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For more than a decade now, Portlanders have been able to take the Amtrak Downeaster from the Portland Transportation Center south to Boston and points south. With stops along the way in cities and towns like Biddeford/Saco and Durham, New Hampshire (right on the the UNH campus), the Downeaster has been a convenient option for commuting and business travel. 
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As I wrote here earlier this year, one of the most endearing aspects of Portland is how much access and responsibility the city's local government grants to ordinary citizens. In the New England tradition of self-governance, much of the city's municipal workings are handled by volunteer boards and citizen committees.
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This summer, Sable Sanborn and Tyler Frank started Garbage to Garden, Portland, Maine's first-ever curbside composting service. For a small monthly fee, Sanborn and Tyler will collect your household food scraps and yard waste in a bucket that they provide, and leave behind a clean bucket for you to use the next week.
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The latest "Best Places to Retire" feature in this weekend's Wall Street Journal visits our hometown to interview some local retirees and find out why they moved here.
The reasons they cite are the reasons why people of all ages are choosing to live in Portland.
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Yesterday, a crane lifted a modernist sculpture of cantilevered steel beams into the outdoor courtyard of the Portland Museum of Art on High Street, just half a block from Congress Square. The sculpture, called "Moment," is the work of British sculptor Anthony Caro, and is the second piece in the museum's collection of outdoor art (not counting architect Henry Cobb's celebrated design of the museum building itself), and comes to Portland from the private collection of donor Dr.
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Yesterday, a ship arrived in Portland harbor (pictured above) to unload a cargo of wind turbine tower segments at the cargo terminal near the Casco Bay Bridge. Maine has been a leader among northeastern states in building new sources of renewable electricity in recent years, from wind farms to biomass boilers that burn waste wood from the state's paper mills.
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There's a low cloud wrapping itself among Portland's streets and buildings today, and it's making autumn's chill decidedly clammy. This morning, for the first time yet this year, I fumbled around in the dark bedroom to dig out my long johns.
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Last week I posted the "Be In Love" music video that the Maine Academy of Modern Music (MAMM) had produced for its “Playing for Change, Playing for Maine” benefit. A couple of days later I had a chance to chat about the video, and learn more about the organization, with Jeff Shaw, MAMM's founder and executive director:
LWP: Tell me about MAMM and what you guys do.
