I offer my heartfelt, thunderous congratulations to the workers at Coffee By Design for ratifying their union contract. It’s my hope their solidarity will inspire workers at other Maine coffee shops to reach out to Local 327 of the Laborers’ International Union of North America to learn how they, too, can unionize their workplaces. I’d […]

I see in the newspaper’s April 30 edition that federal lawmakers are preparing a $105 billion spending bill to make air travel safer. This on top of a recent $90-plus billion military aid spending bill … and I could go on. “Spending bills” have become S.O.P. Both political parties keep kicking the tax can down […]

One aphorism often attributed to Mark Twain is: “History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.” In other words, while details and circumstances may change, events similar in nature may repeat themselves. The current unrest on our nation’s college campuses remind me of similar events in 1968. The ’68 college protests were in response […]

After reading a plethora of pro and con articles and commentaries about the Portland Museum of Art’s proposed expansion plans, I was struck by the Maine Sunday Telegram’s April 28 lead story (“Portland Museum of Art hangs its future on fate of neighboring building”) and visuals – especially the visuals. While no architect, I am […]

I would encourage the city of Portland to approve the Portland Museum of Art’s proposal for its addition, including the demolition of the former Chamber of Commerce building. I love historic architecture. I spent childhood summers in a John Calvin Stevens cottage. But I also worked for architects for 40 years and I understand that […]

Gov. Janet Mills said she has thought long and hard and is deeply conflicted about gun reform legislation passed by the Legislature. So she let one bill pass without her signature (a 72-hour waiting period) and vetoed the banning of bump stocks. No need to recite the hundreds of mass shootings that have occurred and […]

“Architecture has always had something significant to say about the time and place in which it originated,” said Hans Jantzen in “High Gothic.” Architectural historians want to classify architecture within an age: Romanesque, Gothic, Modernism, etc. When I look at the Portland Museum of Art’s proposed expansion I think we must be in a new […]