Portland tops national lists as one of the top small-city cuisine meccas in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t have to have the two-pound steak anymore. What we\u2019ve seen in the last few years is an explosion of restaurants aiming at middle-range, or a little above middle-range, prices. Even since the recession, we\u2019ve had eight ambitious restaurants open downtown. You have The Grill Room, The Corner Room, The Front Room. Local 188 opened Sonny\u2019s. The Salt Exchange, the new Walter\u2019s, Grace. All in the heart of downtown, and then we have four or five restaurants on Munjoy Hill.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say the day of the very expensive restaurant has passed, but the new restaurants are very up-market, with prices many, many, many people can afford, not just the few.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked why he thinks lofty Evangeline really shut down in the last year\u2013\u201drazored the pig,\u201d as one wag put it, referring to the gold-leaf emblem that once adorned the bistro\u2019s window\u2013he says, \u201cPrices and accessibility.\u00a0 Petite Jacqueline has started in the same spot, with a very comforting French menu at affordable rates. For a while, if you wanted to eat out and didn\u2019t want to spend a lot of money at 34 Exchange or places like that, you could eat Chinese or Indian as an inexpensive alternative. Now there\u2019s an explosion of Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Korean places to spice up the options. Looking for Ethiopian? Try Asmara.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the other hand, where we\u2019re seeing the biggest change in the high end is in the ethnic dining establishments, too\u2013think of Japanese places like Miyake.<\/p>\n \u201cNot to mention Greek cuisine. Before, we had Free Street Taverna, and now we have Emilitsa. When I traveled in Greece for seven weeks, I never had anything like that; they were all Taverna-style. Emilitsa is more of a French restaurant, only it\u2019s Greek.\u201d<\/p>\n If Alberta\u2019s was so great, where are its spiritual descendants?<\/p>\n \u201cThe Front Room, The Corner Room, The Grill Room, Sonny\u2019s. Walter\u2019s is a wonderful addition that says [implicitly] to diners, you don\u2019t have to have the $25 meal. You have a half portion for $12, and for most people, that will be enough.<\/p>\n \u201cThat brings us to the red-sauced Italians like The [former] Village and Esposito\u2019s. Espo\u2019s is still going strong, but the last quarter century has redefined this category with exotic places like Cinque Terre on Wharf Street, Grissini in Kennebunkport, and the little Milanese place on Fore Street, Paciarino.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking of Fore Street\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cSam Hayward has somehow achieved continuing national recognition from his time at the Harraseeket from when he was principal chef, ever since he opened Fore Street. National publications are continually drawing attention to him and his restaurant. He\u2019s always on the move and innovative. He\u2019s been very successful. Then, too, there are places like Caiola\u2019s with very fine dining in a neighborhood atmosphere, along with Street and Co., where Caiola\u2019s owner\/chef came from.\u201d<\/p>\n How do Fitzpatrick and the other successful restaurateurs plan to keep fresh and different while looking toward 2012 and beyond?<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to be constantly innovative. You have to be aware of the next new thing so you won\u2019t be replaced by it. We always have solid meats and fish, but it\u2019s our vegetarian food that sets us apart. People have very express, specific dietary demands. We have brown rice pasta for those who can\u2019t eat wheat or flour; quinoa grain from South America for a different twist; and we\u2019re now using gluten-free noodles. No matter how many allergies a diner may have or how many special requests, we can handle them. Mary Paine bought Jaap out after five years or so, and she is our mainstay. She is concocting dishes, inventing dishes, finding things that look and taste good. We have an enormous amount of spice at our restaurant, but we also have haddock, scallops. It\u2019s a constant challenge to stay afloat in Portland.\u201d<\/p>\n Isn\u2019t that nerve-racking\u2013to have to improve and reinvent at such a dizzying pace in order to be the place Rachael Ray chooses to visit when she breezes through town, shooting her show?