"Is there a visible split between the less wealthy parts of town vs the wealthier parts"

I've been all around the world, and never been anywhere that wasn't the case. Plenty of exceptions. Maine is less amplified but it still applies depending on how you want to draw your lines.

How do you define "small town"?

Well here our small towns vary from 300 people to thousands I can't really put a number on it but I guess towns with less than 100k people? Sorry I'm not really sure about the scale comparison

> towns with less than 100k people

EVERY city and town in Maine is far less than 100k people. LOL.

We are Mainers. Just thought you may like to know.

My City is considered small ( I think) by world standards. 30k to 35k population.

The line is between poor and middle class, the upper class are few and do not flash their status too much.

I may not be the "small town you are looking for.

Have a good night.

Okay, what about 5000?

That's interesting, thank you

Yes, there is poor and there is dirt poor.

Thanks that's similar to here as well except for a few exceptions i.e. vineyard towns

Not really. I'd think some of the larger Maine towns have some distinctions on nice parts of town but small towns not so much. Some small towns have the like one of two rich people up on the hill or whatever but wouldn't call it class separation

Right, I wouldn’t say my town is wealthy or poor, but there is a distinction in wealth as there are houses that were selling for $2M before the housing boom, while others were going for $100k. Some neighborhoods are definitely more expensive than others.

I think it has a population of around 4000 people, is certainly working class, just depends on if they work for minimum wage or more.

There is 100% two different Maines. There is southern Maine which is very developed and very expensive. The other 3/4’s of Maine is very rural and very poor.

Most of the rural towns had a paper mill as the main employer. The vast majority have shut down leaving ghost towns. Some are rebounding slightly, but still a long way to go.

In Maine, most towns split between desperately poor and hard working lower middle class. A few towns have enclaves of extremely wealthy people. In the US as a whole, upper middle class tend to live in gated communities or neighborhoods of expensive houses and the rich in walled compounds. I think this is part of why our country is so divided.

A tremendous number of people in this state would be in serious financial trouble from one unexpected bill of $400.
Most of this state is fairly poor with a few extremely rich people. Most of this state is also on the edge of staying warm in our cold winters and affording heat. We’re mostly middle or lower class.

That really outclasses just one place

When I think of small town, I think <10k people.

tbh, Maine is more separated between "Wealthy tourists who live here during the summer or weekends" and "Native middle class/lower class Mainers".

Mainers who become rich tend to move somewhere else and only spend summers here. Not because they don't like living here but because that's just what rich people do.

If you are talking about the difference between lower class and middle class, In small towns there isn't really a separation (at least in my area I think). In my town you can drive down the road and see a middle-class, well-kept, quaint home. Then literally the next house over is a trailer with a confederate flag and broken car in the lawn.

Most small towns (<1000) are almost entirely poor. Unless they’re on the coast. Then during the summer, rich snow birds live on the waterfront. There is more of a divide between those who actually live in Maine, and those that treat it as a plaything.

In my experience, there's a heavy emphasis in the rural areas on not flaunting what you've got and not complaining when others have more than you. It's more class integrated than a lot of other places and you don't always know who has what.

This. I've found in smaller/poorer towns / cities people tend to mix across economic divides a lot more, as the wealth gap isn't as pronounced

The closest we get to upper class in my town are the summer folks.

bar harbor

The upper class is few and those who are wealthy, don’t go out of their way to throw it in others faces. Like other comments mentioned, mostly lower to middle class.

I grew up in a small coastal town. The big difference was between the locals, who lived a typical, secure middle-class lifestyle, and the tourists, who either visited for a short vacation or own a summer home in the area, and were much wealthier.

Yes, definitely, but it’s weird here because our towns are just so extremely small.

Where I grew up in Maine, there were 12 kids in my school class. Three of them were ridiculously wealthy. Palatial homes on the lake. Got their own airplanes for birthday presents as soon as they were old enough to fly (you could get a pilot’s license at 14 at the time, younger than a driver’s license). Another 6 kids were dirt poor. The rest were kids whose parents taught at the school- pretty much the only middle class in town.

As you can imagine, this is crazy wealth inequality. Weird as hell. And yet, there were so few of us that class didn’t have much to do with who your friends were as kids. If you wanted to have friends at all, you had to look past it. There was only one school for all of us.

