It’s time to take the “Civic” out of the Center

  Portland was looking pretty down and out back in the mid-seventies. The forest city had just gone through a brutal period of Urban Renewal; Results of which saw the severing of the city in two by an interstate, a massive swath of Bayside obliterated with the Franklin Art and the removal of many blocks in the center of the city to make way for the Spring Street jetliner runway.

  For the latter, I can imagine the area “powers that be” decided they needed something to jazz the street up and bring it to life. Also, Portland didn’t have a venue larger than 3,000 seats with which to attract national acts that would bring people with their money into the city.

  In 1977, the Cumberland County Civic Center was born.

  And at the time, it was not only a great idea but sorely needed. Things here in Portland then seemed like they do now in places like Las Vegas. The economy just quickly died, leaving a formerly prosperous city figuring out what to do about it. And to a huge degree, the Civic Center and the business it brought here helped to make today’s Portland one of the most (long-term) economically viable and desirable places in this country to live.

  But the whole Greater Portland area has grown up from those times. We have morphed from a little city with a bunch of farmland around it to the economic nucleus which props-up the rest of this state, no matter what our Governor might think of us. We no longer need to publically subsidize large multi-purpose spaces.

  You only need to look to the awesome plan for Thompson’s Point for proof. While this wouldn’t be the case 30 years ago, Portland is viable enough now for a group of private investors to spend massive amounts of money to build an arena ten times better than the Civic Center that can perform all its major functions.

  It’s time to open the whole drab Civic Center area up to investors that could potentially create another awesome project out of it. Government is learning right now that they can’t build and operate this kind of project any more, and probably shouldn’t have in the first place. So, here we are. Now, we need to convince our government to get out of the arena business and put it up for sale. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still spend the 33 million dollars you might, but shouldn’t decide to spend to renovate it.

  That kind of money needs to be spent to further improve Portland’s future. The money could go a long way to building a light rail trolley system that has tracks coming in from Westbrook, Riverton, No Deering, the Jetport and South Portland. You could even use it to do something radical with the Franklin Street corridor. With homelessness on the rise, a permanent homeless solution could be found and funded, enabling the further revitalization of the Elm/Preble/Oxford portion of Bayside. Most of all, we could feed every mouth in this region by quickly re-establishing our local food system that grows and raises everything we need within a quick horse cart ride.

  But for any government entity to continue to publically subsidize these types of large twentieth century public arenas, when as we’re seeing now everywhere with debt that publicly subsiding anything doesn’t sustain itself long-term, seems like a bad idea to me. That money, that reported ten extra dollars on the county portion of the property tax bill, can be better spent elsewhere.

What will the game changer be?

  I feel that we’re in a moment of flux. The bread and circuses parade that is one-two-ing us at every turn with murder trials of pretty white girls, perjury trials of sports figures, rape trials of top level monetary policy makers, ineffectual congressmen and media conglomerate malfeasance is swamping the airwaves. Everything presented to us feels contrived in a fashion that seems to serve one purpose: To focus our instinctual abilities away from what may lie ahead.

  A few weeks ago I asked if “you could feel it,” but found out from readers that while there was certainly a feeling of something not right in the world, it was impossible to put a finger on exactly what “it” is.

  Human nature is a phenomenal force in this universe. One of the most phenomenal things about it is that as a human, you are remiss to try to explain in a five paragraph essay its intricacies, and an attempt to do so would be an act of arrogance. Sometimes our place in this world is best explained in one’s gut; on your own and to yourself. In my gut I know that everything we’re being spoon-fed by the media machine in these last ten years has nothing to do with, and is not sufficiently preparing us for what’s to come.

  What my inner gut is telling me when I talk to people, when I stop to feel how nature is acting while outside gardening, when I read what people in local humanitarian organizations are saying, is that people are sensing something big is afoot - A game changer. But in what form will that game changer manifest itself?

  Will it be governmental? Will government end its corruptive ways on its own and return itself to being for and by the people without the engagement of the citizenry? It seems as if the United States has passed the point of no return in this regard. Will it come in the form of a massive change in our government with the help of a modern-day Spartacus to lead us to revolution? There is certainly a case to be made for that in the history annals of human civilization. Will government perform yet another black flag operation to further oppress us and take away more of our freedoms? Nothing hides economic malaise better than an allowed attack on a harbor or a metropolitan building complex to provide tens of thousands of jobs in the industrial military complex or in airports ripping off Grammy’s diaper.

  Will it be natural? Will the changes to our earth increase at a faster clip? The weather over the last few years and the steady increase in seismic activity certainly adds to the feeling. Massive dust storms in Phoenix and massive draught in many parts of the world are even making the headlines on a daily basis.

