January 12, 2015 — Stubbornness isn’t typically looked at as a virtuous character trait, but in regards to Portland’s working waterfront, it might be the saving grace for what remains of the local lobstering and fishing industries.
As new restaurants continue to open up and luxury condos continue to be built all over the old wharves that this city was built on, rising rent costs and an ever-decreasing fleet of local fishing boats have forced more and more of the traditional marine based tenants from the waterfront.
Thanks in large part to the Waterfront Protection Ordinance, which was passed in the 80′s despite a strong campaign mounted under the idea that it would “destroy business”, the remnants of what was once a thriving fishing fleet still exist in Portland, but it’s fair to say that the WPO’s overall effect has been merely to discourage non-marine uses on the waterfront, rather than guaranteeing the preservation of the fishing and lobstering industries there.
Barring a purchase by the city or state of the wharves- an idea that Portland’s Deputy Harbor Master, Lance Hannah thinks, “isn’t crazy, but would probably never get approved by the tax payers”- the people who truly control the fate of the working waterfront are the wharf owners themselves.
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News