Portland has changed since when I lived there. Bought my own ashram north of it in nature and the wildlife is abundant. Moving to Thailand now and many thanks to all the Mainers that have guided me over the years. And I would be remiss not to mention the rich recovery community /12 step fellowship provided here 🙏🏻
Wow! What an incredible eye-opener for me. I worked at Maine Medical Center in 1997, 1998, and 1999 as an Operating Room Nurse - and loved it. Lived only 1-2 miles from the hospital on Brighton Avenue. Absolutely loved working and living here. Left in 1999 to come back to my hometown of Pittsburgh. Now in 2024, based on your video, I'd never live in Portland. Maybe in a smaller surrounding town but not Portland proper. Thank you tremendously for a sad but honest update for an RN who has been gone for a quarter-century. (My politics mirror your own.)
Yeah Portland is ranked one of the best cities to live in but in my opinion it is not. Restaurants, culture, arts, absolutely. To raise a family there, politics, cost. Not for me.
I was born and raised in Windham on Windham Hill. My childhood home town is great: You’re still close to Portland. Developers and builders destroyed Gorham.
Very informative video! I recently visited Portland and like you said, beautiful city, but I get a lot of same impressions of the cons. I'm in the military as well and it sounds like we have similar views on a lot of topics you discussed. I think Maine is beautiful (loved Ogunquit especially), and I'd love to live there down the road, but it'll be at least 10-15 years until i have opportunity to retire from service. Do you have any recommendations of coastal towns or close coastal that are more conservative leaning but also a little more affordable than Ogunquit? Thank you and thanks again for the great video
I live in Westbrook. Love it. It’s a little pricey rent wise but manageable. Unless you have a roommate or a higher paying job, Portland on the other hand is basically a “no go” to live there.
My latest video soon to be published is about five towns. You may want to consider living in if you’re moving to Maine or even a first time homebuyer. Westbrook is one of those towns. It is a little bit on the pricey side but the growth in the vicinity to main largest city, not to mention the jobs in the activities makes Westbrook, a Milltown that used to smell like cabbage and I ideal place to live these days. I’ll have statistics on Westbrook in terms of housing from the low into the high end as well. Coming out in this video soon to be published thanks for the comments.
@@LiveLifeInMaine It was on KRON 4 News which is a local Bay Area station in California. Not sure where they got the study but I'm sure you can inquire.
About a year ago I moved to Maine from the Midwest. I live in New Gloucester. I think its perfect. I love Portland and I go there all the time, but I feel like living there would be too expensive
Maine in general - don’t plan on being able to get an electrician or plumber when you need one in less than a week or more. Forget a dentist for an emergency. Never buy any house that cannot have a wood stove. We lose electricity for days.
A sanctuary means that police serve and protect all people in the city, regardless of their immigration status. If someone is undocumented, they should feel safe to report a crime without worrying about being locked up themselves. It's safer for everyone. At least that's my understanding.
Undocumented means either in the country without proper approval like crossing a boarded illegally or staying beyond permission like a visa expiration. Neither should be permitted.
@@LiveLifeInMaine I'm not saying illegal activity should be permitted, but it is ICE's responsibility to detain them, not local police. I can give you an analogy. Prostitution is illegal. If a prostitute is raped, she can report the crime without fear of being arrested herself for prostitution - it's police policy. It should be the same for immigrants who are here illegally. Otherwise they will perpetually be victimized by criminals who know that they will always get away with it.
I appreciated a few words on the socia/political issues, it’s not really an honest review with out considering these too. We moved away 2019, lived on State street close to the bridge. Single Mom, there’s a lot I love about Portland but, I would never NEVER recommend King middle School or the area I lived on State Street. We’re moving back to South Portland for College and I miss all our big family in Maine! I’m definitely hoping things will be a little more family friendly, currently looking at Willard and ferry areas🤞
You bring up a lot of good pro's and con's. I lifelong Mainer. Unkess you are pretty dang prosperous, you either have a choice: put your kids in a private school and live in a "cheap" apartment or buy a house. You cant have both. Also, having out six kids through public school, I am 100% confident in saying that the growing immigrant population in the schools enriched their education and disnt detract from it. I have the benefitbof having a wide breadth of ages in our kids. A couple went through the achool system before the huge influx of immigrants. So, I think their being oart of our community is a huge plus overall. Good video!