  Or, will it be cosmic? Will there be something to Hopi prophecy and the end of the Mayan calendar? Could it be that we are witnessing the death throes of a global control structure designed to oppress? Everything we think we know and have been told or taught could be deemed unimportant and we could be playing witness to a human enlightenment that reveals the truths about ourselves and our place in the universe. We could potentially be the witnesses of something beautiful. God, I truly hope that is what this feeling is. I can’t take an extension and continuation of the now; and a World War exploding out of the untelevised monetary, resource and cyber battles going on between the sovereigns of the world right now is something no sane human being wants.

  Whatever the game changer may be, this surreal period in time we find ourselves living will be rapidly exposed for what it is or isn’t. My gut is telling me that “it,” in whatever form “it” takes, is going to make itself known sooner rather than later. I can’t wait.

  So if you can feel it, hang in there. “It” is coming soon.

Scuttling the Hannaford brand is ‘essentially’ hard to swallow

  Three weeks ago my wife, son and I were enjoying dinner at a friend’s home when I noticed the latest addition to their mustard collection. My friend Drew is somewhat of a mustard connoisseur. We both believe that our mustards need to be hot – very hot. Hot enough to require the assistance of the fire department-hot. We discussed different mustard brand names when the conversation turned into a discussion of different brand names in general. Then, Drew turned to me and said “What I really don’t like is how Hannaford has replaced their Hannaford brand with something called My Essentials.”

  This was news to me. I usually go grocery shopping once every two weeks. I told him that I hadn’t seen the My Essentials cans on the shelves at my Forest Ave Hannaford and supposed that he was mistaken and the My Essentials was just an additional brand brought into the store. I couldn’t imagine that Hannaford Brothers would scuttle a long-known brand that to a lot of Mainers is considered a “name brand,” as opposed to a cheap-looking “store brand” like, say, Wal-mart’s “Great Value.”

  Come to find out, Drew was right.

Saying 'so long' to yet another Maine brand

  I was at the Forest Ave Hannaford last Saturday morning doing my “grocery thang.” I navigated through the veggies, grabbed a couple things from the deli and rounded isle four to grab a couple cans of Hannaford French-Style Green Beans. I looked down to the middle row where before me was a sea of canned green beans and couldn’t find it. Focusing harder, there it was. The My Essentials French Style Green Beans stacked oh so neatly with a little one inch by one inch sticker that confirmed Drew’s story. The sign read, printed in a super-small 6 point font, “This My Essentials product has replaced the Hannaford Brand.”

  I picked up a can and gave it a gander. It was cheap-looking. The font describing the product, the picture of the beans and the white background looked as though they had been focus-grouped down in some white-walled room in Arkansas. One could literally cut out a “Great Value” label from a Wal-Mart can, paste it over My Essentials and not tell the difference. I put the can down, picked up a can of Green Giant, and continued shopping. As I did, I noticed the slow rotation that was gradually replacing most of the Hannaford products I had been used to buying for so many years. It was awful.

  After I left the store, knowing full well that more than likely the products were the same contents with just a different label, I asked myself whether this brand change was something that was bothering just me and Drew, as we’re both a little quirky. I certainly hadn’t seen anything in the news about the change and it seems as though Hannaford is trying to quietly extinguish the Hannaford brand in the stores. After a little search, I found out we were not alone.

  I discovered an online message forum that was full of messages from Hannaford customers that shared the same feelings. Comments included “My Essentials sounds lame, bland and cheap” and “As a Mainer, it’s kind of depressing to see Hannaford losing its regional identity.” The last quote served to describe exactly how I feel.

  In stories about Hannaford-parent Delhaize America’s decision to replace all of their store brands, including the Sweet Bay and Food Lion chains’ individual banners with My Essentials, Delhaize explains that they want to increase sales of their generic foods in all their stores. In all their chains, with the exception of Hannaford, it appears that their store brands were not performing well, and My Essentials was the answer to turn that part of their business around. The My Essentials switcharoo has apparently been in the works since July of last year, as a quick search for the My Essentials trademark with the U.S. Trademark office shows that the My Essentials trademark was filed on July 29, 2010. In their other chains, the change to My Essentials is being heralded in the stores and in the media as a good thing. In Hannaford country, it’s happening quietly. Why? It is because it’s a bad idea for the Hannaford chain.

  From a global corporate governance standpoint, the change makes sense. Delhaize will save money by only having to produce one product for all their stores. They even insist that having one brand will enable them to better leverage themselves when purchasing from suppliers. And, the increased sales they expect will certainly reap benefits for investors. Maybe their plan to increase profits in all their stores, even if there is a little dip at Hannaford from formerly-loyal customers, is more clandestine. In one online comment, a Hannaford customer writes: “The rollout of My Essentials at DZA's Hannaford banner is off to a rocky start. Shoppers have noticed, for example, that the 8 ounce light yogurt under the Hannaford brand has been replaced by a 6 ounce My Essentials container with no price change to account for the 25% shrinkage.”

