Miss Nomer

The Mount Desert Islander exposed the seedy underbelly of beauty pageants with a revealing item in its paper this week.

Well, that might be an overstatement, but the newspaper published an article about the fact that "Miss Bar Harbor" Rani Williamson, who won the Miss Maine USA Pageant last weekend, isn't really from Bar Harbor at all (Williamson is on the right in the photo above).

After the BDN ran a story about the pageant (which focused mostly on pageant co-hosts Ashley Hebert and Ashley Underwood, two Maine natives who have starred on national reality television programs), word of the pageant winner apparently got around Bar Harbor. Many longtime local residents were confused, the Islander reported, because they had never heard of Williamson. Turns out, she is from Cumberland Center (near Portland) and graduated from Greely High School - not from MDI. She chose "Miss Bar Harbor" simply because it is her favorite place in Maine, a pageant official told the paper.

In his BDN-hosted blog, reporter Seth Koenig explains the contestant-naming process. Pageant contestants can choose any name they want, he said, provided it hasn't already been chosen by a competitor in the same pageant. It can be a place name or the name of a sponsor, such as "Body By John" or "Regency Spa."
That's why the pageant had a Miss Bar Harbor who really has no specific connection to Bar Harbor, other than having enjoyed her visits to the town. It may be misleading to many casual observers, but those familiar with the pageant likely knew her stage name did not necessarily reflect her hometown. It could be argued that, for anyone searching for absolutely honesty and raw unfiltered accurate representations of reality, beauty pageants are probably not the best place to go looking for it.

On the other hand, Williamson's choice of a stage name can be interpreted as a high-profile compliment to the town, which otherwise would not have had any connection to the contest. The fact that Williams won the pageant can only help publicize Bar Harbor, which seeks to lure millions of tourists every summer.
For those comfortable with the imprecise linkage between contestants and their stage names, not having Williamson keep her "Miss Bar Harbor" appellation while she competes in the Miss USA Pageant on NBC next June might be seen as a missed opportunity.

The Odd Death of Rev. Bob Carlson

This story is just stunning to me. Before I say anything else, I need to point out that I never met Rev. Bob Carlson and have no idea whether the allegations that are starting to leak out are true or just absolute falsehoods.

It's hard not to leap to comparisons to the Penn State scandal, despite the myriad reasons not to do so. Both men were well respected in their communities, but the similarities pretty much stop there. One is alive and has been criminally charged, the other is dead and has not been charged (and never will be). One is a national news story involving a football coach, and the other is a local tale about a local pastor that has barely made a flicker outside the state.

But for the Bangor area and much of Maine, this is huge. There was NO ONE in the region who was held in higher esteem than Rev. Bob Carlson. He was a man of the cloth, one known for his advocacy for mental health and other health care issues, and known for his support of local law enforcement and the criminal justice system. The testimonials that the political elite in the Bangor area and in Maine put out on Sunday, after news broke of his death, illustrate how he was held in such high regard.

The thought that he would even commit suicide has been so repellent to some people that, in comments on the BDN website, they have insisted that it was an accident - that he must have fallen over the side of the bridge and fallen to his death while trying to prevent someone else from ending their life. So to have it leak out that he was being investigated by police for allegations of child molestation just seems completely bizarre. In less than a week, he went from being publicly honored by the Boy Scouts to being a dead preacher accused of sexually abusing children. It boggles the mind.

Again, I have no clue whether the allegations against Rev. Carlson are true. I know many people have made up their minds about him, right or wrong, in support or in condemnation. I know this must be devastating to many, his family especially, and to others who held him in such high esteem. And I am sure many will continue to sing his praises, regardless of the reasons behind his sudden, unexpected and ignoble demise. How the people of Maine will ultimately reconcile the reputation Rev. Carlson had in life with the ugly rumors rippling to the surface in the wake of his death, or if they will, I have no idea.

What I do have is links. I'm posting those that I can find below in the hopes that they can shed some light on the life of Rev. Bob Carlson in ways that I otherwise cannot.

• BDN: 800 attend Carlson funeral at Orrington church
• BDN: Carlson investigation to stay open 
• WABI-TV: Contents of one accusatory letter made public. 
• PPH Columnist Bill Nemitz on official reaction.
• BDN 11/16: Funeral arrangements scaled back in wake of spread of allegations.
• BDN 11/16 story: Former sheriff had concerns.
• BDN 11/15 story on anticipated demand for sexual assault counseling services.
• Sen. Susan Collins' statement on Rev. Carlson's death.
• Statement from Sen. Olympia Snowe and Gov. John McKernan.
• A BDN story about a woman who was counseled by Carlson after she nearly jumped from the same bridge.
• BDN story: No Foul Play in Carlson death (includes statement by U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree)
• Carlson's obituary.
• BDN story: Carlson memorial service to be held Friday.
• WCSH television website article about some allegations against Carlson.
• Carlson quoted in a October 2011 BDN story about a drug abuse forum.
• A January 2011 Carlson-written op/ed piece in the BDN on federal health care law.
• Another BDN op/ed, in which Carlson urges a 'yes' vote in a 2010 referendum.
• A 2010 BDN story about an AIDS network joining Carlson's organization.

One thing I can't link: the many obituaries on the BDN website that indicate which memorial services Rev. Carlson officiated.

