It’s so very sad. We came to live here 45 years ago. Bar Harbor was thriving. Lots of stores stayed open year round, but they weren’t t-shirt shops. Newsagent, on the corner ot Cottage. Regular clothing stores. Wiley’s. Two drug stores. Etc. It was crowded in summer but festive. It was lively but pleasant. You could find parking and it was free. Jordan’s stayed open, so did Geddy’s and others. It was OUR town.
"Has become a company town?" Heck Bar Harbor has been a company town for decades and the name of that company is"Ocean Properties." The long list of transgressions that followed Ocean Properties arrival in Bar Harbor began with the erection of "The Regency" next to the Ferry Terminal. Bar Harbor at that time had no chain motel/hotels and wished to remain that way. Walsh assured town officials that The Regency was going to be a high end destination resort and on that basis a building permit was granted. Not long after the opening ceremony a Holiday Inn sign went up! In the following decades Ocean Properties committed so many violations of permits that it would take a cultural anthropologist several years to research and document them. Emboldened by each victory Ocean Properties has finally reached the stage where their lawyer feels he can boldly state on record that the company is going to "stonewall" the citizens initiative limiting cruise ship passenger debarkations to 1,000 per day in direct defiance of a Federal Court order. When,one wonders, are the citizens of Bar Harbor going to say enough is enough and start fighting back in earnest.To quote a once famous naval officer, "Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!
Thank you so much for your thorough and well documented coverage of the Bar Harbor Town Council''s effort to overturn the citizens' Cruise Ship Ordinance vote. We can only hope that we citizens will again speak loud and clear come November that we do not want to allow Cruise ships and their benefactors to control our town. Again, thank you!
The Town Council's disrespect for the wishes of the public and blatant support of an industry that ruins the quality of life and Bar Harbor needs to be broadcast to a wider audience. We need national attention for our national park. Lets all work on this using our networks to get the story out about what is going on in Bar Harbor. If you are reading about this travesty in the Quietside talk to your friends, family and post this story on your social media. Don't let the town council sign a contract with the cruise ship industry that will ruin Bar Harbor forever.
Too late. Bar Harbor is already ruined by over promotion of tourism and all that it brings (airBnBs displacing year round housing, seasonal jobs that don’t benefit locals, overcrowding, and entire neighborhoods that are practically boarded up for the winter)
The counsel has sold our town out to junk peddlers and restaurant owners that need a captive population to stay in business. The only solace is knowing the cruise people have no real interest in the park itself outside the ocean drive segment so while the town is gone the park is still there for us to enjoy in relative peace.
I was rereading some older issues of the Quietside Journal and chanced upon your comment regarding still being able to enjoy ANP. While I wish that were true I'm afraid it is not. I ran a charter boat operation in Bar Harbor for nearly 3 decades which catered to folks who love nature and wildlife. For the last 10 years my guest's complaints have centered upon three things 1) Cruise ships, 2) Huge price increases of hotels and restaurants, and 3) Severe overcrowding in ANP. Common complaints include having to walk great distances from the nearest available parking to trail heads, severe overcrowding on trails, and reckless cyclists on the carriage roads. Probably little or none of this is a result of cruise ships but rather probably relates to the multitude of Internet sites that lay out the "Best" trails, carriage roads, lakes, ponds, bicycle rides, photo sites, canoe trips, sea kayaking routes, etc. Traffic at the Cadillac summit eventually became so unbearable that park authorities were forced to institute a permit system. Riding bicycles on the two way section of the Park Loop Road can often be a terrifying experience and after years of riding two to three thousand miles a year on the Park Loop and the Cadillac Mtn. Road I was finally forced to sell my road bike and switch to carriage road only mode. One of my favorite spots to canoe and/or photograph was Bubble Pond the parking lot of which was made off limits by park authorities to create more parking for Explorer buses. Enjoying Acadia is still possible but it takes a mix of good luck and advanced planning to pull it off. Oh for the good ole days!
E-bikes around eagle lake/witch hole are a legit menace, packs of ineptness. The trendy trails like beehive are crowded. I fortunate in that I guess I’m weird in that many of my favorite rides and trails are not part of the “best of lists”. And I’m young enough that I can hike around crowds. I also and a morning person, I’m gone before anyone else is up.
I don’t love the caddy reservations and the bubble pod lot is nonsense.
Let them clog up the trendy stuff, I’ll find my peace
More power to you! Still for an older lover of nature and the out of doors world it's sad to see so much of lovely ANP overrun by folks just wishing to fill their "bucket list" of "best of" places...