There are a lot of good public schools. If you go to niche.com, you can see the rankings of schools in Maine. Also, Maine is the most affordable in New England
@@LiveLifeInMaine I just ,pved to Maine 8 years ago, and I go to New Hampshire to buy anything large. No sales tax, no state income tax, and prices are cheaper also. Maine is a lot more expensive than you realize.
I just looked up demographics in Portland is 85% white and 9% black and that is American. It’s about 3% Asian and that’s probably American. It only says 4% something else. There’s no native and no Pacific Islander so I’m not sure what he’s talking about. Maybe it’s, some of the Black people from Africa or maybe it’s white people from Ukraine or different Asian countries but that’s predominantly American. I had read that that is very white and very American.
Just got back from spending some time in Portland. Pretty decent food, love the beer scene, people were friendly, love watchibg the Sea Dogs. However, parking was atrocious; the crazy homeless we're everywhere; and the nightlife is non-existent. My friend and I were doing comparisons, and we agreed that almost every category we could think of Charleston, SC has Portland beat. Weather, food, history, architecture, culture, diversity, shopping...it's not even close.
Well i can't speak for Charleston but i would say your experience is right on. Homeless is a problem. They are trying to work on it but portland is suffering from their policies. I also agree parking sucks and nightlife pales in comparison to other parts of the country. Thanks for the comments.
I do not live in Portland. Hence the video. I live in Biddeford which is becoming a mini Portland. Yesi know the OP festival last year was 2019 slbeit dont know why.
Yeah, makes no sense but many things don’t. It seemed to me the OP Festival was getting bigger and bigger. Loved going to them albeit parking was never fun.
According to Maine Association of Realtors the average price of a single family home in Portland Maine in January 2024 was $552,230... Where does this guy get over $1,000,000? Every other source I checked for average price in Jan placed it just squarly over $500K.. Hes got some pretty bad facts
I did not state the houses in Jan 2024 sold for over a million dollars. I said the average List price was over a million. There is a difference between List and Sold Price. Further more there is a difference between average and median. Average is always higher. In Jan 2024 the average sold was 693,696 compared to the median of 475K This data is right from the Multiple Listing Service. If you are a realtor you have the same data, if you are not more than happy to send you the data. Finally just because a house is put on the market at a certain price does not mean it sells for that price. Perhaps you were confused between list and sold which is understandable if you do not do this for a living. Appreciate the comment though. You made me double check. I always pull data first before I make a video.
THE harbor is filled with a gray bacterial sludge and i have never wanted to swim here mostly do to all the torr ships dumping there toilet tanks in the harbor as they visit
Thats a loaded question. Whats your budget? Do you want to be on the coast, lakes or woods. Will you be here all summer, or part of it. What will you do with the house when youre not there,leaving it vacant or renting it out. Depending on your answers will help me give you some ideas
I would look around Manchester, Winthrop, China. That area east or west of Augusta. Beautiful lakes, housing is reasonable. I can set you up on a custom search if you want. A lot of my out of state buyers and people just looking love having that ability.
@@LiveLifeInMaine we are still just looking but are planning a visit to the area sometime soon and will be looking around in the areas that you mentioned… thanks!
Call me what you wish, my belief is we should allow legal Immigration and that process does need to be modified to make it more streamlined. What we have today is not working and having cities that try to adopt policies to circumvent the law of the USofA is not the answer. The best way to be a beacon of hope and to help those less fortunate is to first have your own house in order, otherwise one just adds to the problem and chaos.
I've lived in Portland of and on my whole life. I went to school here in the 90s, and it was horrible. I feel that teachers are not given proper resources now or then. Diversity in students shouldn't be the problem. Lack of school funding is. As for the unhoused explosion you can directly connect that to all of the rent increases we have had to deal with the last 25 years. Out-of-state buyers setting up Airbnb rentals, even people from our own City Council doing the same. Saying we should hide homeless people because they're an eyesore is absolutely disgusting. These are people we are talking about. When I was a taxi driver and I would get tourists in from the airport I would purposely drive by the homeless shelters to show them what Portland was really about . That it wasn't just a cute Seaside City. We are just like everybody else and have the same problems as the rest of America.