Big Ships

After being spotted off midcoast Maine at the end of August, the largest single-masted sloop in the world was anchored off Bar Harbor last week. I first noticed it while driving into Bar Harbor through Hulls Cove and along the bluffs when I saw its 292-foot tall mast, nearly the height of a 30-story building, sticking up above the trees on the far side of Bar Island. Off all the big cruise ships I've seen in Bar Harbor over the years, I've never seen one looming up into the sky from behind Bar Island. And at 247 feet long, it is bigger than some of the smaller commercial cruise ships that visit Bar Harbor.

The ship Mirabella V, not surprisingly, has its own website. Among the "toys" listed on that site is a 29-foot Hinckley jetboat with a 400hp engine, which itself is considered a luxury yacht. Used Hinckley jetboats listed for sale online cost several hundred thousand dollars each, but my guess is that the owners of Mirabella V bought theirs new. Luciana and Joseph Vittorio, the latter of whom has been the CEO of both Hertz and Avis rental car companies, reportedly paid $50 million for the ship, which was built over seven years and completed in 2004.

To get a visual sense of its size, compare Mirabella with the more familiar Margaret Todd, a four-masted schooner that takes tourists on scenic rides around Frenchman Bay. The Margaret Todd is 151 feet long and its masts are much shorter. I took this photo (below) last week in quickly vanishing daylight from the top of Cadillac Mountain.

Mirabella is much smaller than the majority of commercial cruise ships that drop anchor off Bar Harbor every summer and fall (about half of the 115 cruise ship visits Bar Harbor is expected to get in 2011 are scheduled between now and the end of October, by the way). But most of the big cruise ships carry between several hundred and more than 3,000 passengers. Mirabella carries up to 25 - 12 passengers and 13 crew. It reportedly can be chartered for about $1 million per month. I wonder if the passengers on board last week came ashore and bought t-shirts and ice cream cones during their visit?

Another smaller but still impressive vessel called Hilarium was spotted Sunday, Sept. 11 in Northeast Harbor (photo below), but it appeared to motor in around 3:30 p.m. only to turn around near the end of the marina slips and then motor back out again. Poking around online, I could not find a conclusive indication of who its owner might be, though I did notice it is registered in Boca Grande, Fla., but one blog I came across suggested it might belong to "Stephen Forbes." If the bloggers mean Malcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes, that would be fitting. Forbes' father, the late Malcolm Forbes, was known to moor his 151-foot motor yacht Highlander in Northeast Harbor.

But other more credible postings suggest that the owner is Peter Nicholas, founder of Boston Scientific. According to Boston magazine and Forbes magazine (of which Steve Forbes in the editor-in-chief) he is worth between $2.3 and $2.8 billion. Why it did a u-turn in Northeast Harbor I don't know, but I suspect it will be in the Mount Desert Island area for a few days, if it hasn't been already.

Irene Cometh

Irene was my grandmother's name, for whatever that's worth. My grandmother was a lot nicer than I think this storm will be.

I just left a movie theater  in Bar Harbor, where it was pouring rain and thought "already?" But back here at the house it's dry and eerily quiet. I know the hurricanes that smash into southern states never really make it this far north - once they arrive they are usually all wore out, like they've been out to four other places and it's their last party of the night. But ocean storms have caused damage in Maine. Hurricanes Bob in 1991 and Gloria in 1985 are two that come to mind.

NOAA's still predicting tropical storm force winds for most of Maine when Irene arrives tomorrow night. I predict power outages and flooding, but to what extent I guess I'm not sure. The high tide in Bar Harbor that is due to crest a few minutes before 11 p.m. tomorrow has some potential for causing problems, as do the predicted 70 mph wind gusts from Mount Desert Island. Storm surge pushing in from the Gulf of Maine could funnel into places like Bucksport, Ellsworth, Wiscasset, Waldoboro and other towns that sit on waterways not too far from the coast.

My house is up the hill from the river, so I don't think there will be any flooding in my neighborhood. We have batteries, oil lamps, a gas grill and books and magazines if the power goes out. If I go anywhere, I have my foul weather gear and hip waders in the back of the car. Other than that, I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Imposter Lobster

The phenomenon has been around for a long time. Marketers and even restaurateurs have been known to try to pass off something as Maine lobster when it really isn't. (Outside of Maine, of course - any in-state eatery that tried such chicanery probably wouldn't last long ).
Sometimes the deception is bizarre. I've heard stories of some restaurants that actually list "main lobster" (no "e") on their menus, as if people will recognize the sound of the phrase and not realize that, if it sounds appealing to them, it is because they want lobster from Maine.
But the issue goes beyond that. Sometimes there is actual Homarus americanus that is purported to be from Maine but isn't; and then there's meat that's purported to be Homarus americanus, but isn't.
The issue of Chile-bred "langostino lobster" has been around for years. Maine's $313 million Homarus americanus-catching industry has been fairly vocal in its criticism of the misleading appellation, as has Sen. Olympia Snowe.
And then this summer, another high-profile example of false labeling arose. The famous Zabar's deli in New York City has been exposed for doing pretty much the same thing, but not with langostino crustaceans. They were using Louisiana crayfish, not lobster, for a dish they made, packaged and sold as "lobster salad."
That is, until the media found out. A Times-Picayune reporter vacationing in Manhattan from New Orleans noticed and blogged about it. That attracted the attention of the Bangor Daily News, a newspaper well acquainted with Maine's signature seafood industry, which wrote an editorial about the discovery. Soon enough, the New York Times did a piece, and now Zabar's seems to have reconsidered its ill-conceived (and even more badly justified) marketing scheme. It now calls the same dish "seafare salad."
Seafood often gets caught under one name and then marketed as another. Selling dogfish as "cape shark" or "rock salmon," is one less-known example. On the other hand, it seems to be common knowledge that canned herring are called sardines and that cooked squid is served as calamari.
But putting "lobster" on any food that its maker knows doesn't contain any goes beyond marketing. It's not even a red herring. It's deliberate misrepresentation. And even that is often known by another name.