  But to me, if there are enough people that feel the same way I do about the Hannaford brand going the way of Jordan’s Ball Park Franks and Deering Ice Cream, the increased revenue Delhaize is forecasting from increased sales at their other chains and charging the same price for less could potentially be off set by a large decrease of store brand sales in their Hannaford stores. Then what? Will they scuttle the name all together and one day invite us to shop at the Forest Avenue Food Lion? The quick wave of the hand and executive board room decision thousands of miles away from Portland that eliminated the Hannaford brand could make that happen, too. Hannaford would of course claim this would never happen, but what would the leaders of Hannaford say about discontinuing the Hannaford brand if asked in 2006?

  So for me, because nothing says “I’m cheap” to dinner guests like a spice rack full of cheap-looking spice bottles, when my bottle of Hannaford Basil Leaves runs out, I’ll spend the extra buck and buy McCormick, all the while lamenting over the loss of yet another Maine brand to global corporatism.

Let’s give Forest Avenue the “Main Street” treatment it deserves

   It’s starting to come together.

   Forest Avenue, for years victim to the automotive age with its wide expanse, barren landscape and an overall feel that makes you want to do exactly what the road is currently designed for – drive right through it – is being thoroughly studied by an official city committee for aesthetic, pedestrian, public transport and even traffic flow improvement.

   Available for public consumption at portlandmaine.gov/forestave.htm, the plan is a great start. I love the way the design team has included more trees, lighting fixtures that are sure to attract foot traffic after sunset, brick crosswalks, and bike lanes. The plan, which starts at Woodford’s Corner and heads inbound right up to the interchange with 295, serves to reconnect us Deering types with the rest of the city.

   Landlords along the entire stretch who may have a hard time finding tenants will suddenly find themselves staring at waiting lists of businesses looking to locate here. Because Forest Avenue has been treated like a slow-speed turnpike over the last 40 years, there just hasn’t been much incentive to do anymore than standard upkeep. Building owners, noticing the changes, will want to make aesthetic improvements to their buildings to attract higher rents.

   The first thing I think of as a Portland taxpayer, of course, is the cost of all these changes. But it seems to me that a major investment on what is THE main street for this side of town will only serve to pay itself back many times over. Based on the presentation I saw, building values and hence tax revenue is sure to go up. Fees collected from building permits issued to landlords, businesses and even homeowners looking to capitalize on the revitalization for increased equity, cash flow and value will add to the pot. The new jobs that could be potentially created at any new business and the retail or service sales they garner will only serve to improve our local economy as a whole.

   No initial plan is perfect, and there are some things that I would like to see that are missing. The Metro is a great service, but as anyone who takes the 2 bus inbound can attest, it’s not particularly reliable time-wise once car traffic picks up. It may be the pipe dream of a train-enthusiast; but a dedicated, center track trolley going all the way from Riverton to Congress Street would do a lot to not only get people in to town, but also attract peninsula-dwellers to Forest Avenue to help pay for the improvements in the plan with their commerce.

   I would also like to see more formal planning surrounding the exit 6 interchange with 295. The Maine DOT has put off performing any improvement work, which is badly needed no matter what for safety alone, until our local study is complete. Before making any changes to exit 6, the DOT will take the city’s findings into consideration. No matter what they come up with for an exit layout, a huge key to a successful reconnection of Forest Avenue with the peninsula would be to eliminate the ability of vehicles to simply yield and instead make them come to a complete stop when exiting the highway. It is too dangerous to walk beneath 295 any other way.

   The final wish of mine lands squarely in the hands of the University of Southern Maine. USM owns the building that serves as not only the gateway to their campus, but also as the gateway to Forest Avenue. For the last few years, the front of the building facing our “main street” has been locked shut.

   On the website for the Glickman Family Library, the university claims the building was designed to “symbolize a gateway to USM, and to serve as a tangible reminder of USM’s presence in the community.” Former University President Richard Pattenaude even spoke about the important symbolism of having the front door facing outward toward the community in his library dedication speech. Today, the only way to enter the building is around back and the inviting picnic tables that used to encourage students to gather on the front patio have been removed. The front of the building is also now especially unwelcoming at night, as when the sun ends its day, so too does any light in the front of Glickman. The library’s neighbor, Oakhurst, has done its part for the block by renovating the building that used to house World Over Imports; the university needs to “tear down that wall,” or at the very least, unlock the front door and flip on a light at night.

   All in all, plans designed by cities can never be all things to all people. The Forest Avenue Transition plan, even in these early stages, is about as close to accomplishing that feat as I have seen come from the city in a long time. If the city, businesses, homeowners, the state DOT and USM can all come together, and some add-ons mentioned here or brought forth by others can be molded in, this project would be everything 1970’s Urban Renewal wasn’t and the “all things” I never thought possible.

   To get there, it certainly deserves the support of us all.

(Jeffrey S. Spofford is the circulation manager for The Portland Daily Sun and can be reached by emailing jspofford@maine.rr.com.)