As a longtime resident of Phoenix Arizona and having been to Portland several times you have it really good in Portland in regards to illegal immigration, drugs, gangs, cartel violence, and an explosion of people and families becoming unhoused. I get that all things are relative and that compared to the prior days Portland was much better previously. Everywhere was better 20 years ago. If California, the PNW, Colorado, and Arizona are a sign of the future the rest of American cities will face then enjoy the now because the future is a scary place.
lol restaurants designed to completely rip off tourists !! restaurants with over priced lousy cooked food I doubt there’s one professional chef in the whole state.
There is some professional chefs and pretty good restaurants in Portland. Fore Street, Central Provisions just to name a few. Sounds like you have had bad experiences. I agree that none of it is that cheap however
Haha. No but Biddo does have unhoused. City has a shelter for them but during the day they seem to gather around library. It’s a problem yet we send billions to foreign nations instead of taking care of our own house.
Portland Maine if your born here you cant afford to live here don't come to Portland Maine been trapped here for 50 years no one can afford to live here restaurants no authentic Maine food just fufu cute food small serving sizes and over priced rents to high and every 15 years the real-estate people come in like I plague of locusts stay until the market crashes then leave then the poor artiest come back and make it a decent place to live again then the locust return and strip it to the bedrock again I've seen it happen 3 or 4 times before and education in Maine I've seen so many children destroyed by our school system including my self and the immigrants they didn't come here out of choice they were sent here by the republicans who don't them in there local so if your born here you cant afford to live here and you cant afford to leave
Wow, extreme exaggerations of Portland. I don’t see homeless encampments coming into Portland or Commercial St, Deering Oak Park. Do your research before you spread disinformation. Btw, I live on Brandy Pond in Naples. My house is worth maybe on a good day, $450,000. Cheap for a lake house. I am 40 minutes west of downtown Portland.
@ Preble Street is not Deering Oaks Park or commercial Street. It’s the street where most of the homeless social service agencies are located. It’s where they can get services.
So you’re saying at the time that this video was posted there was not an encampment off commercial street on the left when you come into town. I’m not the one spreading disinformation. You are. Portland acts like a sanctuary city though it is not. 76 plus million people just voted wanting a different direction. Portland is awesome to visit and there are a lot of good things. That said, I have many friends that have moved out off Portland due to its cost and other issues like the influx on immigrants, some illegally here. Mayor Dion spoke at a conference I was at a couple of months ago, they need close to 200 more employees to meet the demands like snow plowing and public works. I stand 100% behind my video, nice place to visit, would never move there again if things stay the same.
Portland has changed since when I lived there. Bought my own ashram north of it in nature and the wildlife is abundant. Moving to Thailand now and many thanks to all the Mainers that have guided me over the years. And I would be remiss not to mention the rich recovery community /12 step fellowship provided here 🙏🏻
I've lived in Maine my whole life and I'd rather be in rural than in the city plus there's more crime and drugs
Wow! What an incredible eye-opener for me. I worked at Maine Medical Center in 1997, 1998, and 1999 as an Operating Room Nurse - and loved it. Lived only 1-2 miles from the hospital on Brighton Avenue. Absolutely loved working and living here. Left in 1999 to come back to my hometown of Pittsburgh. Now in 2024, based on your video, I'd never live in Portland. Maybe in a smaller surrounding town but not Portland proper. Thank you tremendously for a sad but honest update for an RN who has been gone for a quarter-century. (My politics mirror your own.)
Yeah Portland is ranked one of the best cities to live in but in my opinion it is not. Restaurants, culture, arts, absolutely. To raise a family there, politics, cost. Not for me.
@@LiveLifeInMaine Grew up in Maine. Moved to Southern NH. I'll stay here.
I was born and raised in Windham on Windham Hill. My childhood home town is great: You’re still close to Portland. Developers and builders destroyed Gorham.
Gorham is not alone. Lots of development happening. 80k houses short. People craving to move here.