More Kayak Deaths

This is turning out to be a bad summer for kayakers in Hancock County. While no doubt thousands have enjoyed safe and pleasant outings, at least three have died while out on the water.

Since the death of Eric Hogan on June 19 off Hancock Point in Frenchman Bay, two other kayakers have died during outings near Ellsworth. Steven Brooks, 43, died July 10 while kayaking between Hadley Point and Lamoine State Park, which are about a mile apart and separated by a fairly protected stretch of ocean. On Tuesday, Hong Sohn, 75, died while kayaking on Beech Hill Pond in Otis. None of the three were from Maine, though I am not sure that counts for much. There have been plenty people who grew up on ponds and the sea coast in the state who have died by drowning.

Hogan was young (28), from Webster, Mass., and athletic. But he made bad decisions about the style of boat he used, the conditions he went out in, and the clothing he wore. Paddling a sit-on-top model, which offers no cover from the chilly water, in wind gusts of 30 mph or more while wearing only shorts and a life preserver is a recipe for hypothermia. He must have realized he was being blown from shore and paddled against the wind, until the chill of being constantly splashed with water between 55 and 60 degrees sapped his strength and he slipped away.

But Hogan deserves credit for wearing a personal flotation device (PFD). Brooks and Sohn were not wearing life jackets. Brooks, from Stratham, N.H., had one with him in his kayak as he and a woman paddled separate kayaks back together from Hadley Point to Lamoine State Park on a Sunday afternoon. Brooks was in an enclosed-cockpit style of kayak but was not wearing the PFD. He overturned before his paddling companion noticed, hopped out of her kayak, and swam over to him in an unsuccessful attempt to flip his boat back over. Officials determined Hogan drowned, but Brooks may have suffered from some other medical condition that proved to be fatal.

Sohn was from Seoul, South Korea and was vacationing in Maine with his wife. He was not wearing a life preserver when his kayak overturned about 300 feet from shore of Beech Hill Pond. Sohn got out of the kayak and swam toward land, but sank about 30 feet away from solid ground. As with  Brooks' death, officials are not sure if Sohn drowned or if another medical condition killed him before he could reach shore.

All three of these deaths were preventable. Maine does not require kayakers to wear PFDs, but it could. Beyond that kind of regulation, education could help people learn about the hazards of hypothermia and stiff winds and about how preparation and communication can prevent problems. Anyone who is unsure of their abilities should be encouraged to go out with an experienced guide who will help keep them safe.

But with kayaking's growth in popularity, more deaths of paddlers has been inevitable. The image of kayaking peacefully over glassy water and along pristine shorelines has powerful allure, and for many inexperienced kayakers this image it may well overwhelm their perception of actual paddling conditions or of their abilities. If you're on vacation and heading back home tomorrow, you might well decide you're going out for a paddle regardless of whether you've got a PFD or there is a stiff breeze blowing.

As for having access to boats, I'm not sure what can be done. Kayakers don't have to be certified, the way scuba divers do, and if you have a few hundred dollars it is easy to buy one. Kayak rental outfits perhaps could be more aggressive about vetting customers for experience, but that's easier said than done. Many customers, outfitters will tell you, are not as honest about their skill levels as maybe they should be.

Could the kayak rental industry come up with uniform procedures for ensuring their customers' safety? Would the industry stomach having such standards imposed by the Legislature? If the answer to these questions is "no," it might not make good business sense for a rental firm in a competitive market to have higher self-imposed safety requirements than another rental firm a few hundred feet away.

Even with a paddling safety awareness campaign, Maine will always attract tourists from far away who may be here for only 48 hours or even less. Such a campaign might be helpful for some, but no doubt there are many who would miss it or - intent on realizing a long-held vacation goal - would brush it off in favor of going out.

For my money, I bet some sort of safety requirement ends up being proposed in the Legislature. But I don't know if a handful of preventable deaths is enough to generate broad public support for new regulatory mandates in Maine's tourist industry. With an economic impact that some estimate to be worth $15 billion, the industry is the biggest in the state.

