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What part of Maine were in, Ammonite, if you don't mind my asking? Some of what you list as a con actually sound appealing to me, but to each his own. The unfriendliness of the people certainly strikes me as disturbing, though I've heard others say the exact opposite. Perhaps it had something to do with the particular area you were in?
Ammonite, why don't you tell us how you REALLY feel. (Just kiddin'!) We tried for years to move to Maine. After several visits, we also fell in love with the state. My husband is in retail management, and after sending his resume to every possible place of employment throughout Maine, he finally got a call to interview for a position in Rockland. Unfortunately that call didn't come until a year after we sent out the resumes. So by that time hubby had already accepted a position in North Carolina, which is where we now live. We had done a lot of research on NC too and read a lot of message boards. For the most part everyone made NC out to be a utopia, but once we actually moved here we realized it's just okay, no better or worse than Wisconsin, which is where we're from. I'll always carry a torch for Maine and I'm convinced that we'll end up living there someday. I guess there's really no point to this post, except to say that make the best of where you live. And all the research in the world won't prepare you for what it's really like to live in another state.
Mark S., I lived in Brunswick, which seemed to be one of the more cosmopolitan places (relatively speaking), and less pricey than Portland, which is insanely expensive.
holt4fam, I completely agree with you. Nowhere turns out to be what you have imagined it to be, and there's wisdom in making the best of what you have. I do think, though, that certain places get under people's skin, which is what happened with Maine, me, and my wife. It's almost as though you have to go through with it to prove to your heart what your brain has been telling you all along.
Ammonite – I must say I appreciate and respect your honesty. But wow, I never looked at Maine that way! It’s funny you should mention the things you did because those are exactly the things I’ve been hearing lately that have made me start second-guessing. I must say however, I disagree with you about south Jersey’s charm (being a life-long “Jerseyan”, I know the nice and not-so-nice areas of Jersey whether it be mountains or beaches. However, I hate the Jersey shore. For an out-of-stater, it might be nice since we have all those resorts, boardwalks, rides, restaurants, you name it. But I’ve always been an Ocean City, MD girl myself. Started going there about 20 years ago with the parents when I was just entering my teens and now the hubby and I bring our kids. Don’t think I’ll ever trade in Ocean City for anything though, unless people start to change that too). Anyway, you’re correct, high taxes do not shock me and they probably aren’t as bad as here, but I would like to avoid high taxes as much as the next guy, believe me! I do beg to differ though about my expectations being lower, they were so high I feel like I’m now being dumped out of a plane without a parachute! Although we’ve yet to visit, I have a close friend who lives there, so I’ve seen pictures, video, etc. I’ve done research on the computer and quite honestly, if my husband said “let’s go” I’d have been there with my eyes closed. It was ‘the only’ place for me. And it still might be, but I am becoming dismayed. I’m starting to reform the opinion that I had of Maine about 20 years ago when I started reading SK books. I pictured everything to look kind of like his description of “Derry” or “Castle Rock”- old, quiet and in dire need of some “getting with the times”. I’m sure it’s not quite like that and my opinion is of course higher than that, but it’s sinking. Brunswick was one of the towns we were looking into, as well as Gorham, Falmouth, Yarmouth & N. Yarmouth. I am surprised however that you thought of the locals as miserable, unfriendly or snobby. I guess I could see that (I suppose everywhere you go has a few of them at least) but I really didn’t think it. I guess coming from around here, you assume the rest of the world must be nice. Thank you though for all of your advice.
Holt4fam – I agree with you about research not preparing you for actually living somewhere else. Regardless of whether we want to believe it or not, we do become “products” of our environment and I think no matter how ready we might be to move on, deep inside there’s that little part of you that isn’t ready or doesn’t move on and it tends to sneak up on you!! I guess if it’s the right place though, you’ll know it and like Mark S. said, some of Ammonite’s cons sounded like pro’s to him. They say (for lack of a better quote) one person’s trash is another one’s treasure.
I had posted before that my husband was big on moving to Maine but I was lukewarm at best.
Well, I encouraged him to accept the job he was offered and we would stay behind to sell the house and let the kids finish school.
He went up there and after 1 month is ready to come home, for many of the same reasons Ammonite posted.
He is in health care and yes they are begging for health care workers up there. But the pay is relatively low and the state income tax rate was 8.5%!!
