It's a longtime Maine tradition to live here at least part of the year, and work somewhere else.
But today that tradition is taking on a new twist, as urban refugees come here seeking a better quality of life while holding on to
their big-city salaries.
For them what looks like skyrocketing real-estate prices here are still a bargain. So they commute, or telecommute, to their jobs, and at the end of the day come home to a quieter life in Maine.
Other part-timers are more traditional in the sense that they are waiting for retirement to make a permanent move. So they visit their second home just once in a while, looking forward to the day when they'll be able to spend more time with their Maine grandchildren.
Still others do the part-time dance in reverse. They've lived here all their lives and want to continue to do so, but commute to other places for work so they can take advantage of better economic opportunities outside of Maine.
We spoke with several part-time Mainers to find out why they've split their lives in two, and what they like and don't like about their new lifestyle.
BASED IN BOSTON
Mark Pepler maintains a full-time residence in Scarborough, but he works for the national accounting firm Ernst and Young.
His job is based in Boston. He spends, on average, two or three days a week
there or traveling to other major cities in the Northeast. The rest of the time, he telecommutes from his home office.
Pepler, originally from Massachusetts, first came to Maine about six years ago for an Internet-related job.
"As much as I enjoy the city, and as much as the city had to offer, I found myself more and more every weekend fighting to get out of the city," he said.
Wouldn't it be better, he thought, to do all that fighting to set up the ideal work situation?
He went through a couple of other positions in the coming years, with quality of life issues always driving his decision about where to work. About three years ago, he settled into his job with Ernst and Young.
One factor driving Pepler's desire to stay in Maine is his love of the outdoors.
"I do a lot of fishing, both saltwater fishing and freshwater fishing," he said. "I have two dogs, so I enjoy being outside, in the woods, hiking. That's not to say that there's not opportunities to do that in the metropolitan Boston area or around any major metro area. A lot of it had to do with access or availability, and certainly the variety" of outdoor experiences in Maine.
Another major attraction was the lower cost of living in southern Maine, he said.
"I could not afford to live in a coastal community in metropolitan Boston with the access that I have now to, say, the Scarborough Marsh or to the beach," Pepler said. "I have a boat, and I boat on Saco Bay and in Casco Bay."
Pepler's wife, Michele, has a flexible job here that she likes. The couple have become attached to the community, and they are expecting their first child soon — all good reasons to stay in Maine.
That hasn't kept Pepler's employer from feeling him out about a possible move to Washington, D.C. But when he did a quick search on Realtor.com, Pepler found the real estate prices there "mind-boggling." He'd be paying three times the mortgage for a comparably sized house that would still be 25 miles from work.
He knows the issue will continue to come up, and he hasn't ruled out making a move if that is what is best for his family and their future. But for now, he's staying in Maine, where he can have quality of life and a metropolitan salary, too.
WORTH THE COMMUTE
Larry Torrey, a native Mainer, doesn't necessarily like commuting to Boston from Westbrook a couple of times a week, but he likes what it does for his paycheck.
Torrey is a registered nurse in the emergency room at New England Medical Center. The travel's a hassle, he says, but he is making at least twice the money he made in Portland.
That extra money allows his wife, Kris, to stay at home with their three children, ages 6, 8 and 10, and eventually will help the couple pay college tuition.
Commuting, Torrey said, is "not my preferred lifestyle."
"I'd like to think I could work in a similar place and make the same money a mile from my home, but it doesn't exist," he said. "But overall, if you can pull in a Boston salary and live a Maine lifestyle with a Maine cost of living, to me that's a huge plus."
Torrey started working in Boston about three years ago. He works three 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shifts per week. Typically, he gets on a 3:30 p.m. bus out of Portland, works an overnight shift, then grabs an on-call room to sleep in before his next shift begins. He takes the 8 a.m. bus back to Portland, which means he arrives in the city at 9:55 a.m.
The bus so far has been extremely reliable, Torrey said. But when there's a big winter storm approaching, he'll go down to Boston a few hours early, just in case. To kill time before his shift begins, he usually takes in a movie at a theater that's just three blocks
from the medical center.
Torrey rides the bus with one of the supervisors at the hospital who happens to live in Casco. He knows of at least one other Mainer who works there. They are considered oddities by their co-workers, Torrey said.
"They think I'm crazy," he said. " 'You're from where?' I get that a lot. But you know, you think about it: It's a two-hour commute. I talk to a lot of people down there who live a whole lot closer, and they're still spending an hour and a half to two hours, they're just covering a lot less ground. You can sit in Boston traffic for a long period of time and only cover a couple of miles."
Torrey said his kids are used to his schedule — they're so young, they don't really remember anything different. And they like having their mother around.