Rebecca Returns

Rebecca is back. The 139-foot yacht, owned by seasonal Northeast Harbor resident Charles Butt, is pretty easy to recognize. It's the only boat I know of (outside the enormous cruise ships that anchor off Bar Harbor) that can be seen from offshore islands sticking up from behind Greening Island. I have no idea how tall its main mast is, but it juts up above the island's trees. Other technical details and measurements about the yacht can be found here.
Butt owns an oceanfront home in the village of Northeast Harbor on Manchester Drive, which overlooks Somes Sound. His crew moors the boat at the mouth of the sound off Connor Point, within view of Butt's home.
The town of Mount Desert has its fair share of wealthy summer residents, but Butt sticks out. He is one of five local billionaire property owners who routinely appear on Forbes Magazine's annual list of 400 richest Americans. According to the magazine's latest listing, Butt ranks 50th with an estimated net worth of $5.3 billion.
Such overt symbols of mega-wealth like Rebecca are rare for MDI, however. There's plenty of Lilly Pulitzer apparel and Rolex watches to be seen strolling Main Street in Northeast Harbor, but you rarely (if ever) see anything like a gold-plated Bentley parked outside Colonel's Deli. I do not know how much Rebecca cost, but am confident Butt shelled out an eight-figure sum for it.
Aside from Rebecca, the best local example of billionaire spending is Mitchell Rales' new home on Peabody Drive, on the eastern side of Northeast Harbor, on the site where Susan Mary Alsop used to own a much smaller home. According to a 2010 story posted by Fenceviewer.com, Rales' mansion cost approximately $30 million to build.
From what I hear, Rales' tastes are such that he requested (and paid for) brass firehose connections that were installed along the road in front of the property. Apparently, he didn't like the more traditional type of fireplugs that would have been installed instead.

Avoidable Tragedy

It seems like every summer, I have to write an article for the newspaper about someone who dies from some sort miscalculation they made while enjoying the outdoors on or around Mount Desert Island.
This latest one, about a kayaker who died Sunday, has bothered me more than most.
Eric Hogan had just gotten married to his wife, Sarah Beth (Kellogg) Hogan on May 28 and had been married for less than three weeks. After searching online for more information, I found this engagement announcement that appeared in the Daily Hampshire Gazette of Massachusetts in January. He was 28 when he died. Sarah Hogan graduated from high school a year earlier than he did, and so probably is 29.

They had rented a house at Hancock Point, a fairly upscale seasonal oceanfront village in the town of Hancock that faces downtown MDI from the north side of Frenchman Bay, for their honeymoon. The couple clearly loved the MDI area, having vacationed here before and gotten engaged here in August of 2009. On their wedding website, they describe on the "Our Proposal" page how he popped the question during a private charter boat ride on Frenchman Bay. She writes how the boat captain dropped them off on an island in the bay, where she used a small stone to scratch out the message "Sarah [heart] Eric 4 Ever" on a large slab of rock.

With their having been here before, you think he would have known how cold the water can be. Water temperatures were between 55 and 60 degrees - cold enough to render a person unconscious after about an hour. Four hours had passed Sunday after Eric Hogan set out for his paddle before authorities were alerted that he had not returned. Another two and a half hours passed before he was found, unresponsive, floating in the waters off Hulls Cove.

Experienced ocean kayakers I've talked to about this tragedy shake their heads. A kayak guide never would have been out on the bay in those kind of conditions, much less leading a group of less experienced people. Wind gusts of 35 mph are about half as strong as hurricane-force winds and can aggravate exposure to chilly water. Waves two feet high can easily overturn a kayak.

The facts that Hogan was poorly dressed, wearing only a life jacket and shorts, and that he was paddling a sit-on-top kayak, with no protection from the elements, made the situation worse. Those type of kayaks are better suited for glass surface conditions usually found in small ponds than they are for the ocean. If he had an enclosed kayak that kept him covered from his waist down, was wearing protective waterproof gear from his neck to his wrists, and had a decent amount of kayaking experience, he would have had a better chance of making it to an island downwind after being blown away from shore.
Hogan may have been an experience kayaker, but I suspect he was not, given the conditions he paddled out into. Even if he was experienced, his choices of watercraft and clothing were not good. A PFD might help keep you afloat, but it will do very little to nothing to protect you from hypothermia - even when the sun is out.
My intent here is not to speak ill of the dead. It is heartbreaking that Hogan died, especially considering the fact that he was on his honeymoon and apparently had so much life ahead of him. But the truth of the matter is that his death was avoidable.

The same is the case for John Myers, an experienced boater who drowned in Frenchman Bay in early October 2009 after his motorized skiff capsized while en route from Hancock toward Salisbury Cove. It is also true of the death that same year of Clio Axilrod who, along with her father and others, was swept into the sea by a huge wave as they watched the surf churned up by Hurricane Bill crash along the shore of MDI near Thunder Hole.
If only everyone knew, without having to learn the painful way, that the ocean can be dangerous not just far out to sea, but also within easy eyesight of shore.
My deepest sympathies go out to Hogan's wife and family. What an awful thing.

Red Lobster co-opts Bar Harbor

Bar Harbor's marketing appeal is getting a little publicity courtesy of this June 9 Bloomberg News article, which indicates that national restaurant chain Red Lobster is redesigning its restaurants to resemble the casual, seaside feel of downtown Bar Harbor.
But despite the lede, the article makes only passing reference to Red Lobster's new design scheme and instead focuses more on how chain restaurants nationwide are trying to adapt to the new realities of a poor economy and a customer base that wants to see healthier options on the menu.
Which is good, because if the article was mainly about how the company is using Bar Harbor to market itself, it would be fairly dated. The BDN published this story in 2007 about how the Mount Desert Island town's general appearance was being heavily featured in the restaurant's new look.