<\/p>\n \u201cIt isn\u2019t so hard that people don\u2019t want to try to open new restaurants and experiment with new concepts. What I see now is, for every place that closes, two open.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Crime, Punishment, Casinos<\/strong><\/p>\n Chief Michael Chitwood<\/strong><\/p>\n In a December 1988 interview with us, Stephen King joked that Portland was trying to market itself as a \u201cblow-dry, Perrier, Mazda kind of city\u201d\u2013a pretentious, self-conscious seaport lost between where it used to be and might have been.<\/p>\n Police chief Michael Chitwood ran into these same contradictions when he first came here in 1983.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d never been north of New York City, so arriving in \u2018the beautiful town by the sea\u2019\u00a0 was a culture shock!<\/p>\n \u201cI saw an urban city in a suburban setting that had every type of crime you can mention\u2013murder, rape, drugs\u2013but it was under control. I\u2019d never heard the term \u2018quality of life\u2019 in the greater Philadelphia area before I pulled in. What did that mean? I couldn\u2019t imagine it.\u201d<\/p>\n Not that there was a welcoming committee here to assure the quality of his life.<\/p>\n \u201cEarly on, I visited the State House in Augusta. A state rep walked up to me and said, \u2018Welcome to Maine. Now go back to Philadelphia where you came from.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n So funny, then, that he fell in love with us. \u201cPortland is wonderful, wonderful. I still miss it, and I\u2019m saying this from a place that is just 10 minutes from where I was born and raised.<\/p>\n \u201cI go online and read what\u2019s happening, and it\u2019s become more unique, with more restaurants, tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n Rifling through the hyperbole, the problem-solver in Chitwood can\u2019t help but recognize, \u201cIt\u2019s the same issue as 22 years ago, the Old Port. As it grew and became inundated with bars, the same cast of characters who should have been shut down are still acting up. The drug problem is an issue. The burglaries, the robberies,\u201d though he\u2019s quick to say, \u201cIt\u2019s still a safe state and still a safe city when you look at what\u2019s going on in the rest of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n One force making that possible is cowgirl-booted Stephanie Anderson.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s an excellent DA. She does a great job. We had our battles, but her primary concern is for the safety of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n He warms up to the casino question.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t buy that casinos bring an increase in crime, but I also don\u2019t buy that the economic upturn they promise is going to be terrific, and schools are going to be able to pay teachers better, build theaters, and get new uniforms for their sports teams. The people who make money at the casinos are the casinos themselves\u2013not the staff members, not even the regional employed management.<\/p>\n \u201cI look around at the casinos in Jersey and Philadelphia, and they worked their way in here by telling everyone what they were going to do for the economy. They were going to help the tax base. Now they\u2019re bankrupt.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are at least 10 to a dozen casinos in Atlantic City, which used to be the center of the casinos on the East Coast, that are now bankrupt. The state of\u00a0 New Jersey has had to take them over!<\/p>\n \u201cThe communities themselves did not enjoy anything. The roads to the casino and\u00a0 the landscaping all look nice, but the upturn is not happening.\u201d<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s gun control.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I got to Portland, right away I let people know I was against signing concealed gun permits. The attorney general said you have to,<\/em> and I said I wasn\u2019t going to sign them! There should be zero tolerance for some individuals to get easy access to a firearm. Guns are part of the American life. Hunters should have the ability to hunt. But to allow people who have the ability to endanger our community to walk around with concealed weapons\u2026. I fought that battle the whole 17 years I was there.\u201d<\/p>\n He feels the Maine chestnut of \u201cI only kill what I can eat\u201d offers an illusory sense of self-management to sportsmen, because \u201cit doesn\u2019t take criminal minds into account.