In my earlier comment I failed to thank both the Quietside Journal and the three lawyers for their detailed comments on this issue. One would hope that once members of the Town Council read this article they will have the good grace (and good sense) to tear up their proposal and start enforcing the will of the people. To do otherwise would be most unwise.
Welcome to Bar Harbor Inc., or, Ocean Properties and our homegrown Big APPLL! It was once a little seaside town called Bar Harbor, but the Town officials are doing their damnedest to sell the last vestiges of its soul to Big Cruise.
I give my profound thanks to Mr. Scott, Mr. Pessoa, and the retired appellate judge for their expert opinions on the contract from hell. There is no way a small town, essentially governed by well meaning volunteers with no professional expertise and shallow pockets to pay for lawsuits with Big Cruise should get entangled in this incredibly
bizarro contract.
Unfortunately, it appears that Ocean Properties, and APPLL now have two law firms working for them: Eaton Peabody, and our town attorneys, Rudman and Winchell , and ,yes, the Town Council and the Town Manager should be the primary recipient of notices. The Town of Bar has changed law firms in the recent past.
Voters of Bar Harbor should protest vigorously at the August 27, 2024 hearing, write to their Town Councilors, and Planning Board, and Warrant Committee, the QSJ, the Islander, and Bar Harbor Story, and give information contained in the QSJ to their neighbors. Otherwise, the big white elephants will be polluting and congesting the waters and lands of this beautiful Island for decades to come . The key action, though , will be to vote NO on this Repeal and Replace of the Cruise ship ordinance that currently has the voter approved cap of 1,000 passengers daily.
An update from the most recent draft, and the "smoking gun" as to what's afoot:
"ARTICLE VIII Amendments of this Chapter § 50-18. Amendments This Chapter may be amended consistent with other Town ordinances, except that any amendments inconsistent with a cruise line contract pursuant to Articles III and V or coordination contract pursuant to 50-15B then in force shall not apply to the parties to such contracts unless and until such contracts expire or are terminated in accordance with their terms."
So the final draft of the proposed ordinance abdicates the town's future exercise of its regulatory authority (including by voters) to amend the ordinance or reduce the visitor cap for the five-year period of the anticipated contracts with the cruise lines or disembarkation facilities.
There is a real question as to whether the current council has the legal authority to so bind a future council or the voters; most courts would say no. And this provision leaves the legislation subject to a likely successful challenge as an unlawful attempt to contract away the town's regulatory authority. The more prudent course would be expressly to make such contracts subject to future amendments of the ordinance by the council or voters, so as to remove these concerns.
Bear with me. Our founding fathers knew guns were constantly being reinvented and if blessed with foresight, or saw Leonardo’s machine gun and imagined a mini version like an Uzi that a 12 year old standing alone on Breed’s Hill, could use to mow down the British troops in a virtual heartbeat, the revolutionary war would have been over before it began. In that case the sainted second amendment would have as many exclusionary clauses as the list of complaints our Declaration of Independence made against King George III. The founding fathers were elitists. Freedom was exclusively for white men that owned property. They alone could vote. They never ever would have allowed everyday rabble to be gun owners. These white male elitists treated women as opinionated chattel and saw people of color as sub-human. All men are created equal was a metaphorical dagger to the heart of royal rule, murdering its nonsensical premise of divine right for the inbred. For those of you who may be wondering what in god’s name this has to do with cruise ships, our founding fathers displayed an appalling, debilitating lack of foresight, totally ignoring the huge leaps in weaponry over the ages that was sure to continue forever. Like it or not, the Bar Harbor Town Council are the stewards of MDI and there’s a lot more to this than just crowded streets and over tourism. Leadership that Ignores the accumulative environmental damage the cruise industry is rooted in, for the immediacy of a few extra dollars, is criminally myopic. Our founding fathers never looked past guns shooting more than seven rounds a minute and this council is blinded by our clean air and water that is under siege with every visit. Shocking in these environmentally aware times. It’s also careless, callous stupidity not to recognize that if allowed to continue at the present levels it will come back as a nightmare that future generations will be forced to live with. Also, it’s impossible not to mention COA, alleged shepherds of the environment, their silence is tacit approval even as their front yard, Frenchman Bay, sees cruise ship idling 24/7. That begs a couple of questions. Do they test campus air quality? Do they care about the health of their students? And other than a lab course in hypocrisy, what exactly are they teaching the future guardians of the environment?
