A Look Back: Forget QOL, the ‘damp weather’ kills us
There’s a common perception that Maine’s economy is held back by high taxes, but a story about site-location consultants from the Mainebiz issue of April 26, 2004, offered a different, possibly more sobering view. Businesses thinking of moving here wanted direct flights, not connecting flights. They wanted to save on labor costs. And a Cleveland-based consultant had this to say: “Maine strikes me as in limbo. The concentration of power and people [in the U.S.] is in the Northeast. Maine is not very far from that … but at the same time, Maine’s got this lesser-developed feel about it. Why isn’t there more stuff there?” Quality of life, he continued, can only get you so far. “It doesn’t play well to everybody and only applies to a small number of projects where the retention and attraction of highly trained individuals is important. It’s the cold, damp weather. There aren’t many people who like that stuff.”
Fun Fact: Blockbuster, which at one time had 9,000 video-rental stores, seems all but forgotten now, but it was only 2012 when area stores closed down. According to the Mainebiz of Feb. 20 of that year, locations in South Portland, Westbrook and Lewiston rented their last videos and closed. Guess we can throw out the VCR.
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments