Starting tomorrow, overnight visitors to Maine from New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey are exempt from a state requirement that people from away have to either agree to shut themselves away for 14 days or provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test. Fortunately, one can still get lobster south of Kittery.
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Whatever.
By anon
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 10:08am
Whatever.
Screw 'Em
By John Costello
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 10:17am
Maine has a chip on its shoulder so big that it can't get through the toll booths in York.
The virus has brought out the worst in a lot of "rural" people. Somebody tried to blow up the transformers on Block Island (RI - I know) to try to keep people off the island. In some of the islands of Penobscot Bay there have been nooses put up and trees cut to block roads from "outsiders" coming onto the islands of Rockland.
Outside of Portland, Coastal York County, and parts of the Mid-Coast, you are dealing with Kentucky With Ocean Breezes.
A lot of its industrial output is tied to making ships that we don't need. Once Crying Susan Collins is out of office and her vote not needed, expect some more contracts to slip away from Bath to warmer southern shipyards
18% of Maine's economy is tourist dependent and a whole lot of that is to P-Town North in Ogunquit, York, Downtown Portland, Bar Harbor, Boothbay, and Camden amongst others.
The lack of sales of lobster to foreign markets and the cratering of the purchase power of the Loonie along with no border crossings is killing the so called "Real Maine" of Bangor north and east. Potato dumping isn't helping Aroostook County either.
Why Maine is denying people from Massachusetts whilst letting the rest of the northeast in is beyond me. I don't have the data but I am fairly sure that it is Greater Boston's largesse that props the state up.
We've got nicer beaches, better museums (when they open), and I know this is sacrilege for the Bissell and MBC people, better beer.
Be patriotic, keep your money away from the people who might give one electoral vote to Trump and spend it here.
My thought too
By Matt
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 10:57am
Anyone who told me not to come, no problem, you won't have to worry about me ever again. That includes Cape Cod, whose residents apparently wanted the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges closed. Berkshires it is.
For the record...
By anon
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 4:54pm
Elected officials from the Berkshires were scheming back in March and April on how to keep folks from Eastern Mass from sheltering in the west. Of course they fully expected their constituents to have full access to Massachusetts hospitals all located to the East.
Have campground reservations in August
By Tom
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 3:20pm
Hopefully they pull their heads out of their a**es by then.
Just like here, enforcement of covid regulations is non-existent
By anon
Fri, 07/03/2020 - 11:39am
The Globe headline today says "Maine explains..." then goes on to offer no explanation at all.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/02/nation/why-...
But in the real world, the test results 72 hours before going to Maine are self certified, so some motel owners are telling some Massachusetts customers "don't worry". That is a fact.
We should have never let them
By brianjdamico
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 10:20am
We should have never let them secede from the Commonwealth.
/s
This is confusing
By Ari O
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 10:24am
Massachusetts, over the last 7 days, has seen fewer new cases, per capita, than any state other than Vermont, New Hampshire and Hawaii, and that includes Maine (and these three states too)!
I'd wonder if the issue is that Charlie Baker won't close restaurants (although Maine has open restaurants) or impose restrictions on people visiting from other states. Vermont has county-by-county restrictions, although their data by county is a week out-of-date.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Mass added to this list soon, but it kind of seems arbitrary.
Maybe when they wave good-bye on Labor Day ...
By adamg
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 10:31am
It has a double meaning
In any case: Massachusetts is an exception to America's coronavirus failure.
Agreed....
By octr202
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 11:01am
I wonder what metrics they're using beyond just positive test rates, since a quick look at that shows RI is well below the positive rate in ME, while MA is running just a hair higher.
So if you come from those
By MakeBostonBusesFree
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 11:17am
So if you come from those states you no longer have to quarantine so what's the controversy?
The issue ...
By adamg
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 11:20am
Is why did they leave Massachusetts off their list when we're doing at least as well as some of those other states in terms of Covid-19 containment.
I mean, nobody has ever
By MakeBostonBusesFree
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 11:31am
I mean, nobody has ever accused Maine of being quick on the uptake. Kind of impressed they caught up!
Have in hand
By JohnAKeith
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 11:19am
Without the right papers you can't travel.
Congratulations, America!
Maybe you can share your super secret science with more people
By Parkwayne
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 11:04pm
You know, the part where you know better than the WHO and CDC and all them meddlin' scientists?
Do you know the restriction on travel is the DIRECT result of people with your 'masks don't work' flat earth thinking? Look at Europe, look here and then wonder why you need to claim distancing and masks don't work? Because you miss brunch or something?
Maybe MA should respond by
By Matt Frank
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 12:38pm
Maybe MA should respond by charging anyone going through our state into Maine and NH with a large toll? Call it a quarantine tax since we had to keep all those gas stations and rest stops open and safe for travelers who are given better treatment then our own residents.
Yes!
By baepp
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 2:50pm
Punish the people who have been stuck in their homes for 3.5 months and force them to pay a toll because states they don't even live in don't want to give free reign on travel to citizens of another state they don't live in! This is a good idea!
/s
Some of us Mass. residents
By anon
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 3:07pm
Some of us Mass. residents have family who live in NH... charging me a large toll to visit my elderly mother and help her with her yard, home repairs, groceries and such during a pandemic makes you a world class db.
Sooo.... you must not like
By Matt Frank
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 3:49pm
Sooo.... you must not like the tolls NH charges on the way in then?
How are you getting from MA to NH
By Anon
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 6:11pm
If you're hitting the Hooksett tollbooth?
What tolls are you speaking
By anon
Fri, 07/03/2020 - 5:05pm
What tolls are you speaking of pray tell?
That’s because their state
By Ian
Sat, 07/04/2020 - 8:44am
That’s because their state motto is “Live off Massachusetts or die.”
get tested
By Jay
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 12:55pm
Maine isn't saying don't come, which they will anyways - trust me on that, but that if you'd like to stay and you're from beautiful Massachusetts what with its sandy beaches, ample quality seafood, forested recreation areas, lakes and full sets of teeth, you're going to need a negative C-19 test no older than 72 hours upon your arrival in Vactionland.
By all means stay home
By Anon
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 10:33pm
We like our state just fine and while most of the coast makes their living off fishing & visitors, the rest of us like it just fine when all of the flatlanders with no manners and no idea how to drive go back to their crowded cities and leave us in peace. Corona virus has brought out the worst in a lot of people. It's a serious disease but so over blown everywhere it's not funny. So by all means stay home. We can enjoy our coast for a change.
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