It’s so very sad. We came to live here 45 years ago. Bar Harbor was thriving. Lots of stores stayed open year round, but they weren’t t-shirt shops. Newsagent, on the corner ot Cottage. Regular clothing stores. Wiley’s. Two drug stores. Etc. It was crowded in summer but festive. It was lively but pleasant. You could find parking and it was free. Jordan’s stayed open, so did Geddy’s and others. It was OUR town.
They’ve about killed it.
Our town council is owned by the cruise ship industry
Bar Harbor has become a company town….
"Has become a company town?" Heck Bar Harbor has been a company town for decades and the name of that company is"Ocean Properties." The long list of transgressions that followed Ocean Properties arrival in Bar Harbor began with the erection of "The Regency" next to the Ferry Terminal. Bar Harbor at that time had no chain motel/hotels and wished to remain that way. Walsh assured town officials that The Regency was going to be a high end destination resort and on that basis a building permit was granted. Not long after the opening ceremony a Holiday Inn sign went up! In the following decades Ocean Properties committed so many violations of permits that it would take a cultural anthropologist several years to research and document them. Emboldened by each victory Ocean Properties has finally reached the stage where their lawyer feels he can boldly state on record that the company is going to "stonewall" the citizens initiative limiting cruise ship passenger debarkations to 1,000 per day in direct defiance of a Federal Court order. When,one wonders, are the citizens of Bar Harbor going to say enough is enough and start fighting back in earnest.To quote a once famous naval officer, "Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!
Thank you so much for your thorough and well documented coverage of the Bar Harbor Town Council''s effort to overturn the citizens' Cruise Ship Ordinance vote. We can only hope that we citizens will again speak loud and clear come November that we do not want to allow Cruise ships and their benefactors to control our town. Again, thank you!
The Town Council's disrespect for the wishes of the public and blatant support of an industry that ruins the quality of life and Bar Harbor needs to be broadcast to a wider audience. We need national attention for our national park. Lets all work on this using our networks to get the story out about what is going on in Bar Harbor. If you are reading about this travesty in the Quietside talk to your friends, family and post this story on your social media. Don't let the town council sign a contract with the cruise ship industry that will ruin Bar Harbor forever.
Too late. Bar Harbor is already ruined by over promotion of tourism and all that it brings (airBnBs displacing year round housing, seasonal jobs that don’t benefit locals, overcrowding, and entire neighborhoods that are practically boarded up for the winter)
It is never too late
The counsel has sold our town out to junk peddlers and restaurant owners that need a captive population to stay in business. The only solace is knowing the cruise people have no real interest in the park itself outside the ocean drive segment so while the town is gone the park is still there for us to enjoy in relative peace.
I was rereading some older issues of the Quietside Journal and chanced upon your comment regarding still being able to enjoy ANP. While I wish that were true I'm afraid it is not. I ran a charter boat operation in Bar Harbor for nearly 3 decades which catered to folks who love nature and wildlife. For the last 10 years my guest's complaints have centered upon three things 1) Cruise ships, 2) Huge price increases of hotels and restaurants, and 3) Severe overcrowding in ANP. Common complaints include having to walk great distances from the nearest available parking to trail heads, severe overcrowding on trails, and reckless cyclists on the carriage roads. Probably little or none of this is a result of cruise ships but rather probably relates to the multitude of Internet sites that lay out the "Best" trails, carriage roads, lakes, ponds, bicycle rides, photo sites, canoe trips, sea kayaking routes, etc. Traffic at the Cadillac summit eventually became so unbearable that park authorities were forced to institute a permit system. Riding bicycles on the two way section of the Park Loop Road can often be a terrifying experience and after years of riding two to three thousand miles a year on the Park Loop and the Cadillac Mtn. Road I was finally forced to sell my road bike and switch to carriage road only mode. One of my favorite spots to canoe and/or photograph was Bubble Pond the parking lot of which was made off limits by park authorities to create more parking for Explorer buses. Enjoying Acadia is still possible but it takes a mix of good luck and advanced planning to pull it off. Oh for the good ole days!
E-bikes around eagle lake/witch hole are a legit menace, packs of ineptness. The trendy trails like beehive are crowded. I fortunate in that I guess I’m weird in that many of my favorite rides and trails are not part of the “best of lists”. And I’m young enough that I can hike around crowds. I also and a morning person, I’m gone before anyone else is up.
I don’t love the caddy reservations and the bubble pod lot is nonsense.
Let them clog up the trendy stuff, I’ll find my peace
More power to you! Still for an older lover of nature and the out of doors world it's sad to see so much of lovely ANP overrun by folks just wishing to fill their "bucket list" of "best of" places...