\u201d<\/p>\n No stranger to the national media, Chitwood made more waves during the famous Internet bullying case playing itself out in his neck of the woods, the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby.<\/p>\n Upon arresting a six-member \u201cwolfpack\u201d bullying a 13-year-old middle-schooler (and posting episodes of his torture on YouTube), Chitwood delighted the media by quipping, \u201cYou\u2019re going to take a hike in handcuffs and in a wagon.\u201d<\/p>\n Vintage Chitwood. Fortunately, Maine has no bullies, yes?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all over the country. The videotape released with the laughs in the background shows how it can be. There should be zero tolerance. God forbid it could lead to other tragedies such as suicide by a victim or a victim in flight killed by a car. I think the schools have to have zero tolerance and there has to be education for everyone, not just the bully and victim. The tragedies are exacerbated by social networking\u2013YouTube, Facebook\u2013that fosters that gang mentality\u201d that gets ratcheted up \u201cby cell phones. A group against one. It\u2019s a cowardly act. The potential for bullying has always been the same. Now it has a more public face. In our incident, there wouldn\u2019t have been criminal prosecution had it not been for that video. When it becomes more public, the bully now has a platform to feel his 15 minutes of fame. Facebook and YouTube have not made more bullies,\u201d just more celebrity for bullies.<\/p>\n The Svelte Lady Sings<\/strong><\/p>\n Karen Sanford<\/strong><\/p>\n “Protect the Working Waterfront!\u201d was a rallying cry in this city when Portland Magazine<\/em> first made a splash. Led by Karen Sanford, the movement sought to keep marine-use only businesses close to the docks and piers where the fishing industry was located. Translation: People weren\u2019t sure they wanted the Disney unreality of an inner-city Baltimore uprooting the ancient and fishy businesses that were at the heart of our practical charm. And the Working Waterfront Referendum won, convincingly\u2026only to be partially unraveled recently with a loosening of some waterfront zoning restrictions.<\/p>\n In 2011, it\u2019s not like Karen Sanford\u2019s steamed or anything. Asked for a 25-year report card on the strength of our working waterfront, she has the pith and vinegar to come out swinging:<\/p>\n \u201cIn 1987, the people of Portland were alarmed by the displacement of fishing boat berthing and marine industry\u2013especially on Central Wharf, renamed Chandler\u2019s Wharf. New condo, office, retail, hotel, and restaurant proposals wanted to get in on the act.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, waterfront business people, fishermen, politicians, neighborhood groups, and people from all over Maine gathered together to ask the people of Portland if they wanted the City of Portland to implement zoning to protect the working waterfront for future generations\u2013whatever those future uses might be.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo out of three voters, in a large turnout election on a rainy day in May, said that the City of Portland needed to uphold the public trust<\/em> and zone the waterfront to maintain and develop water-dependent and water-related jobs and industry. Almost every family on Munjoy Hill and parts of the West End had generations of relatives that had been making good wages on the waterfront. The people of Portland knew what needed to be done.<\/p>\n \u201cThe authors of the Working Waterfront Referendum envisioned a public-private partnership to build a strong and sustainable working waterfront in order to keep our navigational and commercial ties to the sea. The Fish Pier (developed before the referendum) is our best example, but problems there only emphasize the need to be in this for the long haul<\/em>, because waterfront industries tend to be cyclical and change with changes in technology or fish stocks or commerce. You can\u2019t abandon this resource when the going gets rough. That is what protecting the public trust means.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, our city leaders do not seem to view the working waterfront as a forever<\/em> resource, as part of the public trust. They seem to wait for short-term, market-driven proposals to come along. They seem to ignore their own recent study that reveals that the highest vacancy rates are with upscale uses\u2013not marine uses. The fiasco over the upscaling of the publicly-owned Maine State Pier; the fiasco over the Pierce-Atwood tax-reduced takeover of Cumberland Wharf; and the opening up of the zoning to more and more non-marine uses are three recent examples of how far the City of Portland is willing to deviate from the vision of the majority of Portlanders who voted for the Working Waterfront Referendum of 1987.