Questions A and B on the Portland ballot are competing for our attention. Before we vote, we should ask ourselves two questions.
1. Do either of these proposals get at the heart of Portland’s housing crisis?
2. Who is hurt if A or B are enacted?
Questions A and B are blunt instruments that can hurt people who do not deserve to be hurt. Middle-class islanders who have worked hard to maintain a seasonal home find themselves having to pay higher taxes. Renting seasonally has been one solution. All the Portland islands are experiencing rapid gentrification. Lobstering and other hardworking families are under intense pressure to sell their lifelong holdings to wealthy newcomers. Not many short-term rentals will be converted to affordable long-term rentals.
The market will force residents to sell to millionaires and move off-island. There are better ways to address affordable housing and stable communities.
Edward Reiner
South Portland and Cliff Island
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