Windham has lots of development now too
Very informative video! I recently visited Portland and like you said, beautiful city, but I get a lot of same impressions of the cons. I'm in the military as well and it sounds like we have similar views on a lot of topics you discussed. I think Maine is beautiful (loved Ogunquit especially), and I'd love to live there down the road, but it'll be at least 10-15 years until i have opportunity to retire from service. Do you have any recommendations of coastal towns or close coastal that are more conservative leaning but also a little more affordable than Ogunquit? Thank you and thanks again for the great video
Nothing coastal will be 'affordable' it's where money people want to live when they retire.
I live in Westbrook. Love it. It’s a little pricey rent wise but manageable. Unless you have a roommate or a higher paying job, Portland on the other hand is basically a “no go” to live there.
My latest video soon to be published is about five towns. You may want to consider living in if you’re moving to Maine or even a first time homebuyer. Westbrook is one of those towns. It is a little bit on the pricey side but the growth in the vicinity to main largest city, not to mention the jobs in the activities makes Westbrook, a Milltown that used to smell like cabbage and I ideal place to live these days. I’ll have statistics on Westbrook in terms of housing from the low into the high end as well. Coming out in this video soon to be published thanks for the comments.
@@LiveLifeInMaine Awesome! Looking forward to that! 😊
Fun fact: congress street used to have a beautiful tram to take you across the city.
Live in the surrounding towns, Portland is a shitshow
I have to say I live on the west coast and our news just reported that Portland, ME was the most livable city in the USA.
It beat Boston, San Jose etc
That’s awesome. Please share where you heard that. Like to see what they said
@@LiveLifeInMaine It was on KRON 4 News which is a local Bay Area station in California. Not sure where they got the study but I'm sure you can inquire.
About a year ago I moved to Maine from the Midwest. I live in New Gloucester. I think its perfect. I love Portland and I go there all the time, but I feel like living there would be too expensive
Maine in general - don’t plan on being able to get an electrician or plumber when you need one in less than a week or more. Forget a dentist for an emergency. Never buy any house that cannot have a wood stove. We lose electricity for days.
I have buddies that are in the trades so I never have that problem. Generator for power b
A sanctuary means that police serve and protect all people in the city, regardless of their immigration status. If someone is undocumented, they should feel safe to report a crime without worrying about being locked up themselves. It's safer for everyone. At least that's my understanding.
Undocumented means either in the country without proper approval like crossing a boarded illegally or staying beyond permission like a visa expiration. Neither should be permitted.
@@LiveLifeInMaine I'm not saying illegal activity should be permitted, but it is ICE's responsibility to detain them, not local police. I can give you an analogy. Prostitution is illegal. If a prostitute is raped, she can report the crime without fear of being arrested herself for prostitution - it's police policy. It should be the same for immigrants who are here illegally. Otherwise they will perpetually be victimized by criminals who know that they will always get away with it.
I appreciated a few words on the socia/political issues, it’s not really an honest review with out considering these too. We moved away 2019, lived on State street close to the bridge. Single Mom, there’s a lot I love about Portland but, I would never NEVER recommend King middle School or the area I lived on State Street. We’re moving back to South Portland for College and I miss all our big family in Maine! I’m definitely hoping things will be a little more family friendly, currently looking at Willard and ferry areas🤞
You bring up a lot of good pro's and con's. I lifelong Mainer. Unkess you are pretty dang prosperous, you either have a choice: put your kids in a private school and live in a "cheap" apartment or buy a house. You cant have both.
Also, having out six kids through public school, I am 100% confident in saying that the growing immigrant population in the schools enriched their education and disnt detract from it.
I have the benefitbof having a wide breadth of ages in our kids. A couple went through the achool system before the huge influx of immigrants. So, I think their being oart of our community is a huge plus overall.
Good video!
Hope you house a bunch of them. Put your money where your mouth is.
There are a lot of good public schools. If you go to niche.com, you can see the rankings of schools in Maine. Also, Maine is the most affordable in New England
@@LiveLifeInMaine I just ,pved to Maine 8 years ago, and I go to New Hampshire to buy anything large. No sales tax, no state income tax, and prices are cheaper also. Maine is a lot more expensive than you realize.
