In the last article we discussed some of the plan of the Maine’s Quality of Place and Job Growth and my distaste for its education policy in particular. To remind you, here is the last five-step that we are going over today:

6. The University of Maine System is urged, as well, to designate community planning and architectural design as a “critical discipline” within the UMS Agenda for Action and, to develop related education, research, and outreach capacity.

The Council proposes to add to our traditional approaches to creating economic prosperity a new and needed approach — a Quality of Place Investment Strategy.

7. The Maine Community College System should add to its existing offerings training in historic preservation, high-quality building techniques, and traditional and contemporary crafts art.

8. Greater Portland Landmarks (through its Center for Architecture and Preservation), the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, and Maine Preservation should collaborate to develop historic and neighborhood preservation training for local planning boards and state agency staff working with the built environment.

C. Private Landowners and Public Access
9. The State is urged to support and strengthen its Maine Landowner Relations Program (MLRP) to ensure continuing public access to private land.

D. Community and Downtown Vitality
10. The Governor and Legislature are urged to adopt a clear, unequivocal policy statement in support of Maine community and downtown revitalization.
Now there is some good to this plan, Though an earlier bullet for this is the fact that they encouraged the tourist business and jobs in that field. In the 6th and 7th bullet, they are now encouraging architecture and history, along with contemporary craft arts. This is a more varied combination I can support, mostly due to the fact that these studies can be used to preserve the history of Maine and encourage future development. I do worry about the craft arts(this implies a trade rather than art in general), but in my opinion, this is a step closer to the direction I seek, which was a Maine that prioritizes science, history and the arts.

The 8th bullet is a minor one which follows up on the historical preservation of a major city in Maine. The primary goal of this is no doubt an attempt to get historical locations renovated for tourism, but I do agree with the preservation of our history. The reasoning behind that is that without history, we can not learn either the rights or wrongs of our predecessor. A cliche reason, but nevertheless if we don’t respect the past of our communities, including our failures, then we are doomed to repeat them.

The 9th bullet is very important to understand as this is a major issue in Maine. In more rural areas it isn’t uncommon for those that own a home to also own a good deal of land around those homes. These privately owned lands are constantly trespassed by hunters, though sometimes it due to a lack of territory markers, it is also due to them not really caring as these homeowners generally lack some form of defense against these trespassers, but are in the right for legal action. This plan was to get the State to allow public access to these lands, though the owners paid for them. This is a foolish attempt as I bet most homeowners would like to choose who they want and who they don’t want on their property. This is a simple issue that could be resolved with proper policing on these lands, which the state should do to protect the property of its taxpayers, but instead they choose to get the homeowners to agree with letting people trample through, a worrying prospect.

The 10th and final bullet, the slap in the face for those who read this, is the clear cut fact that this is a plan and they tend to change, but this plan, of all the plans, urges the government to work together. This of all things in a plan that is already published as an official document and plan of action for the state tells me that the infighting is so bad in legislation that we need to make it part of the plan to make Maine better. I am sad to report that when our governors changed the infight only worsened and I fear that our state is no longer following this plan and are now just getting into a battle of ideologies while the young and old suffer for not getting the aid they need.