Maine Street
I gotta tell ya, Mainers really live up to that famous sign you see when you cross the bridge: Maine, The Way Life Should Be. All across the country, local newspapers can’t make a go of it and are on the selling block. Most have been bought by private equity firms who are good at gutting an organization to turn a profit but couldn’t care less about the local news, or the people who report and read it. They come to town, put the kaboomer on newsrooms, sell the real estate, and that’s it for everything from local government reporting to high school sports. You know the deal. But when a Mainer named Reade Brower, owner of the Portland Press Herald and twenty-five weekly newspapers across the state, was retiring and looking to sell, he decided to do right by the locals. Instead of putting the papers in the hands of vulture capitalists, he sold them to the nonprofit National Trust for Local News who will maintain all the papers’ staff and the local news will carry on. Hey, that’s the Maine way.
Here’s another Maine story I’ve been following. The Colonial Theatre in Belfast, up around Penobscot Bay, has closed. The 110-year-old movie house is a beautiful, charming, romantic place. It has three theaters, a balcony, and a stage for community events. Mike Hurley and his wife Theresa have been running things there for twenty-seven years. But now it’s time for them to retire. The cinema is a shipshape, turnkey operation. It has a really cool concession stand ready to pump out fresh, hot popcorn. A little butter and salt, please. As Mike Hurley says, “The next owner will inherit a cultural icon.” The Hurleys want to find a new owner who has the same passion for the place as they do. They will. The show will go on. In Maine, that’s how they do things. It’s all about preserving community.
Keep your dukes up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvVtjaOnwog
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