Marias restaurant in Portland is not top notch!! Hit up Lewiston if you want Italian food. I highly recommend Davinici's Eatery!!
I just looked up demographics in Portland is 85% white and 9% black and that is American. It’s about 3% Asian and that’s probably American. It only says 4% something else. There’s no native and no Pacific Islander so I’m not sure what he’s talking about. Maybe it’s, some of the Black people from Africa or maybe it’s white people from Ukraine or different Asian countries but that’s predominantly American. I had read that that is very white and very American.
Sanctuary policies.
www.portlandschools.org/department/mlc#:~:text=Currently%2C%20the%20district%20has%20over,60%20different%20languages%20are%20spoken.
Just got back from spending some time in Portland. Pretty decent food, love the beer scene, people were friendly, love watchibg the Sea Dogs. However, parking was atrocious; the crazy homeless we're everywhere; and the nightlife is non-existent. My friend and I were doing comparisons, and we agreed that almost every category we could think of Charleston, SC has Portland beat. Weather, food, history, architecture, culture, diversity, shopping...it's not even close.
Well i can't speak for Charleston but i would say your experience is right on. Homeless is a problem. They are trying to work on it but portland is suffering from their policies. I also agree parking sucks and nightlife pales in comparison to other parts of the country. Thanks for the comments.
Nightranger is the band. What was your hometown?
Biddeford now but grew up in Saco
"i keep tapping my mic i hope that doesnt offend you" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Portland a nice place to visit if you can afford it but you wouldn't want to live here!
You’re not even in Maine until you get north of Freeport. Everything south of Freeport is basically Massachusetts.
Haha. I live south of Freeport, so yes, agree, I live in Northern Mass. apparently I’m now a mainehole
They got rid of the old port festival years ago. Does this guy even live in Portland?
I do not live in Portland. Hence the video. I live in Biddeford which is becoming a mini Portland. Yesi know the OP festival last year was 2019 slbeit dont know why.
@@LiveLifeInMaine It was a major loss for the city.
Yeah, makes no sense but many things don’t. It seemed to me the OP Festival was getting bigger and bigger. Loved going to them albeit parking was never fun.
According to Maine Association of Realtors the average price of a single family home in Portland Maine in January 2024 was $552,230... Where does this guy get over $1,000,000? Every other source I checked for average price in Jan placed it just squarly over $500K.. Hes got some pretty bad facts
I did not state the houses in Jan 2024 sold for over a million dollars. I said the average List price was over a million. There is a difference between List and Sold Price. Further more there is a difference between average and median. Average is always higher. In Jan 2024 the average sold was 693,696 compared to the median of 475K This data is right from the Multiple Listing Service. If you are a realtor you have the same data, if you are not more than happy to send you the data. Finally just because a house is put on the market at a certain price does not mean it sells for that price. Perhaps you were confused between list and sold which is understandable if you do not do this for a living. Appreciate the comment though. You made me double check. I always pull data first before I make a video.
THE harbor is filled with a gray bacterial sludge and i have never wanted to swim here
mostly do to all the torr ships dumping there toilet tanks in the harbor as they visit
Yeah Maine is ridiculous. You pay so much and you get nothing in return cuz there's just so little services provided
Like Washington State
Not a "New Mainer", "From Away" lol
Where in Maine should I look for a summer home?
Thats a loaded question. Whats your budget? Do you want to be on the coast, lakes or woods. Will you be here all summer, or part of it. What will you do with the house when youre not there,leaving it vacant or renting it out. Depending on your answers will help me give you some ideas
@@LiveLifeInMaine 300- 400K, Lake and or woods. Not sure about renting or not...
I would look around Manchester, Winthrop, China. That area east or west of Augusta. Beautiful lakes, housing is reasonable. I can set you up on a custom search if you want. A lot of my out of state buyers and people just looking love having that ability.
@@LiveLifeInMaine we are still just looking but are planning a visit to the area sometime soon and will be looking around in the areas that you mentioned… thanks!
Pittston
Portland is a great city to live in, but you need to have a little money.
A true Trumpster.