In my earlier comment I failed to thank both the Quietside Journal and the three lawyers for their detailed comments on this issue. One would hope that once members of the Town Council read this article they will have the good grace (and good sense) to tear up their proposal and start enforcing the will of the people. To do otherwise would be most unwise.
Welcome to Bar Harbor Inc., or, Ocean Properties and our homegrown Big APPLL! It was once a little seaside town called Bar Harbor, but the Town officials are doing their damnedest to sell the last vestiges of its soul to Big Cruise.
I give my profound thanks to Mr. Scott, Mr. Pessoa, and the retired appellate judge for their expert opinions on the contract from hell. There is no way a small town, essentially governed by well meaning volunteers with no professional expertise and shallow pockets to pay for lawsuits with Big Cruise should get entangled in this incredibly
bizarro contract.
Unfortunately, it appears that Ocean Properties, and APPLL now have two law firms working for them: Eaton Peabody, and our town attorneys, Rudman and Winchell , and ,yes, the Town Council and the Town Manager should be the primary recipient of notices. The Town of Bar has changed law firms in the recent past.
Voters of Bar Harbor should protest vigorously at the August 27, 2024 hearing, write to their Town Councilors, and Planning Board, and Warrant Committee, the QSJ, the Islander, and Bar Harbor Story, and give information contained in the QSJ to their neighbors. Otherwise, the big white elephants will be polluting and congesting the waters and lands of this beautiful Island for decades to come . The key action, though , will be to vote NO on this Repeal and Replace of the Cruise ship ordinance that currently has the voter approved cap of 1,000 passengers daily.
Well said and said well!
Thank you for your work in managing the beasts and their owners before it gets even worse!
An update from the most recent draft, and the "smoking gun" as to what's afoot:
"ARTICLE VIII Amendments of this Chapter § 50-18. Amendments This Chapter may be amended consistent with other Town ordinances, except that any amendments inconsistent with a cruise line contract pursuant to Articles III and V or coordination contract pursuant to 50-15B then in force shall not apply to the parties to such contracts unless and until such contracts expire or are terminated in accordance with their terms."
So the final draft of the proposed ordinance abdicates the town's future exercise of its regulatory authority (including by voters) to amend the ordinance or reduce the visitor cap for the five-year period of the anticipated contracts with the cruise lines or disembarkation facilities.
There is a real question as to whether the current council has the legal authority to so bind a future council or the voters; most courts would say no. And this provision leaves the legislation subject to a likely successful challenge as an unlawful attempt to contract away the town's regulatory authority. The more prudent course would be expressly to make such contracts subject to future amendments of the ordinance by the council or voters, so as to remove these concerns.
Great article, Lincoln. It gives me hope.
Bear with me. Our founding fathers knew guns were constantly being reinvented and if blessed with foresight, or saw Leonardo’s machine gun and imagined a mini version like an Uzi that a 12 year old standing alone on Breed’s Hill, could use to mow down the British troops in a virtual heartbeat, the revolutionary war would have been over before it began. In that case the sainted second amendment would have as many exclusionary clauses as the list of complaints our Declaration of Independence made against King George III. The founding fathers were elitists. Freedom was exclusively for white men that owned property. They alone could vote. They never ever would have allowed everyday rabble to be gun owners. These white male elitists treated women as opinionated chattel and saw people of color as sub-human. All men are created equal was a metaphorical dagger to the heart of royal rule, murdering its nonsensical premise of divine right for the inbred. For those of you who may be wondering what in god’s name this has to do with cruise ships, our founding fathers displayed an appalling, debilitating lack of foresight, totally ignoring the huge leaps in weaponry over the ages that was sure to continue forever. Like it or not, the Bar Harbor Town Council are the stewards of MDI and there’s a lot more to this than just crowded streets and over tourism. Leadership that Ignores the accumulative environmental damage the cruise industry is rooted in, for the immediacy of a few extra dollars, is criminally myopic. Our founding fathers never looked past guns shooting more than seven rounds a minute and this council is blinded by our clean air and water that is under siege with every visit. Shocking in these environmentally aware times. It’s also careless, callous stupidity not to recognize that if allowed to continue at the present levels it will come back as a nightmare that future generations will be forced to live with. Also, it’s impossible not to mention COA, alleged shepherds of the environment, their silence is tacit approval even as their front yard, Frenchman Bay, sees cruise ship idling 24/7. That begs a couple of questions. Do they test campus air quality? Do they care about the health of their students? And other than a lab course in hypocrisy, what exactly are they teaching the future guardians of the environment?