In adult life, that changed though. The rich kids ran off to be airline pilots or whatever, never to be seen again for the most part. The poor kids either stayed where they were and got blue collar jobs, or got priced out of their homes and moved to the nearest affordable town and got blue collar jobs, but more or less stayed there and retained some semblance of community.

And the voters in southern Maine do their best toske things more expensive for the rest of the state.

I live in a small town, population about 1100. We're all either poor or lower middle class. Everyone gets along as best they can.

I think you will find it is different depending on the location. Our coastal towns tend to have a much wider class separation as there are large vacation homes for wealthy people and then more traditional homes of the locals. In smaller, more inland towns, I think the lines are a bit more blended. I live in a small town (under 1000 people) and the vast majority of the people live in trailers or smaller homes. There are of course larger homes too, but its quite common in Maine to see a beautiful large home and then a broken down trailer as a neighbor.

I think in most smaller Maine towns, you will have a mix of working class, poor, older retired individuals, and younger families. Most people here do not tend to flash their wealth, if they have any--there is simply no reason to as nobody really cares. So the neighbor has a new loaded Ford F150, good for them, I wouldn't want that payment. That's about all you'll get from someone and they move on with their lives.

Everyone in my town of around 2,500 is either working class or retired.

I honeymooned there last week and it was wonderful. It was only 2 hours from my house (good thing because it snowed on the way) and everyone was super friendly. We even had someone buy us drinks on our second night!

Yeah. I grew up in a small farming town, and the farmers are obscenely rich, although conspicuos consumption is low. They all own multimillion dollar lake houses that they call "camps". Old money runs the town. In high school, farmers' kids get preferential treatment. Skilled workers with generational wealth have a lot of pull, too. Last names are very important.

My town is about 15k I think

I’m not sure if we’re separated by class but there’s a definite distinction in who was born here and who was not

And it can get hostile at times due to that

Classism is very popular in America and Maine has its own flavors. All these "poor" towns have landowners pulling strings.

Small town on the coast. More modest homes away from the water. By the ocean, the size, scope and $$$$ go way up.

In Durham, Maine I'd say the answer is "somewhat." Maine had a major school consolidation about 15 years ago that put Durham and Pownal with Freeport which is a wealthy coastal town. This caused a housing boom for families that wanted "Freeport schools for less $$$". As a result, housing prices have increased dramatically and put us more in line with other Portland suburbs that are in good school districts. The end result is that you can drive down one of the main roads in town and see older houses/trailers/etc next to brand new subdivisions full of $500,000+ houses. Most of the latter are occupied by people that moved here from either other parts of Southern Maine or from other states. The former are mostly occupied by residents who have been here for a long time. There isn't really a "good part of town" or "bad part of town", but the difference between the neighborhood subdivisions and the houses that are sitting on the main roads is stark.

Most towns and cities are roughly the same socioeconomic class and most of Maine is lower to middle class. Wealthy summer residents have taken over some notable coastal communities, but they're the outliers. Apart from them a large wealth/class gap isn't as prevalent in Maine as it is in other states like MA, NY, CT.

Small towns have maybe one stop light, most have none,

Small towns do not have a strip mall or grocery store, sometimes have a gas station/convenience store, almost always have a place that sells liquor.

Small towns have at least some unpaved roads.

Small towns have no police department. EMS and Fire are all volunteers and poorly equipped.

Small towns are too far from an urban center for commuting.

Small towns mostly have poor/lower middle class people, there are exceptions.

Small towns do not have dog parks, side walks nor their own high school.

Yes, Maine is not much different than the rest of the country in that regard.

I would say is that in small towns, the center of wealth mass is felt in the entire town, even when there is wealth stratification within the town. Take for example, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Sanford. Thse are three towns that border each other in Southern Maine (York County). In terms of wealth, Kennebunkport is the richest, Kennebunk is second, and Sanford is third. But within each town, you can tell where the rich families live and where those of more modest means live. For example in Kennebunk, the wealthiest tend to be within view of thr water and by extension closest to Kennebunkport where as the more modest income families live further inland near Sanford.

nice