Is There Something Wrong with Bangor?

That's kind of a loaded statement. Especially from someone who doesn't live here. I was on Reddit, and someone posed the question, "What's up with Bangor?" At first, I thought maybe it was chiefly a statement posed by a resident who was just fed up with life in the 04401. But who knows where the original poster was from.

However, I took a good long look at the comments, and saw a lot of Bangor residents offering up their opinions of our little city. But let's look at the points made in the post. and see where this person thinks the problems lie. The person was quick to point out all of our good attributes, and then point out that Bangor seems "dead".

Maybe all those things "wrong" are what make us right.

Lots of folks in the comments pointed out some of the challenges Bangor faces economically and population-wise. But Bangor became a hot spot for real estate during the pandemic. All sorts of new folks found plenty about Bangtown that made them wanna move here. Then the comparisons start with Portland.

Sure, Bangor doesn't have all the restaurants and coffee shops and art galleries and everything else that Portland has. But we have one thing they don't... We're Bangor. And it's pretty much just the way we like it. Sure, no one will have good things to say all the time, but maybe what's so "awesome" about the hustle and bustle of Portland, is just something we're not interested in.

Portland has already pretty much become North Boston.

Why would we want to become North Portland? We're already Bangor, and that's plenty cool enough. New restaurants and food trucks open all the time. Heck, the cryptozoology museum in Portland is actually moving to Bangor. So soon that will be ours. So what do they have that we don't? Portland doesn't even have a casino.

Sure, you can get on Reddit and make Bangor out to be some dying little riverside city, but those of that live here know how good we have it. And this is coming from a guy who lived in Portland for 20 years. I've seen the differences firsthand, and they're the reason I call this area my home.