A midcoast Maine city that went from raucous motorcycle gangs to boutique coffee houses has now once again flipped the scales.
The Rockland police chief is calling for portable concrete “Jersey barriers” for public protection at outdoor community events.
In particular, Chief Tim Carroll suggested that stronger barricades be erected to prevent motorists from driving into pedestrians at events.
How far we have been.
Carroll was just a glint in his mother’s eye when the fishing capital of Maine had already been transformed into the veritable arts capital.
Before arts became fashionable the town had been literally odorous, known more for the waterfront fish-processing plant than for just about anything.It’s why the popular ridicule of “Camden by the sea, Rockland by the smell” came into the common fore.
“You cannot imagine how wild Rockland was in those days,” veteran Bangor Daily News columnist Emmet Meara once wrote. “There were motorcycle gangs, daily fights in the Dory Lounge and weekend brawls that filled the Monday pages. Murders were hardly rare.”
But once the motorcycle gangs reached a truce with the cops in the 1970s – “we won’t bother you if you don’t bother us” – things began to turn around. (For the worse if you can handle the truth.)
The city where Louise Nevelson’s family emigrated to in 1905 began thriving 75 years later as a destination for the genteel crowd that stands back and admires a picture on the museum wall.
But all good things (so-called) must come to an end.
Now the city’s hometown paper is saying that the gentility is taking a back seat to the criminal element – just like the good ole days.
Carroll told city councilors he specifically wants the Maine Lobster Festival to place portable concrete barriers at the entrances to the festival grounds.
He said some lunatic might otherwise drive into crowds, reminiscent of the tragedy in New Orleans when 14 New Year’s celebrants died.
“We are just little Rockland – and it may never happen in Rockland – but as a public safety official I have concerns,” the chief said.
