I’m early 40s, white, grew up in greater Portland and have spent my entire life here.

For most of my life, Portland was a dying city, and Maine was a dying state: there weren’t a lot of opportunities, and the majority of people that chose to live here cared more about the way of life than the potential for a better life elsewhere.

Fast forward to today, and a lot of parts of Maine have changed drastically over the last 10-20 years. Portland, Biddeford, Lewiston… I’ve spent a decent amount of time in each city and they’re barely recognizable to me from what they were 15 years ago. That’s factor 1, because people just don’t like change.

Factor 2 is the impact of that change - the middle/lower middle class in Maine has suffered as a result of southern Maine’s growth. My parents are a good example: they’ve had a hard time keeping up with rising costs (taxes/fees) in Portland the last 20 years, but last year was the final nail in the coffin for them: they lived on Munjoy Hill and their property value was reevaluated at more than double what it was. Their house was not very nice and the assessed value was more what it could be worth than what it is worth today. But, they lost their appeal and had to sell it. To this day, it’s the only time I’ve seen my father cry other than for deaths in the family. He had lived on Munjoy his entire life. People assumed they made a ton of money, but it was only enough to buy a similar house outside the city and pay a few grand in medical bills. My parents are both pretty bitter about it still, and have complained about the city, “yuppies”, and immigrants in equal parts. Having grown up on the hill, I can 100% say that they’ve always complained about the city and yuppies; immigrants are a new one, because we had all sorts of immigrants growing up and my father in particular was always interested in their stories. They’re just upset they’ve collateral damage to the city changing.

So, the consequence of these changes is that you’ve got a lot of people left behind… their cities/towns/neighborhoods have been part of their identities and are lost. It’s been tough for me watching my parents deal with it and the bitterness it’s caused; I grew up lower middle class at best and in addition to other white people we had African Americans, Cambodians, Somalis, and Sudanese as neighbors. My parents taught me to see them all as equals and I really don’t think what they say now is from their hearts. I just think that visible minorities are an easy target for all the frustration these days, and I hope we can move past that to address the real problems.