Call me what you wish, my belief is we should allow legal
Immigration and that process does need to be modified to make it more streamlined. What we have today is not working and having cities that try to adopt policies to circumvent the law of the USofA is not the answer. The best way to be a beacon of hope and to help those less fortunate is to first have your own house in order, otherwise one just adds to the problem and chaos.
GROW UP. MAINE IS CHANGING FAST NOT FOR THE BETTER .
Calmer than you are
Good for you. What you said about immigration and the homeless needs to be said…repeatedly.
Cities attract both the homeless and migrants, state resources and job opportunities are in the cities. Where else would they go?
I've lived in Portland of and on my whole life. I went to school here in the 90s, and it was horrible. I feel that teachers are not given proper resources now or then. Diversity in students shouldn't be the problem. Lack of school funding is. As for the unhoused explosion you can directly connect that to all of the rent increases we have had to deal with the last 25 years. Out-of-state buyers setting up Airbnb rentals, even people from our own City Council doing the same. Saying we should hide homeless people because they're an eyesore is absolutely disgusting. These are people we are talking about. When I was a taxi driver and I would get tourists in from the airport I would purposely drive by the homeless shelters to show them what Portland was really about . That it wasn't just a cute Seaside City. We are just like everybody else and have the same problems as the rest of America.
As a longtime resident of Phoenix Arizona and having been to Portland several times you have it really good in Portland in regards to illegal immigration, drugs, gangs, cartel violence, and an explosion of people and families becoming unhoused. I get that all things are relative and that compared to the prior days Portland was much better previously. Everywhere was better 20 years ago. If California, the PNW, Colorado, and Arizona are a sign of the future the rest of American cities will face then enjoy the now because the future is a scary place.
lol restaurants designed to completely rip off tourists !! restaurants with over priced lousy cooked food I doubt there’s one professional chef in the whole state.
There is some professional chefs and pretty good restaurants in Portland. Fore Street, Central Provisions just to name a few. Sounds like you have had bad experiences. I agree that none of it is that cheap however
Didnt Portland's homeless move to biddo
Haha. No but Biddo does have unhoused. City has a shelter for them but during the day they seem to gather around library. It’s a problem yet we send billions to foreign nations instead of taking care of our own house.
smelly
Average….???? Yeeks. Four of my five grandchildren have/are grown in Portland because their parents got there in time.
Portland Maine if your born here you cant afford to live here don't come to Portland Maine been trapped here for 50 years no one can afford to live here restaurants no authentic Maine food just fufu cute food small serving sizes and over priced rents to high and every 15 years the real-estate people come in like I plague of locusts stay until the market crashes then leave then the poor artiest come back and make it a decent place to live again then the locust return and strip it to the bedrock again I've seen it happen 3 or 4 times before and education in Maine I've seen so many children destroyed by our school system including my self and the immigrants they didn't come here out of choice they were sent here by the republicans who don't them in there local so if your born here you cant afford to live here and you cant afford to leave
@@IAINANDERSEN this was the longest rundown sentence I’ve ever seen. Apparently you’re right. Portland didn’t help your education.
Wow, extreme exaggerations of Portland. I don’t see homeless encampments coming into Portland or Commercial St, Deering Oak Park. Do your research before you spread disinformation. Btw, I live on Brandy Pond in Naples. My house is worth maybe on a good day, $450,000. Cheap for a lake house. I am 40 minutes west of downtown Portland.
I disagree then. Maybe now. apnews.com/article/portland-maine-homeless-encampments-934776f9ce3ff7c8a6eb7f066bad65f2
The police pushed them out. I live off of preble street.
@ Preble Street is not Deering Oaks Park or commercial Street. It’s the street where most of the homeless social service agencies are located. It’s where they can get services.
So you’re saying at the time that this video was posted there was not an encampment off commercial street on the left when you come into town. I’m not the one spreading disinformation. You are. Portland acts like a sanctuary city though it is not. 76 plus million people just voted wanting a different direction. Portland is awesome to visit and there are a lot of good things. That said, I have many friends that have moved out off Portland due to its cost and other issues like the influx on immigrants, some illegally here. Mayor Dion spoke at a conference I was at a couple of months ago, they need close to 200 more employees to meet the demands like snow plowing and public works. I stand 100% behind my video, nice place to visit, would never move there again if things stay the same.