A hurricane of middle class Mainer revenge

Let her rip!

The typical cry of “batten down the hatches” applies of course to the last stronghold the native Mainer has along the coast: commercial fisheries. But to the rest of the residential southern Maine coastline, that over the last fifteen years has been completely usurped by folks from away, bring on the wrath.

Over the course of this week’s media build-up to stormageddon, it was insinuated more than once from a few different sources that we Mainers were taking talk of a devastating storm with a grain of salt. It was assumed that our general malaise was the result of forecasts over the years promising great devastation, but that ended instead in a tipped-over Adirondack.

I see our “pfft” attitude as having a more sinister underlayment. See, back in the 1980’s during our local and state government’s push to build utopia and provide Ramen noodles to “less fortunate” people, also mostly from away, that were too busy making children to achieve full employment – coupled with the Federal government’s decent in to the double-D bosoms of the corporate banking coffers that allowed for inflationary bubbles that included real estate; Mainers who for generations had enjoyed their summers along the coast in cottages built by their forefathers were forced to flee inland.

The property tax bills kept creeping ever higher. First we got to the ten thousand dollar per year mark, then came fifteen. When they got so high, the Mainers still hanging on to the cottages they loved so much were forced to rent out their properties when finally, after only being able to enjoy them for only a few weeks in the year or not at all in order to collect enough to pay the government, we sold them to the rich folks from away who had been renting them.

In the fifteen or so years since most Mainers were forced from the coast like a Kurd in northern Iraq, our cottages have been replaced in large part by glorious McMansions, forever transforming the look of our residential coast, and forever leaving it deserted from September to May.

We remember or have heard stories from family about the devastation caused by the last major ocean storm to cause catastrophic damage, the Blizzard of 1978. Mainers, still mostly occupying the now gated-communities, rebuilt, repaired and fortified the old cottages. The little cottages that made it were of a different cloth and for the most part, the Mainers that owned them could make the repairs on their own. The McMansions don’t stand a chance, and the wealthy folks can’t so much as even roll paint on a wall. Guess who they’re going to have to turn to, to rebuild?

Add to that the logic of renowned economist and NewYork Times columnist Paul Krugman's recent tweet after this week's east coast earthquake; "People on twitter might be joking, but in all seriousness, we would see a bigger boost in spending and hence economic growth if the earthquake had done more damage," and put in motion you have the makings of the ultimate middle class Maine revenge: Jobs!

So let her rip! We'll look at the pictures of the homeowners surveying the damage with one foot out of the Benz and one ear in the blackberry and we'll get to work when the phone calls they make go to the thousands of Maine businesses that will serve to put everything back together.

Of course, if this puppy pushes hard inland, we're all in trouble. I guess I'll bring in the Adirondack from the field where I have beach flashbacks - just in case.

Be safe everyone!