Rights of Way

For the past few months, I've been trying to maintain this blog as a sort of split personality: at once focused on urban environmentalism in general, and also periodically obsessed with hyperlocal issues here in Portland, Maine.

I never heard any specific criticism from anyone, but I always suspected that this arrangement didn't suit my readers very well. I don't expect someone from Texas to share the same indignation I had over the Maine Turnpike Authority's failure to build a sidewalk. And for that matter, a lot of Portlanders probably don't give a hoot about Escape from New York.

So now I've made the schism complete: introducing Rights of Way, a new blog dedicated to better streets and public spaces in Portland and throughout Maine. From now on, rants about the Turnpike Authority and Maine State Pier will be segregated from The Vigorous North. The ROW blog will also solicit contributions from other neighborhood activists, because I still intend to spend most of my blogging effort here.

The ROW blog is moving into its new digs with some leftover posts from here and these two new posts:

• "The Process Stinks:" Portlanders speak out about the Maine State Pier



• Strike three for Portland-area ozone violations