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Mills' Moment of Fame and Portland's Deadly Winter
Thanks for reading the second edition of The Burn. We’re sending this one week after the first one because we have a lot to say right now. You can expect to receive at least two of these each month, sometimes more. Share with your friends and make sure to subscribe.
“See You In Court” Spawns Adulation and Speculation
Governor Janet Mills' exchange with Trump last week put her in the national spotlight when she stood up to President Trump’s bullying with a "see you in court" retort. Trump signed an executive order to ban trans athletes from competing in women’s sports and threatened to pull Maine’s federal funding if the state didn’t comply. Mills cited the illegality of unilaterally denying funding, stating “this is about whether a President can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law.”
Governor Mills’ resistance is clear: she focused on the blatant illegality of the threat and not the MAGA obsession with the tiny handful of trans students who compete in school sports in Maine.
Mills first launched to statewide recognition when, as state attorney general from 2013-2019, she often sparred with then-governor Paul LePage. A distinct predecessor to Trump, LePage practices an overtly racist, bullying, crude style of politics beloved by the far right. Mills’ challenge to Trump calls back to some of her most defining political moments and shot her into the national spotlight.
Mills Eyes the ‘World’s Most Exclusive Retirement Home’
Social media and news commenters are already floating Mills as the top potential candidate to oust Susan Collins, who is up for re-election in 2026. Governor Mills has reportedly not ruled out running.
Mills is a conservative, pro-corporate Democrat. During her term, she repeatedly refused to repeal LePage’s tax cuts for the wealthy, and she killed a huge number of bills passed by the legislature. Some of Mills’ notable vetoes include bills for tribal sovereignty, farmworker labor rights, a ban on poisonous herbicide spraying in the north woods, and an effort to close Maine's only youth prison at Long Creek.
If she were elected, Mills would be 79 years old at the start of a six-year senate term — likely making Maine's senate delegation the second-oldest in the country. With an average age of 64, the US Senate is sometimes referred to as "the world's most exclusive retirement home."
If that's not enough to look forward to: the Senate Republican Campaign Committee reportedly predicts between $200-400 million will be spent in this upcoming 2026 Senate race — somehow eclipsing the whopping $185 million spent in the 2020 race. That figure is separate from whatever money pours into the governor’s race, which will also happen in 2026.
Get ready for the deluge.
Portland's Deadly Winter for Pedestrians
A car hit and killed a 37-year-old man on Riverside Street this week, the third person killed in the past four months in Portland. The man was struck while walking next to the Homeless Services Center. This death comes just a few weeks after two people died in the woods behind the shelter.
The Riverton shelter is located at the very outer bounds of the City of Portland in an industrial area five miles from downtown. After a long and bitter public process about both the location and size of the shelter, the Riverton shelter opened in 2023. Many opponents to the shelter's location cited its distance from downtown and lack of services within walking distance.
This most recent death in Riverton is part of a grim trend in the city: In November, a Connecticut woman was killed by a car on Franklin Ave. Then, in December, a local lawyer was also killed by a car on India Street in broad daylight.
If this were a violent crime, you bet the City of Portland would be saying this is an urgent matter
Incomplete Streets or Zero Vision?
Executive Director of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine and former Portland city councilor Andrew Zarro is urging the city to treat these deaths as an emergency — and for the public to advocate for the issue. Zarro stated, "In a world where so much feels out of control, one thing that’s very much in our purview locally is regulating our streets."
Zarro named several specific emergency measures Portland could adopt, including slower speed limits and installing things like raised sidewalks, flashing beacons, protected bike lanes, and better lighting. He also emphasized the importance of reclaiming streets from cars, like by creating pedestrian-only zones in high-traffic areas like the Old Port and by expanding rapid public transit options.
The City of Portland’s Transportation and Sustainability Committee is currently considering adoption of a Vision Zero plan. Vision Zero is an approach that cities can use to reduce fatalities on their roads, with a goal of zero road deaths. Many larger cities have long adopted Vision Zero policies, to mixed results.
In New York City, where Vision Zero has been on the books for over a decade, results from the program have varied widely. In the predominantly wealthy, white areas where Vision Zero was implemented, fatalities went down. In the Majority Black and Latino districts, fatalities actually went up. According to a report about the city’s program, the discrepancy is due to the policy not being fully or effectively implemented.
Implementation — the thorny, difficult phase of actually putting policy into practice — is something Portland struggles with. In 2012, the Portland City Council unanimously adopted a Complete Streets policy, setting standards and a commitment to streets that are “planned, designed, maintained and operated to enable safe, convenient, appealing and continuous travel networks for all users.”