Shrinking Maine towns

I can't claim to be an expert, but my guess is that when a place sees its population decrease, local economics tend to be behind it. In Maine, where there were no wars or famines or widespread catastrophic disasters between 2000 and 2010, I'm willing to bet that economics is the reason two counties and more than 100 towns and townships saw their citizenry shrink over the past decade.
In looking at the list of towns, cities, plantations and unorganized territories in Maine that lost population, the closure or layoffs at pulp or paper mills or military bases are two of the obvious culprits.
Old Town's population shrunk by 290 people in the same decade Georgia-Pacific shut down its mills there, while Winter Harbor lost 472 residents, or 48 percent of its population - nearly half! - after the Navy closed its base at nearby Schoodic Point in 2002. Madawaska, Rumford, Mexico, Millinocket, East Millinocket - all mill towns - have lost both population and mill jobs since 2000. Brunswick, Bath, Harpswell and Topsham all saw their populations decrease, which isn't surprising considering the gradual closure toward the end of the decade of the nearby Brunswick Naval Air Station.
By my count, 163 municipalities or townships lost population between 2000 and 2010, but not all those towns can easily attribute their population decrease to a nearby mill or military base shutting down. Some decreases occurred in places where you think they wouldn't, such as in relatively affluent coastal towns that generally are considered people magnets. It's not surprising that several coastal towns in chronically economically depressed Washington County lost population, as that county did as a whole; it is surprising that several coastal towns in Hancock, Knox and York counties (each of which gained population overall) saw their numbers decline. Among them: Mount Desert, Southwest Harbor, Stonington, Camden, Rockland, Ogunquit and Kennebunkport.
The likely culprit in these towns (or the major one, anyway) is rising property valuations and taxes. All of these towns have classic coastal Maine waterfront properties that are highly desirable but not so affordable to people of modest means, as most Mainers are. Comparatively wealthy people from away often can afford to buy these properties, and they seem to be, according to a planner quoted in this Bangor Daily News story. Locals short on cash who can't afford the high property taxes look to sell out, and people who have managed to stay wealthy despite the global economic malaise get a chance to buy in - but they don't necessarily change their residency and then get counted as local residents by the Census Bureau. This demographic shift is why some of these scenic coastal towns have declining populations.
But the biggest numeric drop in terms of most residents lost seems to have nothing to do with property taxes, the closure of a military base or layoffs at a local pulp or paper mill.
Thomaston in Knox County lost 967 residents, or more than 25 percent of its population, between 2000 and 2010. The nearby town of Warren gained approximately the same number Thomaston lost, and saw its population increase by more than 25 percent. The reason? Maine State Prison, and its inmate population, was moved from Thomaston to Warren in 2002.
For a complete list of the towns in Maine that lost population since 2000, check out Sheet 3 of this spreadsheet.

Census 2010: ethnicity in eastern Maine

There is more ethnic diversity in eastern Maine than there was 10 years ago, but that's not saying much. "White" people (presumably of European descent) still make up more than 90 percent its residents, as they do throughout Maine.

But still there are some interesting changes to note. Hispanics or Latinos (whom the U.S.Census Bureau do not categorize as a "race," for obvious reasons) have seen their numbers increase statewide by 80 percent, though their total is still less than 2 percent of Maine's total. Oddly enough, however, their numbers apparently have not changed at all in Milbridge over the past 10 years, despite Milbridge's reputation as a place where their numbers are rising. According to census figures, 84 Latinos lived in Milbridge in 2000 and 84 live there now. Otherwise, the town's overall population moderately increased from 1,279 residents in 2000 to 1,353 in 2010. Other Washington County towns have seen their Latino populations increase by a dozen or more (Calais, Harrington, Jonesport, Machias and Steuben), which is why the county's overall Latino population increased by 65 percent, from 274 to 452.

Also in Washington County, its African-American population increased nearly 60 percent, from 88 to 140, and its Asian population increased 48 percent, from 101 to 149. Most of the Asian population change was in East Machias (from one in 2000 to 23 in 2010), while the number of Asians in Machais and Calais, the county's two most populous municipalities, each have decreased since 2000.
Washington County's relatively large Native American population increased, too, but only by 6.5% The vast majority of the 1,586 Native Americans in Washington County live on Passamaquoddy tribal lands at Indian Township and Pleasant Point.

In Hancock County, the largest rate of ethnic growth was among the Asian population, which more than doubled, from 196 residents to 446. Of those 250 new Asian residents, 106 of them moved to Bar Harbor. Why, I'm not sure, but my guess is that it has something (but not everything) to do with Jackson Lab, which has had an effect on the county's overall Ellsworth-area population as it has grown. The numbers of Latinos and African-Americans in Hancock County each increased between 70 and 80 percent. Nearly 600 Latinos now call Hancock County home, while 221 African-Americans do. Native Americans, now with 216 residents, saw their population grow 13.7 percent in Hancock County since 2000.

The highest numbers of Asians, African-Americans and Latinos in eastern Maine are, not surprisingly, in the Bangor area. The five largest municipalities in Penobscot County ( Bangor, Orono, Brewer, Old Town and Hampden, in that order) saw their overall African-American population grow by 54 percent; their overall Latino population grow by 66 percent; and their overall Asian population grow by 27 percent. All told, these three ethnic groups make up 3 percent (2,843 residents) of the total population of those five municipalities, which is just shy of 68,000 people. The Native American population in these five municipalities - which grew from 595 in 2000 to 752 in 2010 - does not include 475 Penobscot Indians the U.S. Census Bureau counted at the Indian Island reservation next to Old Town.

Also not surprisingly, outside of the indigenous Native American populations, a casual glance at the census figures indicates there is more ethnic diversity in southern Maine, especially its larger municipalities, than there is in eastern Maine. Lewiston alone, for example, has more residents of African descent than the total number of Asians, Latinos, and African-Americans that live in Penobscot County's five largest municipalities put together - even though Penobscot County has roughly 50 percent more people than Androscoggin County (where Lewiston is located).

