I’m born and raised in BH, as were my parents, grand parents and beyond. BH has hardly had stitch of year round business since my grand parents early days. If you were actually from here you would know that. I’m also in the hospitality industry and far from a “millionaire restauranteur and hotelier”. People see a few kids flying around in sports cars and just assume that anyone who owns a tourist driven business is living the high life. There are plenty of us working very hard living normal lives. You’ve got blinders on and have no care for people like us. It’s highly offensive. As far as STRs go…the ordinance is in place and it’s working. Don’t blame the cost of real estate on that anymore. It’s a tired trope and couldn’t be further from the truth. The island is a desirable place to live. It’s expensive. Affordability doesn’t exist anywhere except for god forsaken places that most would not want to live in. Wealthy retirees paying large sums of money for homes..every time a piece of property goes up for sale one of our lovely, business like non profits that don’t pay property tax is at the table ready to over pay and the simple fact is that the US is no longer “affordable” almost across the board. A handful of Uber wealthy business owners who are the minority in BH aren’t the root cause of that. Blame global capitalism instead. As far as council? There is zero representation from the hospitality industry on it. I voted for each and everyone of them and with the exception of a few, it’s an incredibly inefficient body that wastes tax dollars and focused productivity to the nth degree. There’s no maniacal tourism cabal conspiracy on town council. Just incompetence. As far as your attitude on property tax goes, I’m thrilled for you that you can afford to “not care” about them. Good for you. I, like many, have to bust my ass to make a living and pay way too much property tax for what I consume. not because of tourism. A few out of town retirees built and bought in my neighborhood for a lot of dough. The amount of tax exempt land in BH is out of control and so on and so on. Not a stitch of my bloated expenses have anything to do with an STR. Tourism is what feeds the town. It’s time to find ways to harness its benefits for all instead of trying dismantle it and turn it into an overpriced retirement community with a few non profits buying everything else up. Get over it and move on to something more useful and productive. If not, just remember, you don’t have to live here.
We need to vote against anyone associated with APPLL and the chamber. These organizations are hostile to anyone that isn’t already wealthy and exploiting the town. It’s time to give some power to the residents not benefiting from the tourist trade. Enough is enough.
Residents of Bar Harbor, those who intend to vote this election for a sustainable future for themselves, their families and the community at large, should discern that the proliferation of campaign signs for several individuals seeking your vote, also proclaim deep pockets. $$$ Money to finance their campaigns to hold office and run Bar Harbor in the interest of their businesses over the interests of town residents.
Over the past 15-years Bar Harbor has become a cash cow for some, at the expense of all others. Business interests seek the spending of tourists while they spread the costs of tourism to the town residents. A town resident does not produce a truckload of garbage a week, yet that same resident helps pay for the truckload of trash produced by each restaurant and hotel. How did this come about? By voting for people who represent the profits of their businesses, not the interests of town residents.
Doubling property taxes is not sustainable. The costs of tourism are being passed to home owners. If the town is run to maximize profits from tourism, the town will run its residents out of their homes...to make room for employees of restaurants and hotels and ultimately to make room for more 40-room "B&B's."
The future of Bar Harbor is up to the voters. Vote wisely. And know that those who don't vote are actually voting for continued tax increases and tourism subsidies. Make sure your neighbors can get to the ballot. Give them a ride if they need one.
And there is not one councilor currently shilling for the tourism sector. Non profits have more than adequate representation currently. One actually makes his bread off of it.
If using trash as a reference, one town councilor stated that solid waste comprises 4% of our property tax. The school alone necessitated a 20% tax increase and that did not even remotely consider consolidation. I’m all for replacing the school but not in haste. How many housing opportunities has the library demolished and taken off the tax rolls?…2 with another one coming down for a parking lot. COA just ponied up $3.2 mil for the bike shop? How many VR-2 permits does COA occupy? I’ve been told 18. After the library’s vanity project is complete they will be seeking over a $500k subsidy. If the info I’ve received is correct…that’s approaching 50% of the the solid waste budget. Jax does not pay property tax for their campus nor does COA. All major trash producers themselves. I’ve read that 100 lodging properties alone comprise 15% of total property tax revenue and ship 9% of all their proceeds go to the state in which BH gets around $500-600k in return which is abysmal. It’s easy to pick at the low hanging fruit of populist nonsense but numbers don’t lie. I think your gripe is aimed at the wrong entities. Wake up folks.
