5 Recommendations for the City of Portland relevant to infrastructure:
1. The parking situation in downtown Portland is not great, especially during the winter when snow removal blocks off portions of streets. Could we come up with a way to improve upon parking?
2. The public transportation system stinks; the buses run sporadically and there is little to no signage or mention of how the system works.
3. Can we create some kind of infrastructure (combined with tourist attractions) that will make tourism in winter more accessible?
4. There seems to be a large divide between the local suburbs (or even just more residential areas of the actual city of Portland) and the downtown area. Can we adjust the transportation system between these areas to help link them to downtown Portland?
5. Maps placed around Portland would be very helpful to orient tourists (and even residents) to Portland geography. There are very few maps around the downtown area and the ones that exist are specifically in Old Port; maps placed in areas of Portland would be beneficial to people navigating the city by foot or bike who do not have GPS access.
When I walked around downtown Portland last Sunday for the field trip, the most surprising lack of infrastructure to me was the absence of a practical public transportation system. We walked around Portland for approximately 3 hours and saw so few buses pass by that we did not realize there was a public transportation system. Professor Gieseking even gave us an example of how spotty the bus service is in Portland; she explained how the bus is supposed to run every 30 minutes to the airport, but often is late or does not show up at all. While I do believe that Portland is quite a walkable city, the lack of a functional public transportation system makes it difficult for residents and visitors to access different parts of the city. I also believe that a better transportation system in downtown Portland as well as the greater Portland area would, to a certain degree, alleviate issues with seasonal access to Portland.
If Portland were more accessible to people without cars, I believe it would become a larger tourism hub in New England. I realized this from my experiences in Portland as a Bowdoin student last year; I found it difficult to go to Portland without using Bowdoin’s shuttle/taxi agreement because I did not have a car on campus. The Amtrak Downeaster and the Concord Coach Lines bus do not stop in downtown Portland, making it very difficult for people to access the city without either having a car or spending exorbitant amounts of money on taxis. I believe that if there were more ways for people to access the downtown area from neighboring suburbs or even from farther away, Portland would have less of an issue with seasonal tourism.
What I find very interesting about public transportation in Portland is that it is not an issue discussed in City Council meetings. I have browsed all of the minutes and agendas from meetings in the last three months, and none has mentioned public transportation. The July meetings mentioned the “Portland Area Transportation System,” but on closer look, the discussions in this category were only about funding for road repair and traffic lights {1}. It seems slightly ridiculous to me that representatives in Portland can be unhappy about things like the lack of winter tourism when they have not figured out ways to make the city more accessible at all times of the year. I do not think Portland is necessarily ready to become a “smart” city along the lines of cities discussed in Adam Greenfield’s “Against the smart city” because it not only lacks the financial support to overhaul its technology but it also has a certain New England charm that could and most likely would be compromised by large-scale changes. While Portland could probably use a transportation app and a new bus map (see below) to help residents and tourists with transportation around Portland, I am not sure if Portland could benefit from a major change in transportation infrastructure, as a major change could potentially reshape the city and people’s perceptions of Portland. This made me think about how even though I am in support of certain aspects of smart infrastructure, I do agree with some of Greenfield’s points. Greenfield discusses how implementing smart technology in cities is often assuming that “there is one and only one universal and transcendently correct solution to each identified individual or collective human need” {2}. Humans are not perfect and cannot live in an entirely regulated world. I believe that drastically changing something like the public transportation system in Portland into a specific, technologically smart system would be trying to achieve a robotic, futuristic perfection that does not exist in the culture of Portland. However, I do think that creating tangible change through a transportation app and a phased-in reworking of the transportation system would be highly beneficial to residents and visitors of Portland.
{1} Portland City Council. “Regular City Council Meeting Agenda.” Portland City Agenda Center. http://portlandmaine.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/07212014-479?html=true (accessed September 24, 2014).
{2} Greenfield, Adam. Against the smart city. New York City: Do projects, 2013. Kindle loc. 432.
{3} “Main Map.” Greater Portland Transit District. http://gpmetrobus.net/index.php/main-map (accessed September 24, 2014).
I like your suggestion to rehaul the public transportation system, specifically the bus lines. I, too, have experienced the difficulty of traveling across Portland from the Greyhound and Concord Coach stations to the Old Port and airport and had two comments from mental map participants along the same lines. I believe this issue is manageable and should be brought up to the City Council. These difficulties can certainly be related to the difficulty of tourism in the off-season, another reason the Council would want to address the issue. Perhaps we can draft a list of simple changes to the existing system as a first step towards a larger, city-wide reform.
I found all your smart recommendations to be very realistic and likely effective. More widespread display (and improvement of the quality) of maps of Portland is something a few of us are concerned about and seems like an easy fix. Further, public transportation is definitely something that Portland is lacking and we should get to the bottom of it. I also completely agree that there does seem to be a large divide between downtown and the suburbs for such a small city. I did not consider that the lack of public transportation might be a cause for it, but rather thought that class differences might have just been a reason why the some people from the suburbs seem to be so separate from the city. Even though it might be a social issue, I think that the way the transportation infrastructure has either caused this divide or at least is reinforcing it. Finally, I also was strongly concerned about how to keep Portland going during the winter. I too was worried about how some smart technology might take away from some of the New England charm of the city, but it does seem like improved public transportation and maps would not take away from this charm. And the lack of many winter festivals in northern New England could be an opportunity for Portland to invest in and produce some more charm.
Very interesting reading of the connection(s) between Portland’s tourism’s seasonality and the relative lack of public transportation access to the City. I definitely agree that the current bus system can be better designed and streamlined to make connections easier/fit people’s schedules better. However, I am not quite sure about its connection to seasonality issues. Portland’s public transportation can be considered bad all year round, however, during the summer months, I don’t think many people would argue Portland still lacks tourism. Most tourists to Portland, Maine have found it accessible through its Amtrak service, expressways coverage, and proximity to Boston Logan Airport. The same infrastructure exist in the winter months too, suggesting a possibly different reason other than lack of public transportation for tourism’s seasonality.
Your thoughts on improving the public transportation system in Portland and access to public transportation is very compelling and likely able to be implemented. The public transportation system in Portland is pretty bad and kind of embarrassingly inefficient and unreliable compared to other cities of comparable size–it is definitely something that needs to be fixed. Could you further elaborate on it being related to seasonal tourism? I am not quite sure I see a correlation, as Portland is one of Maine’s biggest attractions and has a pretty constant flow of tourism throughout every season. Further, I agree with accessibility being a problem, however, I also think that it just may be due to the nature of Portland’s small size and location within Maine on a peninsula.
It is often the suggestions that seem almost too small to recognize that will cause the biggest ripples, which is exactly what you have here. And this is often your approach, no? It’s a good one. Keep small and focused and clear for the final paper and your ideas–strong, rigorous–will allow demonstrate the more profound outcomes and change to be the strength in your work.