Incidentally, the state's population of people of African descent had the largest rate of growth in the past decade: 132 percent. Lewiston is the best example of that growth. The 2000 census counted 383 people of African descent in Maine's second-largest city. In 2010, that population had grown more than 700 percent, to 3,174. Most of them are believed to be people that emigrated to America from Somalia to escape violence in their home country.

To see some of the individual numbers from Hancock, Penobscot and Washington counties, check out this spreadsheet.

To a large degree, I think the definition of "race" is a little antiquated, and so am not sure there is any real relevance to defining one's geographic ancestry. But to the extent that "race" also represents cultural diversity, I think it is interesting to chart the changes taking place. I tend to think a mixture of traditions and philosophies is a good thing, as long as the traditions and philosophies can tolerate each other's presence and don't result in hostilities between neighbors.

I once started talking to a man (a tourist from Philadelphia) on the mail boat to Islesford and happened to mention that Maine was one of the whitest in the country - at which point his face lit up and he made a comment to his wife that indicated he thought that was good news. He then made a comment about African-Americans that made me realize he was racist. His perspective, in my opinion, is a tradition that everyone can do without.

Burning Questions

[ALERT: This blog post has absolutely nothing to do with the state of Maine.]

I'm not sure what to make of the fact that this NYT article was published this morning, on the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

I grew up in Atlanta (please note the emphasis on "in"), which would explain why I know a little bit more about Margaret Mitchell's legacy in the city than the article reveals. I guess I can't really fault the NYT for the tone of the story. A relatively brief article about "Gone With The Wind" enthusiasts celebrating the 75th anniversary of Mitchell's book is not the best forum for exploring the complex web of history, money and race that still exists in Atlanta.

But there's a lot of subtext and missing context in the article. GWTW is not as loved in the city of Atlanta, a majority African-American city, as a casual observer might guess.

The article points out that the GWTW museum is in Marietta, where Newt Gingrich lived while he served in Congress and which has resisted efforts to be connected to Atlanta via the city's transit authority (MARTA). I'm not sure why the museum is in Marietta, but I'm guessing that it might somehow be related to the fact that arsonists have twice set fire to the house in midtown Atlanta (pictured above), at the corner of Peachtree and 10th streets, where Mitchell wrote the book. No one seems to think the arsonists were ignorant of the building's legacy when they lit it on fire. As the article points out, GWTW "means a lot in Atlanta" - but what it means is debatable.

The "windies" in the NYT article (whom, it points out, are "usually white") no doubt have opinions about those attempts in the mid-1990s to burn the Mitchell House down. [To read about the house's complicated history, check out this Creative Loafing article] Should they have been asked? Should the article's focus have been shifted away from literature fans celebrating their favorite work? I don't know.

But a GWTW anniversary celebration is not like a Star Trek convention, which celebrates an entirely made-up universe. The Civil War was real, and 150 years later it remains the most divisive episode in the country's history. How it is remembered naturally will be a divisive issue. Some say the war was about state's rights, but if there were other "rights" at stake beyond whether white people should be allowed to own black people, they escape me at the moment.

Were the fires set by people who see the house as an antiquated relic of a racist past? Maybe. I know many Atlantans believe the house (such as the even more polarizing symbol of the huge stone carving of Confederate generals on the side of Stone Mountain) overly emphasizes Atlanta's racist past and skews the way the modern city is and should be viewed by the outside world.

The novel does have a strong lead female Caucasian character in Scarlett O'Hara, but many have criticized its depiction of black people and slavery as flat, incurious and vapid, if not outright racist. Given the fact that Mitchell was a white woman, the development and focus on her white, female lead character is not all that surprising.

The NYT article suggests that GWTW does appeal to some demographics more than others. It quotes one enthusiast (Mrs. Sorrow - what a name!) as saying that the Civil War-era depicted in the book "would have been a precious time to enjoy being a lady." Really? How might a modern-day African-American lady feel about that idea?

And, regardless of the race issue, how might Mrs. Sorrow's comment reflect her understanding of the true horrors of the Civil War? More than half a million soldiers died on both sides, not to mention civilians. You can see why some people allege that the book, and its fans, romanticize and give a false depiction of the ugly realities of life in the Confederate South.

The irony of the effort to preserve the Mitchell House is that Atlanta does not have a history of preserving its history. Many people assume that the relative lack of historical buildings in Atlanta is a result of General Sherman setting the city on fire during the Civil War - a significant symbolic and practical blow to the Confederacy. If that were the case, Atlanta would have buildings that date from the late 1800s, after the war ended, one would think.

But it doesn't. In fact, it has few buildings that pre-date World War II. Why? Because after World War II, and even throughout the civil rights era, the city's leaders set an agenda of aggressive economic growth, which led to old buildings being torn down and increasingly taller and shinier new ones going up in their places. That growth economically benefited both Atlanta's black and white communities, which some say is the reason why Atlanta had no truly violent episodes during the Civil Rights era. Anyone who has visited Atlanta recently can see that its infatuation with real estate and development is as strong as ever.

According to the Creative Loafing article, defenders of the Mitchell House believe the efforts to burn it down were a result of this redevelopment zeal, not of cultural criticism. Someone wanted the house out of the way so the lot could be developed into a lucrative commercial property. This certainly is a plausible theory. Based on the surrounding buildings, it seems certain that if it were not for the presence of the Mitchell House, a tall skyscraper now would stand on that urban corner.