Not all of us utilize a $90 million school or a $15 million library or work at the Jackson lab or go to COA….yet we all pay for it. It’s a tourist town folks. That’s what makes the wheels go round and how the majority of people complaining about it found us in the first place. Town manager already commented on the budget. The bonded indebtedness is what’s straining taxes…not tourism.
“It’s a tourist town folks” — yes, it has been for over a hundred years; however, things have not always been this extreme. Bar Harbor used to have year round business that catered to locals. Now nearly 25% of the dwellings in Bar Harbor are short term rentals (and the demand for STRs certainly contributed to making homes unaffordable for many workers) and most businesses owners don’t give a crap about locals — they just want larger and larger crowds of tourists.
I’m not concerned about my property taxes. I’m more concerned about my town turning into a Disneyland staffed entirely by transient worker with no actual locals.
I’d like to live in a town where entire streets don’t become abandoned come November and teachers, nurses, and firefighters can afford to live here — not just millionaire restauranteurs and hoteliers.
Bar Harbor is like a 3-season Disneyland. Except the town does not charge or benefit from an admission price; instead, the tourism costs, both financial costs (for example: the Transfer Station, the bigger police and fire departments, the bigger sewer infrastructure, etc.) and intangible costs (for example: jampacked sidewalks and streets which discourage locals from venturing out to the post office, library, bank, grocery store or parks and the now inadequate/scarce residential parking, etc.) are costs paid by the residents.
The Bar Harbor Town Council should not discourage tourism but it should regulate it to avoid turning the town into a Disneyland inhospitable to residents and it should ensure that tourists and the tourism businesses foot their own costs, not the residents.
PS: On the subject of schools, of course we need to support them, but why are we building a new elementary school when affordable year-round housing has not been adequately addressed? More and more, if not most, workers are coming from off island. If young working families with children can't afford to live in Bar Harbor where will the school-age children come from? Maybe I'm wrong but I believe I read that enrollment has dropped 20 percent over the past 10-years.
Bar Harbor doesn’t need a new school due to enrollment. It needs a new school because the current buildings are beyond their useful life. The current school facilities are an embarrassment. Leaky roofs and windows, mice infestations, wheelchair lifts that do not work, space that is poorly configured for todays educational needs.
When i first learned of plans to build a new school the first thought that came to mind was where are kids going to come from if young families can no longer live here? The way things are headed presently I'm guessing that the days of one room schoolhouses are soon to return to Bar Harbor...
Wait, one can legally put signs on public property??? I am not a Maine resident so I’m not familiar w the laws there but that seems very strange to me. Where I live (Minnesota) yard signs can only be on private property (not including the public right of way between sidewalk and street even).
Maine considers it a first amendment right and has very few restrictions on political signs. Unless they are a safety hazard they are generally allowed on public property
My wife arrived home the other day with a puzzled look on her face, "Who," she asked," is Nina Borland?" When I asked why she wanted to know she replied that this Nina Borland character had covered Bar Harbor with hideous signs announcing her candidacy for Town Council." Somewhat taken aback by all this I replied, "Well given that you were born and raised in Bar Harbor and have lived here most of your life, I would certainly expect you'd know anyone running for Town Council." And then the realization hit me that things have changed to the point where being a lifelong resident of Bar Harbor not only does not guarantee you'll know the people running for Town Council it all but guarantees you won't. Never one to leave my wife in a puzzled state I did some research on this Nina Borland character only to discover that "she" was actually a sort of she/he hybrid. The NINA "she" part being Nina St. Germain the wife one of the builders of Bar Harbor's first (and hopefully last) 44 room Bed & Breakfasts on Cottage Street, and the "he" part being the ex COA student Michael Boland the owner of multiple yuppy style restaurants in Bar Harbor. Just a guess but I find myself doubting that either of them has the best interests of Bar Harbor natives as a goal?