<\/p>\n \u201cSo instead of giving tax breaks and incentives to marine industries and pier infrastructure projects, the city courts hoteliers and law firms\u2013and uses loose zoning as a misguided and lazy development tool.<\/p>\n \u201cThe result will be that our exceptional, natural, deep-water harbor that provides real-wage jobs and attracts so many tourists looking for an authentic, working New England seaport will soon look like any other waterfront theme park. Future generations will be denied the evolving roles that our working waterfront will need to fill, and they will resent the decisions that are being made today.\u201d<\/p>\n Maine: Leading, Backwards and in Heels <\/strong><\/p>\n Angus King, Governor of Maine, 1995-2003 <\/strong><\/p>\n Twenty-five years ago, Democrat Joseph Brennan was our governor, followed by Republican Gov. John McKernan from 1987-1995. We asked his successor, Independent Gov. Angus King, if he believes \u201cas Maine goes, so goes the nation\u201d is still on target in 2011.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the character of Maine\u2019s leadership\u2013which has been more independent\u2013is where the country needs to be,\u201d says former Gov. Angus King.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we have this very high level of partisanship and ideology driving the parties to the left and the right.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if you go back 60 years, you have Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, who in many ways was the precursor to senators Snowe and Collins. Smith was never<\/em> an insider in a Senate she shared with power-brokers like Richard Russell, Jr., John Stennis. She was never a favorite of her party. But it was she who called out McCarthy! It\u2019s not all that dissimilar from today, when we have two senators under pressure from the establishment of the Republican Party to follow it further to the right.<\/p>\n \u201cEdmund S. Muskie, the great Democrat, was an independent figure who charted his own course. Young Bill Cohen was one of six Republicans who voted for the impeachment of Richard Nixon. Both were very popular with the people of Maine. Then you have George Mitchell, known for his principles and independent thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n Daring to vote against party lines at times when it wasn\u2019t expedient. Isn\u2019t that the basis for Profiles in Courage<\/em>?<\/p>\n \u201cYes! Following your conscience when it isn\u2019t easy. Speaking of Smith, did you know when she ran in 1948, she was accused of voting along Communist Party lines by her own party?<\/p>\n \u201cShe was listed on the infamous \u2018smear-sheet.\u2019 According to authors, her voting record \u2018lined up\u2019 with the record of Congressman Vito Marcantonio of New York, a communist. Of course, it was ridiculous\u2013things like \u2018motions to adjourn\u2019 and affirmations that \u2018motherhood is good.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cHer \u2018Declaration of Conscience\u2019 was just a stunning moment of courage and moderate insight. By the way, she won the primary against four men, two of them former governors. She won more votes than those two men combined.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got me going now. Profiles in Courage<\/em> was about senators who dared to vote against the grain. Did you know [one of] the first senator[s] John F. Kennedy praises in Profiles <\/em>was from Maine?<\/p>\n \u201cWilliam Pitt Fessenden cast one of two or three votes that prevented<\/em> the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. There was a huge movement in Maine and across the country to get rid of Johnson. Lincoln had dumped his first-term vice president, Maine\u2019s Hannibal Hamlin, because he thought himself to be more re-electable if he had a person from a border state [born in North Carolina, elected in Tennessee] to help bring the South and the Union together. When Lincoln was killed, the impeachment failed, but up until then, the pressure on Fessenden was merciless.