What kind of history Atlanta has, and what kind of legacy it wants, really are the questions that arise from the Mitchell House situation. You would think a metropolitan area of several million people would be big enough to accommodate the inevitable multiple answers to those questions without arsonists getting involved.

But, then again, it is The South. It has a history of symbols being set on fire.

Limited Census Reporting

I've been eyeing this item all week, and after crunching census figures for several days can finally sink my teeth into it.

The Ellsworth American (and, in its wake, WCSH and Associated Press) has reported that Ellsworth was the fastest growing city in Maine from 2000 to 2010. The city's population grew from 6,456 to 7,741 in the last decade, an increase of 1,285 people, or 19.9 percent, according to official U.S. 2010 Census data.

Technically, Ellsworth was the fastest growing city in Maine between 2000 and 2010, but that is because most municipalities in Maine call themselves towns instead of cities. Of the more than 500 civil divisions in Maine (cities, towns, plantations, and unorganized territories) counted by the federal census takers, only 21 of them are cities. So there's a lot less competition among cities than towns for the title of which grew the fastest.

If you look at all municipal entities in the state, several towns (even some plantations and some unorganized territories) grew by higher percentages - a feat that admittedly is relatively easy to accomplish if a town started out with only a few hundred or even fewer residents. For example, Carrabasset Valley in Franklin County grew from 399 residents to 781, which makes for a whopping growth rate of 95.7 percent. Kingsbury Plantation in Piscataquis County grew by 211 percent - from 9 residents to 28 residents.

Some towns in Maine have larger populations than Ellsworth and added more residents in the past decade, though their growth rates may be smaller. The towns of Gorham, Scarborough and Windham each added more residents than Ellsworth, but because each is at least twice as big as Ellsworth, their growth rates are smaller, ranging from about 11.5 percent (Scarborough) to nearly 16 percent (Gorham).  Orono, a town with an estimated 2010 population of 10,362 residents, added 1,250 people since 2000 (almost as many as Ellsworth), for a growth rate of 13.7 percent. Those growth rates are nothing to sneeze at; many cities and large towns have seen their populations shrink since 2000.

Other decent sized towns (for Maine) also grew more than Ellsworth. Waterboro in York County, which has only 48 fewer residents than Ellsworth, had greater growth. It added 1,479 residents this past decade, giving it 7,693 total and a growth rate of 23.8 percent. Hermon grew by nearly 1,000 people for a total of 5,416 and a growth rate of 22 percent. Levant, now with 2,851 residents, grew by 680 people for a 31 percent growth rate. The towns of Alfred, Athens, Bradley, Brownfield, Etna, Hebron, Jackman, Limerick, Palermo, Thorndike, Wales, and Warren also all each have grown by more than 20 percent since 2000.

I don't mean to get too stat happy with all this (too late?), but my point is fairly simple: Ellsworth's growth, though significant, is not so unique that it is the only growth worth reporting. I am sure smaller news organizations focused in other municipalities have focused on their home communities in their census reporting, just as the Ellsworth American did in its article about its namesake city. This is the appropriate thing for them to do.

But news organizations with much broader audiences such as WCSH and Associated Press should not just repeat news about one municipality's census growth without putting it into context with the growth of others. Cities aren't necessarily bigger than towns in Maine (the town of Brunswick, for example, has a population of 20,278 people), so why a city that happens to be the 39th largest municipality in Maine should be singled out just doesn't make sense to me.

I should say I have nothing against Ellsworth, which is where I live, and that I think its growth deserves to be mentioned. I just wish there was more coverage. preferably in-depth, of the census results than I have seen so far (which includes this decent BDN story about the statewide and biggest-municipality figures).

If you're interested in more census stats, nationwide figures are available at the official U.S. Census site, but don't ask me to explain how to track down specific info from their database. I know a little about how to do it, but it's too complicated for me to lay out here. There is simplified census data just for Maine at the State Planning Office website. I've made some of my own spreadsheets - one for Hancock County, one for Washington County, and one for every municipality in Maine with around 4,000 residents or more. I've left some fields blank (specifically, Latino and Native American percentages for some Washington County towns) because I haven't had time to fill them in yet. I hope to at some point soon.

Processing Change

Live Lobster, which plans to operate in Prospect Harbor (part of Gouldsboro) as Lobster Web LLC, last week inched closer to its goal of converting the former Stinson Seafood sardine cannery into a lobster processing plant when local selectmen cautiously agreed to endorse a grant for $400,000 in federal CDBG funds (see BDN story).
Antonio Bussone, president of Live Lobster, was not at the March 24 meeting because he was attending the International Boston Seafood Show, a woman said at the selectmen's meeting. Bussone has attended several such meetings in Gouldsboro, which reflects the importance the lobster processing plant would have to the company, which currently does not have any processing capacity.
According to the woman, Canadians at the seafood show indicated they are not happy that more lobster processing plants are popping up on the Maine coast. Besides Prospect Harbor, Maine's lobster processing capacity is getting significant boosts with a new proposed facility in St. George, with a change in state laws that had restricted processing, and with a (resulting) new product at Linda Bean's company in Rockland that is being sold at Walmart.  
I don't know if the woman's claims about Canadian processors being unhappy with these developments is true or not, but it stands to reason that they would be. Canadian processors have consistently converted more than half of Maine's annual lobster landings into a "product of Canada." Some Maine officials have said that as much as 70 percent of Maine lobster ends up going to Canada for processing.
Maine lobstermen caught an estimated 93 million pounds of lobster last year. Seventy percent of that would be 65 million pounds. There's no way Maine's new processing capacity will absorb that much, but many would say the number of lobster processing jobs created in Maine is more important than the amount or percentage of lobsters shipped to Canada.