Every time I drive by that hotel I imagine how much more beneficial it could have been as an apartment building providing much needed year round housing. Lots of young professionals (especially those that are single or married without children) working at the hospital, Jackson lab, or school would prefer an apartment. Right now they commute from Ellsworth where there are actually hear round apartments.
The absolute last thing bar harbor needs is more hotel rooms so we can accommodate even more tourists.
If it was “affordable” to develop in that manner someone would have. That property was for sale for a long time. Everyone had a crack at that property for years. I can’t say I’m thrilled about that project either but it is what it is and code compliant. No one else could find an alternative way to develop it. Get over it. The detachment from reality and virtue signaling is disturbing.
Instead of a hotel, the town (meaning the residents, the actual community) could have benefited immensely from an apartment building providing families with year-round housing. Of course, that would not produce returns on investment as lucrative as another hotel, so the interests of the community took a back seat.
Planning for residential housing at this site could have, should have been a major effort of the Town Council. After all, hasn't year-round housing been an issue for many years? Isn't that why weekly rentals have been capped? Isn't community planning, for the benefit of the community, the role of local government? Had the Town Council not been focused on tourism, they might have seen this opportunity to expand housing. The Town Council could have sought development of a housing project; they could have looked for creative ways to assist a developer (limited property tax relief, seek state and federal community development funding, grant/assistance, seek private investment from potential stakeholders whose employees could benefit, such as Jackson Lab, MDI Hospital, etc.). As it is, an opportunity was missed, more tourists will come, a neighborhood will be adversely impacted with heavier traffic on narrow side streets, nearby year-round housing will be less tranquil, less valuable, perhaps sold to become additional parking for the disingenuous B&B which was not required to include enough off-street parking for its occupancy.
Seems that over the past three decades, they pretty much have. The famous phrase from a popular movie, "if you build it, they will come," apparently is the motto of the Chamber of Commerce.
I’m born and raised in BH, as were my parents, grand parents and beyond. BH has hardly had stitch of year round business since my grand parents early days. If you were actually from here you would know that. I’m also in the hospitality industry and far from a “millionaire restauranteur and hotelier”. People see a few kids flying around in sports cars and just assume that anyone who owns a tourist driven business is living the high life. There are plenty of us working very hard living normal lives. You’ve got blinders on and have no care for people like us. It’s highly offensive. As far as STRs go…the ordinance is in place and it’s working. Don’t blame the cost of real estate on that anymore. It’s a tired trope and couldn’t be further from the truth. The island is a desirable place to live. It’s expensive. Affordability doesn’t exist anywhere except for god forsaken places that most would not want to live in. Wealthy retirees paying large sums of money for homes..every time a piece of property goes up for sale one of our lovely, business like non profits that don’t pay property tax is at the table ready to over pay and the simple fact is that the US is no longer “affordable” almost across the board. A handful of Uber wealthy business owners who are the minority in BH aren’t the root cause of that. Blame global capitalism instead. As far as council? There is zero representation from the hospitality industry on it. I voted for each and everyone of them and with the exception of a few, it’s an incredibly inefficient body that wastes tax dollars and focused productivity to the nth degree. There’s no maniacal tourism cabal conspiracy on town council. Just incompetence. As far as your attitude on property tax goes, I’m thrilled for you that you can afford to “not care” about them. Good for you. I, like many, have to bust my ass to make a living and pay way too much property tax for what I consume. not because of tourism. A few out of town retirees built and bought in my neighborhood for a lot of dough. The amount of tax exempt land in BH is out of control and so on and so on. Not a stitch of my bloated expenses have anything to do with an STR. Tourism is what feeds the town. It’s time to find ways to harness its benefits for all instead of trying dismantle it and turn it into an overpriced retirement community with a few non profits buying everything else up. Get over it and move on to something more useful and productive. If not, just remember, you don’t have to live here.
We need to vote against anyone associated with APPLL and the chamber. These organizations are hostile to anyone that isn’t already wealthy and exploiting the town. It’s time to give some power to the residents not benefiting from the tourist trade. Enough is enough.