<\/p>\n \u201cIt cost Fessenden his career. It cost him his seat in the Senate. So now that I think of it, the tradition of people going against the grain of their party goes back at least 150 years. Joshua Chamberlain, by the way, wouldn\u2019t succumb to pressure either, and he refused to attend a big rally in Portland designed to force Fessenden\u2019s vote. So there\u2019s a direct line from Fessenden to Margaret Chase Smith to Muskie to Snowe and Collins.<\/p>\n \u201cVoters like people representing Maine to be independent. Your readers are independent.\u00a0 Congratulations on the 25 years, by the way, because that\u2019s no small accomplishment. The love for independence goes back to the origins of the state. Fishermen, farmers, and foresters\u2013independent pursuits. They had to rely on themselves. They had a crusty independence, and that was part of the magic of the place. We have an identifiable character.\u201d<\/p>\n Open Concepts<\/strong><\/p>\n Brenda Humphreys<\/strong><\/p>\n When Brenda Humphreys and her daughter, Jael, first came to Portland, she was featured on our May 1988 front cover as editor of the Munjoy Hill Observer<\/em>. She\u2019d moved here in 1983 after interning at People<\/em> magazine, prior to which she\u2019d traveled on a lecture circuit with Maya Angelou. Earlier, as a Ford Fellow in City Planning, she worked on a United Nations project for the Liberian government (escaping just before the military coup, during which her former boss was slain by a firing squad). During her travels with Maya Angelou for poetry readings and book promotions, a stop included Maine. She fell in love with Vacationland.<\/p>\n \u201cTwenty-five years ago\u2013has it really been that long?\u2013I was quoted as saying \u2018I don\u2019t go around with a mirror in front of me,\u2019 meaning I can\u2019t see the brown skin color others see. I\u2019ve certainly experienced living in mono-cultures where people did stare, but Mainers, to their credit, didn\u2019t. It made bridging social gaps easier. That pleased me greatly, because I am a people person. As a child growing up in the 1950s segregated South, I\u2019m told I frightened adults. They said, \u2018Brenda talks to everybody,\u2019 and in Dixieland dismay added, \u2018even the white folks!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s immigrant populations can take solace in having greater numbers who look like them, speak a common language, or hold onto a culture, if that\u2019s what one wants. I found Maine to be full of new, uncharted opportunities, and it afforded me a lot of \u2018firsts.\u2019 In 1988, I was a spokesperson working on a presidential candidate\u2019s campaign, which culminated in my becoming the co-vice chair of the Maine Delegation to the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. On the heels of this came the offer of a position in Washington, D.C., with Witness For Peace, a non-profit working on Latin American and Caribbean issues. My hope is that new immigrants to Maine will also take opportunities to embark in the many new directions afforded them.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was surprising to find Maine quite racially tolerant. So much so, that in 1989 when the KKK leafleted the metropolitan area about a recruiting rally in the Maine Mall parking lot, the \u2018ism\u2019 was against other minority groups in the state (which I won\u2019t name so as not to encourage anything). But imagine my relief.<\/p>\n \u201cMy daughter and I were pictured in a group at [former] Gov. Joseph Brennan\u2019s elbow in the Augusta capitol as he signed into law the state\u2019s first official Martin Luther King Holiday to begin January 1987. That was 25 years ago. Still, the efforts of groups throughout the state that continue to make the holiday a meaningful one, no \u2018butts\u2019 about it, were heartfelt this January. Other national movements conceived in Maine during that same era are coming up on milestone anniversaries, too: Veterans For Peace; coalitions standing for justice in Central America; and the Green Party, to name a few.<\/p>\n \u201cI chanced to meet up with a smiley-faced Iranian on MLK day who told me he\u2019d moved to Portland from the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia. \u2018People in Portland are far more friendly,\u2019 he told me in a surprised tone, and he meant it, too. As do I.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Old Port Pentimento<\/strong><\/p>\n C. Michael Lewis<\/strong><\/p>\n “From 1980 to 1985, I lived on the corner of Fore and Exchange,\u201d says artist C. Michael Lewis. \u201cPhoenix Glass was on the second floor, Bowl & Board was on the first floor. I was on the third.