There is hope for a rural Maine renaissance

At the same time, I directed a Maine Center for Economic Policy project, Spreading Prosperity to All of Maine, which also highlighted opportunities for rural revitalization. The keys, we believed, were investing boldly in “lead sectors” like health care, tourism and new forest products, while shaping “amenity-rich” rural destinations to attract high-spending leisure visitors and also — crucially — new “settlers” like mobile entrepreneurs, skilled young people and affluent retirees.

Unfortunately, the Great Recession and Gov. Paul LePage’s hands-off economic policies nipped those rural development initiatives in the bud.

Click here to read the full story, first posted June 8, 2021, in the Bangor Daily News.