Allen's Uber Alles

I don't really know why I am so intrigued by these statistics.

But every year I find myself checking the Maine Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages & Lottery Operations website to see what the most popular hard liquors in Maine are.

Before the new figures are available, I know what they will tell me. Invariably - more predictable even than me looking at the BABLO website to confirm its supremacy - Allen's Coffee Flavored Brandy is at the top of the list. According to Somerville, Mass.-based M.S. Walker, which makes Allen's, it sells more coffee flavored brandy in Maine than anywhere else.

I've blogged about this before, so I won't go into too much statistical detail, but Allen's crushes the competition. The state tracks different bottle sizes separately, so one particular brand might appear more than once in its list of Top 25 liquors (beers, wines and products like Twisted Tea, unfortunately, do not make the list).

Allen's CFB - as it has every year I've checked - appears four times in the Top 10 spots for 2010. Orloff Vodka and Captain Morgan Spiced Rum are the only brands that appear more than once (twice each) in the Top 25, with both ranked Orloff units in the Top 10.

More than $12.3 million worth of Allen's was sold in Maine last year. Captain Morgan, ranked second, was more than $7 million behind in total sales value with nearly $4.9 million. Orloff was third with a paltry $2.78 million.

In terms of volume, Allen's sold more than one million bottles. Orloff sold a total of 285,677 bottles and Captain Morgan's sold 245,779 bottles. If you want to see for yourself, check out this spreadsheet I made.

I should point out that Allen's sales went DOWN last year for the first time in at least six years - by more than half a million dollars in total value and more than 45,000 bottles in total volume. Still, Allen's sales outpaced the other six top-selling units combined.

Why Allen's sells so well in Maine, no one seems to know. Similar to cheesesteaks in Philadelphia, bratwurst in Wisconsin, or peanut brittle in the South, it is one of the more distinctive cultural identifiers out there - only it is a brand, not just a type of anything. Like these other items, it is considered affordable for most people but, unlike the others, Allen's Coffee Flavored Brandy can get you drunk. That doesn't make it more appealing necessarily but, in my book, it certainly makes it a lot more interesting.

The CAT is out of the bay

The CAT is gone, and not just the ferry service between Yarmouth, N.S. and the Maine ports of Bar Harbor and Portland. The high-speed catamaran, which for months has been tied up to the Bay Ferries terminal in Bar Harbor, has disappeared - and Bay Ferries won't say where it went.
The company's ferry service across the Gulf of Maine was canceled at the end of 2009 after the provincial government in Nova Scotia decided it could no longer afford what had become an annual multi-million dollar subsidy to Bay Ferries, which owned and operated the boat. Bay Ferries said it could not make a profit without the subsidy and so ended more than 50 years of ferry service between Bar Harbor and Yarmouth. From the mid-1950's through 1997, ferry service along the 100-plus-mile route between the two ports was offered on the slower, monohull vessel Bluenose.
Since the service was canceled at the end of 2009, tourism and economic development officials on both sides of the Gulf of Maine have been wringing their hands over the economic impact the lack of ferry service would have on the port communities served by the ferry, especially Yarmouth. Officials have hoped to find a way to restore the ferry service - either with Bay Ferries, with another boat that can carry large trucks and that uses less fuel, or maybe even with another operator altogether.
But the CAT, it seems, is out of whatever future there might be for restoring such service. According to a Jan. 29 letter to the editor in the Bangor Daily News, the ship has left Bar Harbor for good. But the company won't comment on the CAT's departure. Bay Ferries VP Don Cormier has refused to tell local media what has become of the ship.
More than one person who has dealt closely with the CAT's operations in Bar Harbor over the years, however, has said off the record that the boat was sold to a buyer in China. It left Bar Harbor Jan. 23 for South Carolina, they have said, where it is being worked on before it heads to Honolulu and then China, they have said. Who the buyer is they said they did not know.
Not everyone in the area will miss the boat, which was criticized early in its Bar Harbor career for being an alleged menace to whales and to fishermen. In 1998, its first year of operation, the boat struck and killed Yarmouth fisherman Clifford Hood Jr. when it ran over his boat in Yarmouth's harbor (according to this CBC article).
Local criticism of the boat seemed to fade over the years as it avoided further high-profile mishaps and became a routine part of the seascape in Frenchman Bay. Some speculate that a September 2008 bomb threat against the boat may have been made by an irate local fisherman, but no one was ever charged in that incident.
The CAT's economic impact in Bar Harbor certainly was appreciated by local merchants and hoteliers, but now its legacy will include the economic loss left in the wake of the ferry service's cancellation. Approximately 120 full- and part-time Bay Ferries employees lost their jobs when the route was scrapped (according to the BDN), and now 20 more people are losing their jobs with today's closure of the Rodd Colony Harbour Inn in Yarmouth. Mark Rodd, head of the firm that owns the hotel, said the lack of cross-gulf ferry service out of Yarmouth is the main reason for the hotel's closure.