\u201d<\/p>\n Lewis\u2019s garret studio looked down on crowds in the Old Port, couples jamming into Movies on Exchange Street. From this enviable perch, young Lewis was living the life. He was also capturing the spirit of the city with paintings such as Tommy\u2019s Park<\/em>\u2013a luscious block of upper Exchange Street staged as curvy, giant paint cans. With so many businesses launching and buildings being painted and prettied up, the image carried the jolt of energy that \u201cAnything is possible!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI did the painting to raise money to create the trompe l\u2019oeil<\/em> that still exists on the side of the building fronting Tommy\u2019s Park facing Middle Street,\u201d Lewis says. \u201cMaine National Bank bought it, and then Maine National Bank gave me my first show. Seven paintings. I can see them in my mind. That was 25 years ago. There was a lot of corporate art collecting then.\u201d<\/p>\n And it excited the market.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of the Maine National show, Barridoff Galleries spotted me and asked me to be part of their gallery. They inspired me to paint in the first place! I remember walking by their place on Monument Square, looking in the windows, and telling myself, \u2018I can do that. I think I can do that!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n At least 2,000 posters of Lewis\u2019s Tommy\u2019s Park<\/em> were made, and the trompe l\u2019oeil <\/em>became a reality. \u201cI worked out the perspective and working drawings; Chris Dennison was the driving force for putting the mural in place. He raised $30,000 for it. He\u2019d done his own mural there in 1975, but the wall had deteriorated from water damage coming from the inside, so another wall was added, covering it.<\/p>\n \u201cGuess what happened? The wall leaked again. It\u2019s still leaking! There\u2019s still water inside the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked how collectors differ from 1986 to 2011, he says, \u201cI can only speak from a personal experience. My gallery owner, from Gallery 127, sold two paintings to a corporate office. I asked what was it about those paintings that particularly appealed to them and felt a bit hurt when she said the buyers told her, \u2018[The paintings, one of which was of HuShang on Brown Street,] went with the furniture.\u2019 I have to laugh now, because it was a typical 1980s palette\u2013pink and green.<\/p>\n \u201cSeveral years later, a friend of mine went to a place selling auctioned office furniture from businesses that had gone belly up. And there were my two paintings! I guess they went with the furniture then<\/em>, too.<\/p>\n \u201cI make a living doing illustrating and renderings\u2013working on commission\u2013and selling my paintings directly through my studio. It\u2019s to people I know. Friends of friends of friends. Clients of friends. It\u2019s nice, because I like the contact with people. Then there\u2019s this sidelight I have with a racing car [see pbs.org\/wgbh\/nova\/car\/my-lewis.html].\u201d\u00a0 He holds a national electrathon racing record.<\/p>\n Lewis appears regularly in gallery shows, too, because \u201cPainting is a basic drive. It\u2019s doing what I do. It\u2019s my form of self-expression. It would be impossible to stop.\u201d He adds, \u201cThe art scene as a whole has exploded and is far better than it was earlier, with big-audience events like First Friday Art Walk and many, many galleries.\u201d Outside the roar of the greasepaint, \u201cThere\u2019s a lot more art selling on a smaller scale and to private collectors, too. For my show a few months ago to celebrate the new Portland Public Library\u2013I did the artwork to illustrate architect Scott Simons\u2019s great new designs transforming the building, and the library built a first-floor show around it\u2013I went around and collected old work to go with my new work, because it was a retrospective. The feeling I had seeing paintings I hadn\u2019t set eyes on for 25 years\u2026but that others had seen every day! I went into a lawyer\u2019s house on Western Prom. His kitchen is dominated by a painting that I did 25 years ago.\u201d Talk about \u2018finder of lost loves\u2019: He has breakfast with this painting every day, and he loves it!<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Inside Job<\/strong><\/p>\n Deb Andrews<\/strong><\/p>\n Shortly after Portland Magazine<\/em> was launched, \u201cWe lost a very significant treasure\u2013the Carroll\u00a0 Block\u2013across from the Victoria Mansion that was owned by 75 State Street,\u201d the congregate care facility. \u201cIt was at the base of Park Row, a very significant context,\u201d says Deb Andrews.