Letter to Kennebec Journal: Maine should take lead in North Woods
The following letter was written about by Tobin and published in the Kennebec Journal on Wednesday, 09 JAN.
Throughout the United States and the world, Maine is known for how it differs from the rest of the United States. This difference, a ban on billboards and building to scale in Maine towns and landscape, has put the Maine experience in a class of its own, earning more for the state than any single development could. But any single development could spoil our reputation for intelligence and self-sufficiency -- and this one is set to do just that.
Maybe it's time to develop the North Woods, but wouldn't you rather the project be managed by Mainers, using quality products and native intelligence over a period of many years, rather than imported drywall and suburban road maps from Seattle over a period of one year?
Can't Augusta come up with its own plan and its own financing? Why should Maine get financing from Seattle? Obviously, Maine has much to offer -- why give it up for a year of good work and a lifetime of low-paying, meaningless jobs?
You get one chance to do development right.
We have enough Plum Creek-style developments in the lower 48 to know this: It's ugly. It's cheap. And it ain't built to last.
In Maine, this is how we're different: If we're going to build something, we do it once, we do it right and we do it ourselves.
That way the big checks written in 2012 get sent to Millinocket and Augusta, not Seattle and China.
Tobin Brogunier
Minneapolis, Minn.
Throughout the United States and the world, Maine is known for how it differs from the rest of the United States. This difference, a ban on billboards and building to scale in Maine towns and landscape, has put the Maine experience in a class of its own, earning more for the state than any single development could. But any single development could spoil our reputation for intelligence and self-sufficiency -- and this one is set to do just that.
Maybe it's time to develop the North Woods, but wouldn't you rather the project be managed by Mainers, using quality products and native intelligence over a period of many years, rather than imported drywall and suburban road maps from Seattle over a period of one year?
Can't Augusta come up with its own plan and its own financing? Why should Maine get financing from Seattle? Obviously, Maine has much to offer -- why give it up for a year of good work and a lifetime of low-paying, meaningless jobs?
You get one chance to do development right.
We have enough Plum Creek-style developments in the lower 48 to know this: It's ugly. It's cheap. And it ain't built to last.
In Maine, this is how we're different: If we're going to build something, we do it once, we do it right and we do it ourselves.
That way the big checks written in 2012 get sent to Millinocket and Augusta, not Seattle and China.
Tobin Brogunier
Minneapolis, Minn.
posted by tobin at
3:58 PM
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