"She's very active volunteering in the kids' schools," Torrey said. "She chaperones field trips. She does a million things with them. By me doing this, it frees her up so she doesn't have to work."
WEEKEND RESIDENTS
Bob and Jeanann McDonald are probably more typical of people who spend part of their lives in southern Maine and make a living elsewhere.
Their daughter is Robin Ivy, morning show host at WCYY, a Portland rock radio station. The McDonalds make frequent visits to spend time with her and their grandchildren.
The couple's longtime home is in Massachusetts, where Bob McDonald is a math professor at North Shore Community College. He teaches Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.
The McDonalds travel up to Maine on Friday after class and stay through Sunday morning. They stay in a Willard Beach condominium that they bought in 2004.
"We like our location up there," Jeanann McDonald said. "It's really accessible."
A PLACE TO RAISE CHILDREN
Alex Krieckhaus spends weekends and two days a week living in Portland's West End.
The rest of the time, he's in New York, London or Paris.
Krieckhaus runs the research department for Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, an asset management company specializing in bonds. He has lived here since December 2002 with his wife, Elizabeth Mitchell, who works for Maine Health. They like the idea of raising their children here.
Krieckhaus, who was interviewed via e-mail, said he has noticed more commuters in the Portland area and thinks it's a reflection of a national trend. More people are telecommuting, trying to better balance family and career.
"Maine doesn't have a lot of opportunities for specialized work, so rather than choose between a career and a life in Maine for me and my family, commuting offers both, but with compromises," Krieckhaus wrote. "These kind of choices are always difficult, and there are no easy solutions. I like to think commuting is just a different choice, not better or worse, than either moving my family to a major metropolitan area, or downsizing my career."
When Krieckhaus is not in Portland, he is usually in New York, where he stays with his father, a retired single professor. He spends one work week a month in Europe and travels to South America or Asia about every other month. When working in London and Paris, he not only stays in the same hotel, he often stays in the same room.
All the travel is worth it for the quality of life he and his family enjoy in Maine, Krieckhaus said.
"Maine is an amazing state, uniquely blending a rural environment of oceans, lakes, great summer and winter sports with a streak of urban sophistication," he wrote. "Portland rivals much larger cities in its schools, restaurants, art galleries — you name it — while having a much stronger sense of community and a small-town charm."
DEEP ROOTS IN MAINE
Rob Pfaffmann, an architect from Pittsburgh, and his wife plan to spend more time in Maine and eventually retire here to a new place they've fixed up at Diamond Cove on Great Diamond Island.
But they aren't your typical folks "from away."
Pfaffmann has deep roots in Maine. His great-great-grandfather was Sen. William Frye, who settled Squirrel Island with some Lewiston businessmen. His mother and grandfather lived in Boothbay Harbor during World War II.
Pfaffmann grew up in Massachusetts, but spent all of his summers on Squirrel Island and got married there, too.
"Squirrel Island is just this incredible touchstone for us," he said. "It has so much history. We're seventh generation. It's a classic summer house thing."
Pfaffmann's career took him away from Maine, but every time he and his wife returned to enjoy the autumn here, they fantasized about returning and ultimately retiring here. They explored different communities to see where they might feel most comfortable.
Portland, he said, reminded him of Pittsburgh — it is a city but has a small-town feel
.
"When I went to Portland, it just felt right," he said. "It felt like it had all the amenities that I would have had in Pittsburgh, and I don't have to go to Boston for."
They decided to purchase a Diamond Cove condominium. As an architect involved in preservation, Pfaffmann had read about the development and thought it sounded like the perfect project for someone like him.
The unit opened up this year for its first summer of rentals. Pfaffmann and his family plan to visit two to four times a year during the off-season, then move here permanently at retirement.
"It works out just perfectly for our lifestyle right now," he said. "It gives us a chance to get to know Portland and get immersed in the community there, and already in the politics of Diamond Cove.
"We've vowed not to own a golf cart," he said, referring to a controversy over use of the carts on the island.
Pfaffmann said he wants to live in a place with "an authentic urban core" that has a vibrant arts community and progressive politics but comes with a lifestyle that is less intense than larger urban areas.
"I might open up an office there, if I can dig up some work," he said.
Pfaffmann has followed the debate about encouraging economic growth in southern Maine while maintaining quality of life, and he has heard all about how young people are moving away to find better economic opportunities. He said he thinks Portland is in a great position to build a "creative economy" that would keep young people here.
"Portland, reading the paper, I sort of get that sense sometimes you don't realize what you have," he said. "To me, every area faces these same issues, just in slightly different ways. So I don't look at it like one place is really better than the other. It's a question of what fits your lifestyle and your job background the best."
Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791 - 6332 or at:
mgoad@pressherald.com |