I work for the state here and pay $180.00 per month for excellent health care for the whole family. There, his family premium would have been $249.00 every two weeks.
What bugged him the most was the socialist health care system--Maine Care. Everyone earning up to $70,000.00 is basically eligible for free health care. As the old saw goes, you don't appreciate what you don't earn.
Anyway, Maine is out for us and I am happy that we all didn't get up there and make a huge mistake! I can handle the heat, humidity and hurricanes because I pay no state income tax and pay for my own health care.
I strongly agree with almost everything Ammonite posted....my exception would be with regard to the "rude people" comment. I have lived here 14 years and can't say I've found people to be rude....I do think the natives are somewhat stand-offish until they get to know you, and some in the lower income brackets seem to be quite resentful of people "from away". But overall, my experience with people here was quite good.
But I could not have said it better, with regards to the comments on the economy, business climate, schools and the ridiculous emphasis on local control, which results in a huge amount of redundant services. This is the one of the main reason that Maine has fallen so far behind it's neighbors economically. I really fear for the economic future of this state, I think it's in big trouble....one reason we are leaving now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GatorGirl
What bugged him the most was the socialist health care system--Maine Care. Everyone earning up to $70,000.00 is basically eligible for free health care. As the old saw goes, you don't appreciate what you don't earn.
pixieshmoo, you asked me in another thread why I said sarcastically called Maine a welfare state.....the above is one reason; there are several others. I actually know people who moved here just to take advantage of all these services. And guess who gets to pay for it...
Last edited by Marka; 05-10-2006 at 11:54 AM..
Reason: merged
Hi Everyone:
I have to say I am also now more confused, after all of these posts, than ever before. Here's our story:
My husband and I (both teachers, late 30s) dreamed of a better place than crowded, crime infested, hurricane-central, South Florida to raise our two small children (1 1/2 and 3 1/2). We have been doing EXTENSIVE research on THE perfect place (while realizing of course, there IS no PERFECT place) but after YEARS of looking, reading and researching we set our sights on Portland, Maine. We have made 4 scouting trips to Portland all in the winter so as not to be naive about the weather. We loved everything we saw. We met many nice people and some stand-offish types as well. Of all our hesitations about moving the one we were most concerned with was the cliqueness among the people living in Maine. I know that there is a big distinction between being from Maine and being "from away". I finally overcame my fear with that because my rationale was that having two small children we would certainly meet friends. So, we finally made the decision to move, and we have put our house on the market! All of this BEFORE finding actually securing a job! We were told by numerous people that we would have no problem whatsoever finding teaching jobs as "Maine is desparate to hire teachers". We are both master teachers with the highest evaluations possible and neither one of us has had as much as a call back (let alone an interview).....nothing from dozens and dozens of applications completed. My suspicion is that our Florida address is a bit of a deterrent in the hiring process but I am too scared to move without a secure position, especially having read all of these postings. So, now I don't know what we will do. I was comforted by the fact that so many others all felt life in Maine was idyllic. I guess we are all searching for that one Utopia.
Thoughts?????
Suggestions???????????
Help?????????
My suspicion is that our Florida address is a bit of a deterrent in the hiring process
I've never lived in Maine. (Like you, I'm hoping to get there.) But in this, I suspect you are right. Employers, no matter who they are, are always going to prefer a local candidate over someone that they have to wait to move.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bellasmom
I guess we are all searching for that one Utopia.
Thoughts?????
Suggestions???????????
Help?????????
Well, if you find Utopia, let us know. I don't think it exists.
It all very much depends on what you are looking for. Myself, I wouldn't choose Portland as a place to raise a family, simply because of the rather high crime rate, and I tend to prefer smaller towns over cities. But that's me. My family and I are looking more toward the northern communities.
That being said, there are places in Minnesota to which I would gladly move. But if you can't take the winter, it's definitely a place to avoid.
So in the end it all depends on what you want. If your heart is set on Portland, you can make it work.
Location: East Texas, with the Clan of the Cave Bear
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Wow !!!!!
I just happened upon this while researching something else and got enthralled by this thread........and obviously had to throw my $.02 into the ring. I TOO have been researching moving to either Me. or NH (in my case it would be moving back to Maine.) As I read through the thread I kept asking myself how could I word my opinion of the place. Lo and behold along comes Ammonite.......and.....BINGO!!!!
