And FYI: you're ableist. Congratulations on shitting on a vulnerable minority of society and expressing your vile hatred for them! You must feel so proud of yourself!

It was expected for most people to participate in at least one sport when I was growing up. Parents don't put that pressure on their kids as much anymore.

The trashiness is what makes it great, tbh

Link for those who need help getting over a paywall

Legendary

In my defense, I was thinking more of business commuter thing to save 2 of those hours .

EDIT : Wow ! I should have refreshed before I posted ! OK, I get it bad idea, lobstah .

There are cheap af bus rides as well, and it's really not a bad experience... It's not far at all

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🤣🤣. I was trying to be nice as the woman my husband and I saw , was hard not to notice that they may,,may fall out.

Weird

Wow. OBB sucks so bad they have to force people to stay two nights because everyone is sick of it after one day.

She’s amazing too!!

DJ Gforce is where it’s at! Get my girl at your wedding✨✨✨✨

DJ Tiny Dancer

The new amphitheater is going to be a nice jolt to the economy. The waterfront concert series already brought in big acts, but the quality of the venue can really be a driving force behind how many major acts want to come because they know thier fan bases will travel for an exceptional experience. Coming from the mass seacoast I’d go see my favorite band there whenever they’d play but the experience was shit. It was just a park with a fence around it and a temporary barebones stage for the summer. It’s a 4 hour drive for me and honestly I’d rather take a 4 hour flight to Denver and see them play dicks or red rocks. I went and saw them(phish) again during the new renovations by Maine savings. It was a shit show. They weren’t ready to be hosting concerts, especially sell outs. Everything was half built, no concessions, complete anarchy at the entrances. That being said I’ve worked in the music industry a long time and have even helped installed PA’s a new major venues. Just from seeing the shell of what they’re creating there last summer, I can tell you Bangor is about to have a real marquee outdoor music venue that will entice bands traveling fan bases from around the country. Bangor has always been the “skip” date for those traveling on phish tour. Too far off the path and an uninspiring venue experience. One of the very few venues they do not sell out. When they finish those renovations that narrative is going to change quickly. It was too early too definitively tell what the end result will look like and how it will operate, but from what k saw last summer I think when it’s all complete and running as intended Bangor is going to have the most sought after booking in New England other than Boston.

Living for “robust” 🤣

You have clearly never lived in the Western United States.

The new Maine savings amphitheater is going to be a big draw for Bangor. I’m over in New Hampshire and also lived on the north shore of mass for a long time. I would only ever visit Bangor as a stop over in or out of bar harbor. Then phish started playing the waterfront concert series. So I went up for a couple shows and apart from my favorite band the experience was underwhelming because it was just a park fenced off with a temporary stage built for the summer. Nothing to write home about or make me want to drive up for other major touring bands. When I went up last summer for phish again during the renovations by Maine savings bank, I was blown away. As someone who works in live music production I can speak to what a world class music venue can do for a small city. The shows I saw last summer were a shit show. They really shouldn’t have been doing shows, they weren’t ready. It was only half built and there was no organization what so ever, but what was cool to see is the vision. If that venue ends up looking like and operating like I think it’s going to Bangor is about to have the most sought after booking north of Boston. They were already attracting some big acts but the venue wasn’t worth the drive. Even just seeing the shell of what it’s going to be last summer, unless they royally screw or up, there’s going to be a national marquee music venue in town that will have people traveling from all over the country.

I think this is the correct answer. It comes down to cash flow. Bangor doesn’t have anywhere near as much to draw from.

That’s never going to be economically viable. The best you could get would be an 8 seater like Cape Air flys between Trenton and Boston, and I doubt enough people are going to pay $150 one way to fly BGR to PWM to fill one of those.

Downtown Bangor is way better than it was 20 years ago. Multiple buildings that were unoccupied other than ground floor retail have since been renovated to high end apartments.

25 years ago downtown Bangor had multiple massage parlors openly offering “happy endings”. Now there are actually decent restaurants and nice apartments downtown.

I don’t think I’d say it’s on the decline. It’s just that it’s remoteness and smaller population means it’s pretty far behind Portland.

I live in the Palmyra area, Somerset county. Belfast is 50 minutes away and Bigelow Preserve (AT trail goes through there, 4k mountains). Bangor and Waterville are both 30 minutes away for all shopping needs. Obviously the big cities are far away but life up here is fantastic. You can even see the big mountains from here.

The narrative about declining college-age students is only partly true, at least for the next few years. The decline in HS class sizes is being offset by increases in graduation rates. So the total number of HS grads isn't declining too much (yet). This will probably change by 2025 though, both as a national trend and in Maine. I was just doing some casual research on this topic lately, and was surprised it's not as dire as people seem to think.

Not disagreeing about all the missed potential it seems like there is with UMO, or the U Maine system in general.

I had a high school friend who lived in OOB with his dad in a tiny apartment. Just from looking at the outside, I had to wonder 1) how that fit the both of them and 2) how they survived the cold of winters as well as crowded summers.

Myself, I've gone to OOB quite a bit. They had a bonfire event that was pretty neat, and so were the fireworks, but it wasn't eye-popping or anything. And going during the day was absolute hell, at least 5-10 years ago.

I'd much rather go to Ferry Beach down the road. Much calmer. The food is probably the best thing about OOB.

ISO rock climbing guides. I’ll be staying in the Trickey Pond/ Naples area this summer, but don’t mind a bit of a drive to get to good rock. Any recommendations?