Residents of Bar Harbor, those who intend to vote this election for a sustainable future for themselves, their families and the community at large, should discern that the proliferation of campaign signs for several individuals seeking your vote, also proclaim deep pockets. $$$ Money to finance their campaigns to hold office and run Bar Harbor in the interest of their businesses over the interests of town residents.
Over the past 15-years Bar Harbor has become a cash cow for some, at the expense of all others. Business interests seek the spending of tourists while they spread the costs of tourism to the town residents. A town resident does not produce a truckload of garbage a week, yet that same resident helps pay for the truckload of trash produced by each restaurant and hotel. How did this come about? By voting for people who represent the profits of their businesses, not the interests of town residents.
Doubling property taxes is not sustainable. The costs of tourism are being passed to home owners. If the town is run to maximize profits from tourism, the town will run its residents out of their homes...to make room for employees of restaurants and hotels and ultimately to make room for more 40-room "B&B's."
The future of Bar Harbor is up to the voters. Vote wisely. And know that those who don't vote are actually voting for continued tax increases and tourism subsidies. Make sure your neighbors can get to the ballot. Give them a ride if they need one.
And there is not one councilor currently shilling for the tourism sector. Non profits have more than adequate representation currently. One actually makes his bread off of it.
If using trash as a reference, one town councilor stated that solid waste comprises 4% of our property tax. The school alone necessitated a 20% tax increase and that did not even remotely consider consolidation. I’m all for replacing the school but not in haste. How many housing opportunities has the library demolished and taken off the tax rolls?…2 with another one coming down for a parking lot. COA just ponied up $3.2 mil for the bike shop? How many VR-2 permits does COA occupy? I’ve been told 18. After the library’s vanity project is complete they will be seeking over a $500k subsidy. If the info I’ve received is correct…that’s approaching 50% of the the solid waste budget. Jax does not pay property tax for their campus nor does COA. All major trash producers themselves. I’ve read that 100 lodging properties alone comprise 15% of total property tax revenue and ship 9% of all their proceeds go to the state in which BH gets around $500-600k in return which is abysmal. It’s easy to pick at the low hanging fruit of populist nonsense but numbers don’t lie. I think your gripe is aimed at the wrong entities. Wake up folks.
Not all of us utilize a $90 million school or a $15 million library or work at the Jackson lab or go to COA….yet we all pay for it. It’s a tourist town folks. That’s what makes the wheels go round and how the majority of people complaining about it found us in the first place. Town manager already commented on the budget. The bonded indebtedness is what’s straining taxes…not tourism.
“It’s a tourist town folks” — yes, it has been for over a hundred years; however, things have not always been this extreme. Bar Harbor used to have year round business that catered to locals. Now nearly 25% of the dwellings in Bar Harbor are short term rentals (and the demand for STRs certainly contributed to making homes unaffordable for many workers) and most businesses owners don’t give a crap about locals — they just want larger and larger crowds of tourists.
I’m not concerned about my property taxes. I’m more concerned about my town turning into a Disneyland staffed entirely by transient worker with no actual locals.
I’d like to live in a town where entire streets don’t become abandoned come November and teachers, nurses, and firefighters can afford to live here — not just millionaire restauranteurs and hoteliers.
Bar Harbor is like a 3-season Disneyland. Except the town does not charge or benefit from an admission price; instead, the tourism costs, both financial costs (for example: the Transfer Station, the bigger police and fire departments, the bigger sewer infrastructure, etc.) and intangible costs (for example: jampacked sidewalks and streets which discourage locals from venturing out to the post office, library, bank, grocery store or parks and the now inadequate/scarce residential parking, etc.) are costs paid by the residents.
The Bar Harbor Town Council should not discourage tourism but it should regulate it to avoid turning the town into a Disneyland inhospitable to residents and it should ensure that tourists and the tourism businesses foot their own costs, not the residents.
PS: On the subject of schools, of course we need to support them, but why are we building a new elementary school when affordable year-round housing has not been adequately addressed? More and more, if not most, workers are coming from off island. If young working families with children can't afford to live in Bar Harbor where will the school-age children come from? Maybe I'm wrong but I believe I read that enrollment has dropped 20 percent over the past 10-years.
