Seth Koenig

Seth Koenig

Portland Bureau

Seth Koenig, formerly of the Brunswick Times Record, covers the Greater Portland area for the Bangor Daily News. He has been named both New England Journalist of the Year and Maine Journalist of the year.
 
Brent Legg of the National Trust for Historic Preservation speaks as the press gathers inside Portland's Abyssinian Meeting House Wednesday morning at a press conference announcing the 185-year-old church's addition to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 11 “Most Endangered Historic Places" list.

Making ‘endangered places’ list could help restore landmark Portland building

By Seth Koenig on June 19, 2013, at 5:39 a.m.
PORTLAND, Maine — Portland’s 185-year-old Abyssinian Meeting House, which was built before the Civil War by free African-Americans, has been listed as one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 11 “Most Endangered Historic Places.” “Frederick Douglass was here. William Lloyd Garrison was here. They spoke here,” said Leonard Cummings, ...
SETH AND THE CITY (blog)

Maine sunsets light up the Twitterverse

on June 18, 2013, at 9:31 p.m.
If you were on Twitter tonight — or still are — you’re seeing a lot of really amazing sunsets being posted (nay, Tweeted). I figured I’d collect a handful and post them in a gallery here for one-stop shopping. Some quotes from the 140-character soapbox: @themutewaitress : The sky was ...

Town slogans, from ‘Don’t pass Gas’ to the ‘Center of the known universe’

By Seth Koenig on June 18, 2013, at 6:25 p.m.
Yes. Life is good in Portland. Elsewhere in the nation, cities such as Las Vegas (“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”) and New York City (“I love New York”) have found great success branding, merchandising and attracting visitors with snappy slogans. Others have done the best with what they ...
VIDEO
 David Puelle of David Puelle Design talks with the press about Portland's news marketing campaign Tuesday at city hall. Puelle had a hand in formulating the new campaign.

Yes. Life is good life in Portland? New city slogan receives some no’s

By Seth Koenig on June 18, 2013, at 11:13 a.m.
PORTLAND, Maine — Yes. Life’s good here. So are the lobsters, biking and art. Moments after Portland officials announced the city’s new slogan at City Hall Tuesday, reaction on the street was largely lukewarm. “My first impression was kind of, ‘That’s it?’ It wasn’t a good first impression,” said Portland ...
The Peaks Island ferry glides past the Portland Pipe Line Corporation's terminal facility in South Portland Friday, Feb. 1, 2013, where tankers unload oil bound for Montreal.

South Portland voters likely to see ordinance to block tar sands on November ballot

By Seth Koenig on June 17, 2013, at 6:51 p.m.
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — A group hoping to block transportation of so-called tar sands oil through South Portland — one end of the Portland-Montreal Pipeline — have gathered four times the number of signatures needed to put a prohibitive new ordinance on the November ballot. If the City Clerk’s office ...
SETH AND THE CITY (blog)

The first Southern Maine Pride Festival since same-sex marriages were legalized

on June 15, 2013, at 11:27 p.m.
SETH AND THE CITY (blog)

The first Southern Maine Pride Festival since same-sex marriages were legalized

on June 15, 2013, at 11:27 p.m.
POLL QUESTION
Economist Charles Colgan

Is Maine’s population too old and white to be sustainable?

By Seth Koenig on June 13, 2013, at 6:25 p.m.
PORTLAND, Maine — The number of annual deaths in Maine has eclipsed the number of births for the first time in recent history, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and economists in the state fear the trend will shrink the work force and make doing business here more and more ...
VIDEO
Willy Katihabwa works in the office at Portland Adult Education on Wednesday amid plastic sheeting a barrels collecting rainwater that percolates through the roof.

Portland Adult Education center needs new home after 27 years in ‘temporary’ spot

By Seth Koenig on June 12, 2013, at 6 p.m.
PORTLAND, Maine — Portland Adult Education moved its academic classes into a former elementary school building on Douglass Circle in what was intended to be a temporary home. That was nearly 27 years ago. Now the public program, which annually serves approximately 2,500 students who are seeking to finish high ...
SETH AND THE CITY (blog)

Westbrook schools avoid drama, add jobs without increasing local taxes

on June 12, 2013, at 2:44 p.m.
All across the state today, we’re looking at results from yesterday’s school budget validation votes. The state-mandated second step in the annual local school budget approval process has added some drama to the June election days, which for many Maine communities had only previously attracted attention when political primaries for ...
SETH AND THE CITY (blog)

Updated: Portland takes another look at ordinance that would restrict panhandling

on June 11, 2013, at 6:21 p.m.
Tonight, the Portland City Council’s Public Safety, Health and Human Services Committee is taking another look at a proposed ordinance that would prevent people from lingering in the median strips in city streets. The larger council voted 6-3 against a similar ordinance last July, with representatives of the ACLU of ...
Marijuana.

