Features
Street View
The pandemic left Portland’s streets quieter than usual last fall, and a photographer captured a ground-level portrait of the buzzy city at an inflection point, taking stock at the end of a strange and sometimes turbulent year.
Photographed by Séan Alonzo Harris
Who Wields Power in Portland?
The crusade to rewrite the city’s municipal charter was started almost unwittingly. Its popularity at the ballot box surprised even its champions. And while there’s no predicting its outcome, it could fundamentally alter who calls the shots in Maine’s biggest city.
By Brian Kevin
Reshaping Portland
From sky-high condo buildings to gleaming mixed-use citadels to a whole new waterfront neighborhood, ambitious developments are altering the skyline (and perhaps the character?) of the Forest City.
By Edgar Allen Beem, Sara anne Donnelly, and Alexandra Hall
Special Advertising Section: Ask the Experts
Planning for the future has never been more challenging, but these Maine pros can help show you the way.
North by East
Muralists Ryan and Rachel Adams paint their way around Portland, a bartender remixes Geno’s Rock Club, and time is ticking for historic preservationists. Plus, in Maine Dispatches, a couple of rare feats of flight.
Food and Drink
How hard has the pandemic hit Portland restaurateurs? How did Washington Avenue morph into the city’s culinary epicenter? How do old-school dishes stack up against new takes?
Good Things from Maine
Haute couture struts into town. The Deering Center neighborhood is so hot right now. And so are Portlanders’ posteriors, thanks to locally made heated seat cushions.
Maine Homes
A couple wants their off-peninsula Queen Anne house to show its age, whereas a cardio tour of historical architecture is for the young at heart. Also, the city council makes some landmark decisions.
+
Where in Maine
Maine Moment
Dooryard
Editor’s note, reader feedback, responses to February’s Where in Maine, and more.
Columns
Tech: The Roux Institute’s Portland of Tomorrow. Room With a View.
My Favorite Place
Poet laureate Linda Aldrich, on Portland’s Fort Allen Park.
On Our Cover: Portland’s U.S. Custom House, by Tory Welton.
Additional Photos: Jeff Roberts, Séan Alonzo Harris, and Cara Dolan.