The Stress is Really Showing at “The Portland Press Herald” and City Hall These Daze.  It’s so Bad That the Mayor Isn’t  Running for a Second Term.

Michekle Gergrts Krueger, A Long Time Special Education Teacher from Allentown, PA. Sang A Lovely Rendition of “Summer Time” with the State Street Traditional Jazz Band, on Exchange Street. This Afternoon.  Sunday Afternoon Concerts on Exchange Will Continue from 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm Until the Weather Prevents Them.

Desperate as Portland is to reduce the intense heat city hall is experiencing for its failure to resolve the homeless crisis  here, its go-to mouthpiece “The Portland Press Herald” last week tried to focus on an unlikely scapegoat Governor Janet T. Mills (D).The effort backfired.

For numerous reasons scapegoating the Governor backfired..The Governor is immensely popular; much more so than the “PPH” and city hall combined.  She’s far more popular than the sit-on-their-hands do nothing  city council.. The juvenile effort to discredit the Governor appeared on the front page by veteran reporter Randy Billings who once told this blogger he comes from Bangor.  He also said that his wife is a banker and that allows him to do this kind of work. As a veteran reporter from upstate Maine, he should have known better.   He does know better, but hey why not try a hail mary pass?

Following a speech and discussion in Portland on affordable housing several weeks ago, the Governor drove by the encampment on Marginal Way. She posted a photo of the encamapment on her personal Facebook page along with other spots in Maine.

The obvious purpose of the posting of the encampment photo was to contrast the differences in places in Maine; some are more challenging than others..  But as any great investigator must, Billings rushed in and wrote a story based on fiction with stupid consequences for the city.  Like a hail mary pass that bombed, the Billings story backfired as well.

In fact, in its usual last minute fashion, the city spokeswoman announced in a press release on Friday, October 13th, afternoon that the leaderless city council will reconsider a previously rejected “limited emergency” expansion at 654 Riverside Street.  If passed this time around, the order would permit the city manager to temporarily increase the number of beds available at 654 Riverside Street by 50 people.

Portlanders do care about the inhumane treatment of the homeless population, even if city hall doesn’t.  Portlanders  are opposed to the cruel and brutal sweeps occuring all over the city.,  One such sweep is scheduled for November 1, 2023 on Marginal Way.  But no one at city hall has a better idea than this cruel “solution.” At least reconsidering the order will require city councilors to use their hands, if not their heads, rather than sit on them.  .