I only lived in the Bangor area 1996-1998. My wife is form New Brunswick, Can. and we moved up there because of her mother's health (from Texas). The beauty of the place is breathtaking. I'm a huge outdoors person and that aspect of being a Maniac was wicked good! I even did OK with the cold despite living most of my life in the South. We had no problems with jobs as we we're both experienced RN's. We rented and rent was high ($800/mo) for a 2BR small apt......would've been $450 in Tx). To register our 1995 Ford Probe for a year was $500. State sales tax, state income tax, and from what my friends told me a high property tax....tax, tax, tax.....there's a reason they're #1 most unfriendly tax state.
Although one of my best friends lives there and I still go up there at least once a year to visit for the most part people were anywhere from very cool attitde toward new people to downright hateful/rude (had a co-worker invite almost all the staff in our unit to a bar-BQ.....left out ALL the out of staters). As far as drugs.....I saw none and heard very little of it. Very little violent crime (I worked in the critical care unit and had a good sense of the amount of violence from our admissions). Maine is consistently one of the best ranked states for low crime rates. My assessment pretty much paralells Annonite's. So if you're thick skinned, can handle 6 months of real winter, and have your career lined out and finances secured I'd say go for it. I
I live a bunch cheaper in Texas and for the most part the people are tons friendlier ...... where I live total strangers wave when we pass on the country lanes so I was a bit shocked........you may not be used to people being openly friendly so you may not be as affected by folks giving you the cold shoulder but if I didn't have issues with peoples' attitudes there I would consider biting the financial bullet to move back .
None of you are helping me!!!!!!!!!!!!! No, you all are, but I'm still back and forth. I know your sales tax is higher than ours, double I think. So cost of living is probably not as good generally speaking. $500/year to register your car? That's insane, we pay $68 per year in Jersey!!!! From what I've seen on the internet, property taxes are much cheaper than here, and for the most part you get more for your money on homes and property size. But again, that sales tax and the cost of living..... I'm not worried about people, luckily for me, I'm from Northern NJ, so we deal with NJ and NY ALL THE TIME. Some of the nicest people in the world are here, and some of the nastiest. I'm also one of those people (in case you couldn't tell from all my posts) that could find something to talk about if I was alone in a cardboard box! And we too have young children, so chances are, we'd make a few friends. But jobs, now that's scaring me. I don't know squat about many government jobs, neither one of us has anything to do with hospitals unless we're patients there, we're not farmers and neither one of us could fish for anything bigger than a flounder or bass with a fishing pole, so no lobster fisherman here. So what's left? From what I've heard in here, not much. My husband is a general contractor, so he might survive (at least spring through fall), me, well, I'm a jack of all trades, master of none. I have my real estate license (that's a plus), and my own home decor party business (rumor has it, that would be a flop in Maine). I wouldn't want to go back to office work because I've been out of it for so long, I would honestly feel restricted after having such flexibility, plus, depending on what type of office, I don't think I'd make the money there that I made here. Plus, with the kids, if daycare is priced anything like here, that's where my measly paycheck would go.
Also, I'm not big on the whole welfare situation that was described in this forum. Hey, if you need it, you need it. And for people who have worked hard and paid taxes, God forbid something happens and they need it, well, it's justified. But to move there to take advantage of taxpayer's money, no way, people do that enough here in Jersey, it's a shame the amount of people on welfare (but they manage to keep having more kids while still not finding a job ).
I don't think Utopia exists either, however, I thought Maine was a much closer comparison to it than NJ. I've been doing research for over a year. I was so hyped about Maine. But I came in here and started this thread because I wanted "real" people's opinions, not just statistics and website info. I suppose you could say "Well, you asked for it, pixie", but I'm glad I'm finding out the realities of Maine. I guess my heart is getting broken, but I'm better off knowing what I know now so that even if we decide to go for Maine, we don't go into it with blinders on. We know more about what to expect now. And it is still considered one of the best places to raise children. Depending on what we, as adults, do for our children, that will set the course for the kind of people they grow up to be and how well they prosper. Maybe all of the people looking to relocate there will help Maine grow to be a more "prosperous" place while maintaining it's nice reputation and quaintness. (No intentions of offending anyone, just basing it's financial prosperity on what I've heard in here).
I'm an outdoors person too, but unfortunately right now, I get the impression that that would be the only thing Maine and I have in common.
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Ammonite's Impressions of Maine
Frustrated by what I have read !!!
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