Portland’s Complete Streets policy includes specific provisions for developing design manuals for street infrastructure for bikes, cars, pedestrians, and others — many of the same things Zarro and other transit advocates are urging the city to accomplish.
It’s been twelve years since Portland adopted its Complete Streets policy. While the website mentions that staff is “currently developing a manual for how to implement the program,” Zarro remarked that the complete streets policy hasn’t really been put into practice by the city.
Housing Report: Still Terrible and Getting Worse — for Tenants
With glowing sales figures, Maine’s real estate industry continues to make a steady profit. According to a recent report from Maine Real Estate & Development Association — commonly referred to as MEREDA — the price for multi-units in Portland is up 64% since 2019, and the median sales price of a home in Portland has jumped a whopping 77% since 2019.
Redfin, a national real estate brokerage company, reports that it would take a minimum-wage worker 105 hours to afford Maine’s median rent of $1,930. Meanwhile, eviction filing trends show that Portland’s landlords are back evicting tenants at pre-pandemic levels after the CDC’s eviction moratorium was struck down by the Supreme Court in August 2021.
Maine runs an Eviction Prevention Program for renters that’s funded through 2026 for eligible households. The program opened in October 2024 and received so many applications that it moved new applicants to a waiting list after just one month.
Flashback Feature: The People’s Building
Brought to you by the Ghost of Portland’s Past
Once described as both a “Portland Experiment in Government by and for the People” a “breeding ground for delinquency,” and a “shabby eyesore frequented by wine-soaked vagrants,” 155 Brackett Street has lived many lives. This building, twice reclaimed from demolition, was called The People’s Building and is currently where Fresh Approach Market and Hustle N’ Flow Dance Studio call home. Built in 1823, 155 Bracket was once a school. In the 1950s it became a dress factory. After the factory left, 155 Brackett Street went into disrepair.
In the late sixties, the City of Portland wanted to level the old dress factory and turn it into a parking lot. A group called Youth in Action — mostly neighborhood teens at that point in time — persuaded the owners of the building to sell it for $1.
The People’s Building was then born, buoyed by funding from the federal government and from Portland’s participation in the 60’s-era Model Cities program. Through its many iterations and multiple demolition orders, the People’s Building housed:
the community theater Shoestring Theater (which I believe is still there);
a community firewood co-op;
a foster grandparents program;
a free low-income community newspaper;
a low-income legal aid program;
a bail reform project; and
a food co-op.
After Model Cities money dried up, the building once again closed and fell into disrepair in the 70’s. In 1977, the building escaped one more demolition order when a neighborhood planning council helped reform Youth in Action and was able to reclaim and revive the building. In 1979, the Portland Evening Express, ran a five-part series on controversies surrounding the building, focused on its supposed mismanagement of public funds. Jim Oliver, the Executive Director of the Portland West Neighborhood Planning Council which managed the building with Youth in Action, called the series of articles poorly researched. Combined with an inflammatory documentary by MPBN, Oliver felt “the controversy was manufactured by the press.”
Some of the controversy surrounding the building sounded like it was in part due to latent bitterness from the city’s WASP elite, who shunned performance, colorful expression, and other non-traditional and confrontaitonal modes of advocacy practiced at the People’s Building. Competition for dwindling grant money also undoubtedly played a part as well.
Jack Lyons ran the Cumberland County CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) that granted funds to the People’s Building. Lyons and his agency were accused of sabotaging funding for the building, as the negative MPBN coverage landed just days before a competitive grant approval where Lyons agency was directly competing with the People’s Building for funds. When pressed, Lyons remarked to the Portland Evening Express on Sep. 27, 1979, “the root of all of this is the terrible paranoia they suffer from over there…they’re forever accusing us of bagging them.” He noted his agency had provided money to the People’s Building twice, despite “confrontation tactics” and “denigrating people.”
There’s too much to cover in a short bit on this building. It still stands today. It’s technically still owned by Youth in Action. The Reagan years killed much of the funding for community programs and continued neoliberalism since the ‘80s has squashed whatever money remained for silly things like programs that benefit poor people or help kids read. But the legacy of this building lives on, if only as a reminder that we did have cool things here once — and we will again.
Till next time,
Em
Gratitude & Further Reading
Thank you to the Portland Public Library Digital Commons and the workers who compile and digitize artifacts like the Low Income People’s Voice and The Comet. Take a spin through both of these issues if you want to read more.
The archives of the Portland Evening Express from September and October 1979, as accessed through Newspapers.com.
That’s it for the second edition of The Burn. Keep reading! Please subscribe and share with your friends, too.
Em Burnett wrote this edition of The Burn, with excellent editing from Emma Reynolds and guidance from Nick Schroeder.
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