Sometimes getting along with one's neighbors takes a little bit of effort, but how about when there are new neighbors every other night of the week?

Thousands of Mainers are renting out their houses, mother-in-law apartments, spare rooms, and even those high-priced toolsheds they've made into studio apartments in the backyard, to tourists and business folk from away via Airbnb.

Who can blame them?

For instance, in Bar Harbor, a resident can get thousands of dollars a week renting out a spare home or empty apartment by the day, week, or month.  More so than renting it out to someone who actually wants to live in town for one reason or another all year long. These revenues allow Maine homeowners to retain properties that they normally wouldn't be able to afford for one reason or another and to pay their property taxes.

Some people who live in close proximity to an Airbnb have concerns about the short-term rentals, as expressed in an article in today's Bangor Daily News, and who can blame them as well?

We've heard of things like carefree tourists from away partying into the wee hours of the morning in the middle of a workweek, while others let their dog defecate on the neighbor's property without cleaning it up.

Of course, there are many Airbnb tenants who treat both the rented property and the neighborhood that it's in with great respect, and we thank them for that!

Some cities and towns here in Maine have imposed a fee for owners of short-term rental properties and have required them to register the properties as well, while other town boards have vehemently opposed any such regulation.

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The General Stores Of Downeast Maine

These are the long-time general stores that are spread throughout downeast Maine. The stores that your grandparents picked up milk, beer, and that night's dinner at. For years they had been filled with things like fly paper, clothes, beef jerky, and that morning's newspaper. Now, you stop by for that slice of breakfast pizza, a tasty fried chicken sandwich for lunch, gas,and a handful of lottery tickets.


They're an important part of Maine's heritage, and their numbers are starting to dwindle. But we still frequent them to pick up the day's necessities and to keep up on town gossip.


They may not be owned by the original owners, and they may not look the same as they did years and years ago. But that same hometown feeling is there, the minute you set foot on their wooden floors. More than likely the same wooden floors that your grandparents set foot on.

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