Portland voters may make history with recreational pot referendum this fall

By Seth Koenig on June 11, 2013, at 5:33 p.m.
PORTLAND, Maine — Statewide voters won’t get a chance to weigh in on whether recreational pot use should be legal this fall, but Portland voters just might. A group seeking to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Maine’s largest city announced Tuesday that it has enough signatures to get the ...
A workman welds metal between the fifth and sixth floors above 142 High Street in Portland Monday afternoon where part of the brick facade separated from the building on Sunday.

Portland building under investigation after bricks rain down: ‘Is this something that could happen elsewhere?’

By Seth Koenig on June 10, 2013, at 6:47 p.m.
PORTLAND, Maine — Work crews welded steel braces onto the side of the State Theatre building Monday afternoon after the aging facade came undone, raining brick and debris onto the street below on Sunday. The cause has not been determined. Representatives of Stone Coast Properties LLC, the company that manages ...
VIDEO
Maine Gov. Paul LePage delivers his State of the State address in in the house chambers in Augusta on Tuesday Feb. 5, 2013.

LePage supporters launch ad opposing budget deal

By Matthew Stone and Seth Koenig on June 10, 2013, at 6:06 p.m.
AUGUSTA, Maine — A conservative advocacy group associated with Gov. Paul LePage will begin running television ads opposing a budget deal reached by lawmakers last week. Maine People Before Politics, a group that evolved from the Republican governor’s 2010 transition fund, is launching a television ad campaign starting Tuesday pressuring ...
Greg Shinberg of Shinberg Consulting goes over a proposed master plan for the Midtown development project in Portland's East Bayside at a neighborhood meeting Tuesday.

Bringing life back to Bayside: Portland’s proposed Midtown project at the forefront of master planning movement in Maine

By Seth Koenig on June 07, 2013, at 7:17 p.m.
PORTLAND, Maine — Developers of a four-tower, two-parking garage proposal in the Bayside neighborhood are the first to seek “master development plan” status in Portland — a strategy previously reserved for former military bases. Portland City Planner Jeffrey Levine said the master plan concept, providing incentives to developers to lay ...
Michael Thurston

Portland police seek man who allegedly attacked and threatened former girlfriend with handgun

By Seth Koenig on June 06, 2013, at 8:26 p.m.
PORTLAND, Maine — Portland police are searching for a Westbrook man they say attacked a former girlfriend and threatened her with a handgun at the city’s Trolley Park Thursday. Police said in a Thursday afternoon announcement that warrants have been issued for Michael Thurston, 49, on charges of criminal threatening ...

Brawl breaks out at Cumberland County jail over a magazine, one officer injured

By Seth Koenig on June 06, 2013, at 7:51 p.m.
PORTLAND, Maine — A corrections officer was injured during an inmate brawl at the Cumberland County Jail that started over a magazine, the county sheriff’s office announced late Wednesday. The incident, which took place at 11:15 a.m. on May 30, occurred in one of the jail’s medium security units. According ...
SETH AND THE CITY (blog)

Portland police want citizens to keep watch for suspicious behavior as big summer crowds arrive

on June 06, 2013, at 11:02 a.m.
Portland police this week are reminding area residents to be vigilant as summer rolls in — accompanied by crowds of visitors and popular events such as this weekend’s Old Port Festival. In a Thursday morning announcement, Portland police reminded locals that tips, photos and videos from the public were crucial ...
University of New England researchers try to get their arms around what they believe is the largest sturgeon ever caught in the Saco River Wednesday. Prof. James Sulikowski said the sturgeon is a sign of the prehistoric fish's resurgence in the waterway.

UNE researcher nets 7-foot, 250-pound Atlantic sturgeon in Saco River, says it’s a sign of the prehistoric fish’s comeback

By Seth Koenig on June 06, 2013, at 5:43 a.m.
BIDDEFORD, Maine — University of New England associate professor James Sulikowski has a big fish story. On Wednesday, his team of marine science researchers caught what they estimate to be a 7-foot-long, 250-pound Atlantic sturgeon on the Saco River, potentially the largest ever recorded in the southern Maine waterway. That ...
Portland musician Rob Sylvain is reviving old Acadian folk songs written down, from memory, in a notebook by his grandmother more 50 years ago. Sylvain will be performing selections from his memere, Elisa Thibodeau's, notebook Wednesday, June 5, at Blue on Congress Street in Portland.

Portland musician finds, researches decades-old family notebook of Acadian songs ‘on the verge of extinction’

By Seth Koenig on June 05, 2013, at 12:19 p.m.
PORTLAND, Maine — There’s good news and bad news when it comes to the survival of many traditional folk songs, Portland musician Robert Sylvain learned. They’re oftentimes orally passed down from generation to generation, and as such, they carry tremendous nostalgic and familial value. That’s the good news. The bad ...
 
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