Oh OP...what a rhetorical question you are asking, my friend.

GNS users like you and I are in the very sore minority here in this subreddit, I'm afraid. Fidium is owned by Consolidated Communications which has been infamous for having terrible speeds for years. That's why I went with GNS.

Animal shelters and animal rescue organizations!

> There were life jackets on board the boat but the three were not wearing them.

Another death that occurred by easily-preventable stupidity.

Wear your life jackets, folks.

There are more weed stores here than there are Dunkin's. I don't want to hear people bitching how there are so many of the latter anymore.

Only takes 30 minutes to get from OOB to Portland, traffic pending. You could also get on 95 via 195 and save some time.

That being said, if you don't like crowds and busyness, OOB is not for you. You'd best be prepared because shit gets fucking packed there, from day to night.

The area near Ferry Beach is a little tamer because hardly anyone knows it exists, including the tourists.

Still better than downtown Portland, though!

Fair. "Fawning over" would have been a better one but I wrote that comment half-asleep.

Not that r/Maine is a perfect representation of the state...but you're right, both in the subreddit and in real life. Fidium's a bigger company.

Oh they're around. South Portland has one, as does Portland (pictured). Scarborough did have one once upon a time but it closed and it became the drive-thru-only The Maine Bagel.

Another W for one of the best bagel shops in Maine.

Anyone who disagrees with the above statement is free to argue with the paneling of my house because they're not allowed to argue with its walls.

Fiber, my friend. If you live rurally then you might be SOL, but otherwise you have a better chance.

People here will lollygag over Fidium, but they are owned by Consolidated Communications which is infamous for having terrible speeds so I personally don't recommend them. We went with GoNetSpeed (formerly Otelco) instead, which has worked out well for us. Good speeds, great customer service, and amazing prices.

An underwater tunnel? I dig it.

They went to bed but chose violence first.

I had a roomie who tried out Tinder. Got 3 boyfriends, all of them either cheated on her or dumped her, and then one day she magically up and declared to me that she was bisexual now because "women are better than men, they won't cheat on you".

I didn't have the heart to tell her. I really didn't. Last I heard she went to college in Florida and got a boyfriend (jury's out on whether she did it through a dating site or not) but who knows what happened to him.

That wasn't the answer I was expecting, but damn was it a good one either way.

Classic deflection from a person with no common sense. Keep playin' the hits and living in your delusion! I'll keep being smart.

Only to someone that leaves their doors unlocked and walks around without protection not named "a condom" in Maine.

To smart people, that's not the case. I didn't move because of delusion. I moved to keep myself safe in a safer city. Smart people would, too. You don't seem like one of them.

Ohhhh, so you're a nurse. You're not in the law profession. That explains a lot.

Again, I'm aware of where the sirens are coming from. I have a good sense of direction. I know where the hospital is. I've been to the hospital before. If I didn't have a good sense of direction then I'd be fucked over.

That being said, I never insinuated that ambulances and firetrucks = "Portland is a bad city". That's nonsensical, "I just pulled a hammy" reaching. People get hurt all the time, whether they're shot by a gun or have a heart attack. Pretty normal stuff. I'm not factoring that into the equation.

Hearing all that stuff was surprising in my first year of living there because I lived in the suburbs all my life, not in the city, and thus, that's what I was used to. I grew numb to it after that. Almost any Joe Nobody would be surprised to see a gun on the median strip in a residential neighborhood, but when you've seen enough things, it becomes more of a "meh" thing to you. Obviously, that was probably not true in your case. It was true in mine. You do you.

Sadly, using whataboutisms is common whenever I, or anyone else, brings up that Maine is not a crime-free state or, in this case, Portland is a bad city. They always have to bring up an entirely different city in an entirely different state that...well, most of the time, is more dangerous than anything Maine has to offer, just because...I guess they have to be right or something. It's funny to watch but also sad at the same time.

You're not gonna bait me into talking about cities or states I've never been to and their crime stats that I know nothing about. Not happening.

> just one of the reasons

Read that again, but slowly.

Crime is crime, visible or not. Crime is bad. People can be bad. Bad people can make a city bad. Not a hard train of thought to follow.

And I'm aware of where the sirens are coming from, but thank you anyway. I didn't make my way in downtown Portland by having a lack of directional skills.

In terms of crime in Maine? You could say that. I haven't bore enough witness to the homeless scene in Portland so I can't say anything about that with confidence and I actively choose not to lest I want to look like a fool.

Different strokes for different folks. Can't help someone who doesn't want to help themselves. Can't snap someone out of the "Maine is totally and 100% safe, so safe I would let my infant play in the road of a through street" haze if they don't want to come to reality. Pretty much every city I've lived in in Maine has been safer than the downtown area of Portland to some extent or another.

The more harsh stuff comes forth the further you go down Congress Street, near where the library is and such. Double that if you go out at night.

A gun on the street would get my attention too. It just would have the same effect as someone telling me I'm a woman.

Work in the law profession and then get back to me on what constitutes the subjective term of "bad neighborhood" to you.

There ya go, someone with reason.

I've lived here in Maine for 20+ years. My first-ever gunshot that I heard was right down the street from my house, near where the incident OP is describing took place but not in the same spot. And that's not the only bad thing I've witnessed in the 5 years I lived in downtown Portland. The constant sounds of ambulances and fire trucks are just one of the reasons I moved the fuck away from there first chance I got.

Mainers are so heavily swayed and hypnotized by the fact that Maine is a low-crime state that they forgo any and all semblance of common sense. Maine is a low-crime state, but that doesn't mean I won't lock my doors every chance I get and carry pepper spray in my purse whenever I go out.

'Course it's not a joke. Let this be a word of advice to you: when I, in particular, speak of bad neighborhoods, I am talking about Maine specifically, and only Maine specifically. This is a Maine subreddit, not a Baltimore one. Keep on track and we're gucci.

I lived in downtown Portland near that exact area for 5 years. I've seen quite a lot of shit during my time there, more than I've ever seen within my 20+ years of living in the entire state. Hell, around that area is where I heard my first-ever gun being fired in a residential neighborhood. For a so-called "safe state" when it comes to crime--which, by the way, is true--I never expected that to happen in my lifetime and it scared the shit out of me when it did happen. Between that and the constant ambulance noises, that was my cue to haul ass.

Downtown Portland is a place I wouldn't be caught dead walking without a friend by my side. Too many shootings (30+ in a short span of time is not something you can just turn a blind eye to) and way too many sketchy people I've seen on the streets for my liking. And I speak as someone who was born a New Jerseyite--NJ and NY are far worse than Maine, but Maine is no crime-free utopia.

Nothing that people should get freaked out about. That's one of the bad areas of Portland. When you live there long enough you get immune to that kind of stuff.

I've been living here for 20+ years and I've never seen a walrus. Best I can do is a groundhog or two that used to invade my old neighbor's lawn like no tomorrow.