Boom! Sixty years ago this year, Portland’s political leaders allowed the Maine Central Railroad’s magnificent train station on St. John Street to be blown up. It was replaced with a strip mall. A disgrace.
The distinctive 138-foot-tall clock tower crumbles to the ground as Union Station is demolished Aug. 31, 1961, to make way for a strip mall. Donald Johnson/Gannett Publishing, File
On Monday night, five Portland city councilors – Pious Ali, Nicholas Mavodones, April Fournier, Tae Chong and Andrew Zarro – demonstrated the same lack of foresight as their long-ago predecessors when they prevailed on a 5-4 vote to kill a historic district designation intended to protect against rapacious development, already well underway.
The council ignored overwhelming public support for allowing Munjoy Hill to enjoy the same benefits as Portland’s 11 current districts. Unchecked, over time, developers will succeed in their get-rich quest for wall-to-wall million-dollar condominiums on Munjoy Hill.
So much for affordable housing.
Referendum, anyone?
Michael Petit and Pamela Day
Portland
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