Bar Harbor doesn’t need a new school due to enrollment. It needs a new school because the current buildings are beyond their useful life. The current school facilities are an embarrassment. Leaky roofs and windows, mice infestations, wheelchair lifts that do not work, space that is poorly configured for todays educational needs.
When i first learned of plans to build a new school the first thought that came to mind was where are kids going to come from if young families can no longer live here? The way things are headed presently I'm guessing that the days of one room schoolhouses are soon to return to Bar Harbor...
We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate."
- Thomas Jefferson
Wait, one can legally put signs on public property??? I am not a Maine resident so I’m not familiar w the laws there but that seems very strange to me. Where I live (Minnesota) yard signs can only be on private property (not including the public right of way between sidewalk and street even).
Maine considers it a first amendment right and has very few restrictions on political signs. Unless they are a safety hazard they are generally allowed on public property
My wife arrived home the other day with a puzzled look on her face, "Who," she asked," is Nina Borland?" When I asked why she wanted to know she replied that this Nina Borland character had covered Bar Harbor with hideous signs announcing her candidacy for Town Council." Somewhat taken aback by all this I replied, "Well given that you were born and raised in Bar Harbor and have lived here most of your life, I would certainly expect you'd know anyone running for Town Council." And then the realization hit me that things have changed to the point where being a lifelong resident of Bar Harbor not only does not guarantee you'll know the people running for Town Council it all but guarantees you won't. Never one to leave my wife in a puzzled state I did some research on this Nina Borland character only to discover that "she" was actually a sort of she/he hybrid. The NINA "she" part being Nina St. Germain the wife one of the builders of Bar Harbor's first (and hopefully last) 44 room Bed & Breakfasts on Cottage Street, and the "he" part being the ex COA student Michael Boland the owner of multiple yuppy style restaurants in Bar Harbor. Just a guess but I find myself doubting that either of them has the best interests of Bar Harbor natives as a goal?
Every time I drive by that hotel I imagine how much more beneficial it could have been as an apartment building providing much needed year round housing. Lots of young professionals (especially those that are single or married without children) working at the hospital, Jackson lab, or school would prefer an apartment. Right now they commute from Ellsworth where there are actually hear round apartments.
The absolute last thing bar harbor needs is more hotel rooms so we can accommodate even more tourists.
If it was “affordable” to develop in that manner someone would have. That property was for sale for a long time. Everyone had a crack at that property for years. I can’t say I’m thrilled about that project either but it is what it is and code compliant. No one else could find an alternative way to develop it. Get over it. The detachment from reality and virtue signaling is disturbing.
Instead of a hotel, the town (meaning the residents, the actual community) could have benefited immensely from an apartment building providing families with year-round housing. Of course, that would not produce returns on investment as lucrative as another hotel, so the interests of the community took a back seat.
Planning for residential housing at this site could have, should have been a major effort of the Town Council. After all, hasn't year-round housing been an issue for many years? Isn't that why weekly rentals have been capped? Isn't community planning, for the benefit of the community, the role of local government? Had the Town Council not been focused on tourism, they might have seen this opportunity to expand housing. The Town Council could have sought development of a housing project; they could have looked for creative ways to assist a developer (limited property tax relief, seek state and federal community development funding, grant/assistance, seek private investment from potential stakeholders whose employees could benefit, such as Jackson Lab, MDI Hospital, etc.). As it is, an opportunity was missed, more tourists will come, a neighborhood will be adversely impacted with heavier traffic on narrow side streets, nearby year-round housing will be less tranquil, less valuable, perhaps sold to become additional parking for the disingenuous B&B which was not required to include enough off-street parking for its occupancy.
Why not just let the chamber of commerce run the whole island?
Seems that over the past three decades, they pretty much have. The famous phrase from a popular movie, "if you build it, they will come," apparently is the motto of the Chamber of Commerce.
Don’t give them any ideas.
This poor old island. It doesn't deserve anything that is happening to it. It was far wealthier before money came it's way.