<\/p>\n By lost, you mean\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cTorn. Down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLandmarks was formed in 1964, so we thought we were pretty powerful. There was a huge protest. A crowd of Landmark supporters staged a rally that turned into an uprising. People were taken off in a paddy wagon.\u201d<\/p>\n Exciting stuff. Who <\/em>got carried away?<\/p>\n \u201cOh, let\u2019s see. In the police van, David Turner of Carson Turner Books [was squeezed in with six others including state representative Jim Oliver]\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cPeople were screaming. It got\u2026strident. In the movie Landmarks<\/em>, would be a key scene, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n That same year, \u201cThere was a fire at the Storer Mansion on Waynflete\u2019s campus, and there was a question of whether the building should be taken down after the fire, and they decided to take it down.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, it\u2019s an open parcel where there\u2019s a walkway connecting the western part of the campus with the rest of the campus. They kept some of the stairway\u2013they call it \u2018Waynhenge\u2019\u2013in a field.<\/p>\n \u201cAround the same<\/em> time, near the site of Two Portland Square, there was a large brick warehouse structure, four or five stories high, very much in the same vernacular as the Old Port. The developer wanted to take that down. You had planning board members saying that it was just a dirty, old building. Historic preservationists were shocked at that attitude. That building could have been successfully rehabbed<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Enter the Historic Preservation Ordinance.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember when the ordinance was being debated, WCSH-TV\u2013in its on-air editorials\u2013predicted it would put a lid on Portland\u2019s development potential.\u201d<\/p>\n That was about the time she switched from being president of Landmarks to what some might call the empowered side of public policy-making.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was time to fight city hall from the inside out. I was at Landmarks from 1984-1990, and then I came to work with the city as a planner before becoming head of its historic preservation program.\u201d<\/p>\n Who says there\u2019s no drama at city hall?<\/p>\n \u201cI had to rewire myself a little bit. Joe Gray, who was director of the Planning Department at the time, was the one who hired me.<\/p>\n \u201cHe tells a story about city councilmen crying out, \u2018Joe, Joe, Joe, what have you done? It\u2019s like letting the fox into the henhouse.\u2019 It was interesting. Greater Portland Landmarks was definitely pushing for change.\u201d<\/p>\n Big wins in the last 25 years?<\/p>\n \u201cYou know the warehouse where Stone Coast Brewing Co. was? After sustaining a fire, there were questions as to whether it should be torn down. [Through the ordinance], we got a second opinion that confirmed it was salvageable.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best thing about the ordinance is, it provides an opportunity for a building to speak and tell its story, and its merits to be celebrated and understood before it\u2019s lost forever.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current construction of the inland side of Commercial Street is a product of the ordinance\u2019s review process. Old warehouses have been carefully restored, and we have exciting new architecture as well. For example, there\u2019s the addition to the W.L. Blake Block directly across from the Custom House and that new elevator tower that\u2019s a significant addition to the Chase Leavitt Block. You can be true to your own time and honor the buildings around you. There doesn\u2019t have to be a slavish imitation. There was a misconception that the ordinance didn\u2019t encourage good quality new architecture and a dynamic tension between new and old,\u201d but it\u2019s all about working with dreamers who love this city to shape a future that\u2019s aware of its past.<\/p>\n Unifying Differences <\/strong><\/p>\n Dale McCormick, MSHA president; LGBT Activist <\/strong><\/p>\n On July 7, 1984, three male teens threw Charlie Howard, 23, over State Street Bridge into Kenduskeag Stream in downtown Bangor\u2013ignoring his asthmatic shouts that he couldn\u2019t swim.