No one's going to work remotely on shitty DSL or unreliable starlink, which is all you get on large swaths of rural Maine. Remote workers with $$ want access to actual amenities.

LD 2003 is gonna hit these people like a ton of bricks when they see the amount of density that'll be possible downtown.

Easier access the Boston metro and its multi billion dollar economy, thus better wages and earnings potential.

There's something in this state that I call snow-machismo, when certain individuals, usually men, need to prove their driving badassery in winter weather by driving way over a reasonable speed for the conditions. Correlates highly with jeeps, lifted trucks, and loud Subarus FWIW.

With climate migration, that population density will come, but it's still a generation away.

You need rezonings to allow additional residential construction so that the potential ridership is higher. But for that to even matter, there needs to be at least some market pressure for more residences there due to good job opportunities, which there really aren't in Bangor's moribund local economy. But jobs, housing, ridership, and new rail service is the order of operations.

They're all part time, have no staff, and make shit money for the work involved, for what it's worth.

2024 delivery sounds like they consider the entitlements process to be achievable despite the usual hysterics from abutters. Still, Katniss hand symbol

"people from away"

Yeah this is a site plan review failure by the city. Guarantee that there's some city standard for parking lot design that isn't met by this, it's a safety/fire access hazard. Last thing you need is some ambulance hitting it at night.

Maine, after having a kid and wanting to be closer to his grandparents, who retired up this way. Left a sweet City job and pension behind to do it, but it has made daily life easier (if markedly less exciting/interesting).

As someone that once lived a short walk from here and moved away a while back, this is beautiful.

If only we could get a Liebman's Deli up this way, preferably run by actual Jewish folks and not Matty from Ska'bro.

I have a friend that is a Senior Consultant there. She seems to like it enough, although she frequently logs in on evenings and weekends (and has a small child too, so not ideal). Curious why you'd choose them and not just work remotely or hybrid for Deloitte, Accenture, etc. where the pay scale is way better.

You don't need to work at FAANG to be gainfully employed in the tech sector. Or even be able to code for that matter.

Why on earth would you seek out backbreaking labor when you could learn a few programming languages via a boot camp, get some certs, build a few projects in GitHub, and make $80k a year?

This is where we part ways culturally, I think. But I do know a few ethnic Russians and other eastern Europeans who are just like this, and the "nod" + stoic facial expressions/mannerisms must be a cold climate European stock thing.

I've had enough interactions here to know that a decent number of white Mainers are uncomfortable around POC. So some of the time? Sure. The downvotes are a great way of telling who's who.

It's seven months of the year here - maybe time for a winter activity/sport so you can stay engaged and have something to look forward to?

Actually - I think there's a whole lot of undiagnosed SAD in this state and region that kicks in for people around this time of year. A light box is literally life changing.

Is it fake? Or is it just a basic social nicety and lubricant that can make one's day just a tiny increment better and brighter?

That is actually a super interesting and astute point on the tradition of cultural stocisim and how it manifests itself in daily interactions that I hadn't considered. Obviously it's not an exuberant and "talk with your hands" culture, but when you spend day in and day out around people who look just... vaguely unhappy, it can start to impact your own mood.

All of this predates COVID, inflation, etc so any attempt to pin it on that - no.

Yeah. It's totally possible that they've got a phobia of brown folks - wouldn't be the first time that it's happened in my years in this state. Maybe you're one of them?