<\/p>\n \u201cThe incident inspired a similar scene in the beginning of Stephen King\u2019s novel It<\/em>, where three homophobic teenagers throw an openly gay man over a bridge and into the Kenduskeag, there to be set upon and murdered by the monster Pennywise,\u201d observes Wikipedia.<\/p>\n Just like the Matthew Shepard case in Wyoming, the murder of Charlie Howard made national news and injured the reputation of our state. Surely many Mainers had the right to hope, \u201cAt the very least, this particular hate crime won\u2019t be repeated.\u201d<\/p>\n Cut to April, 2006, in these \u2018enlightened times.\u2019 The charred corpse of troubled, homeless Trevor Sprague was discovered in \u201cflames two feet high\u201d below Harlow Street Bridge in Bangor.<\/p>\n According to the Bangor Daily <\/em>News<\/em>, Sprague had been convicted for \u201cunlawful sexual contact in 2005 after he improperly touched a teenage boy who was sitting in a park near the Bangor Public Library.\u201d<\/p>\n We asked former Maine State Treasurer, state senator, and current Maine State Housing Authority president Dale McCormick to discuss Maine as a tolerant place to live, 25 years ago and now.<\/p>\n \u201cNineteen eighty-six was the beginning of the first couple of cases of HIV in Maine. People were very scared. Gay people\u2013we were fighting in the Maine State Legislature for our civil rights. Not only had Charlie Howard been thrown over the bridge two years earlier, in debate in the Legislature there was such barnyard language used to describe gay and lesbian people that Speaker John Martin of Eagle Lake had to clear the house of children. At the Statehouse.<\/em> Reactions to gay people were based on fear and ignorance.<\/p>\n \u201cIronically, what the HIV epidemic did was to bring a lot of straight people into the fight\u2013mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, extended families, and friends of people who contracted HIV either through sexual or blood contact.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked how big President Obama\u2019s recent decision was to direct the judicial department to ignore existing precedents against same-sex marriage going forward, McCormick says, \u201cIt was huge. Do you remember the Twinkie Defense, which was used when Harvey Milk was shot? Then, you could go up to someone who\u2019s gay and say, \u2018Well, I was all hopped up on Twinkies.\u2019 Now, what President Obama is saying, and the Supreme Court hasn\u2019t agreed yet, is that if there is discrimination against gay and lesbian people, it should be judged with the same standard as black people, women, people of other cultures\u2013and considered with strict scrutiny. It\u2019s a big step.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we go from barnyard language in the\u00a0 House of Representatives in 1986 to\u2013in this decade\u2013when [LD 1020 aka] the Civil Marriage Bill passed the Legislature, it took 46 hours because so many people wanted to be on the record<\/em> to show their support with their vote. It was unbelievable. We were crying it was so moving.<\/p>\n \u201cCulturally, 25 years ago, we had stereotypes of gay people as predators in movies like Silence of the Lambs<\/em>. \u2018Today\u2019 we have Will and Grace<\/em> and Queer Eye <\/em>in re-runs. Cultural heroes who are gay and lesbian. Lady Gaga coming in support of gay and lesbian soldiers at Deering Oaks Park.<\/p>\n \u201cTwenty-five years ago, there was a handful of gay, lesbian, transgender [people] and a few of their moms advocating for an end to the discrimination of gay and lesbian people. Now it\u2019s the youth of Maine. They are appalled there\u2019s any discrimination against gay and lesbian people and in disbelief that gays and lesbians have to earn the right to marry.\u201d<\/p>\n So, our youth won\u2019t tolerate intolerance?<\/p>\n \u201cThe movement grew up and left home.\u201d<\/p>\n When we launched Portland Magazine<\/em> in 1986, we billed ourselves as \u201ca new magazine for an exciting city,\u201d and anything was possible. Now, we\u2019re an exciting magazine for a new state\u2013poised to reinvent itself. Everything<\/em> is possible.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/first-issuefix.jpg\" "\\"first-issuefix\\"")
<\/a>When we published our first issue of <\/em>Portland Monthly in April 1986, the world was reeling from the <\/em>Challenger disaster, Ronald Reagan was president, One City Center was the new kid on the skyline. Join a few of our friends as they capture the spirit of then, now, and tomorrow.<\/em><\/p>\n
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