Hey, there! Log in / Register
Does Maine know something we don't?
By adamg on Thu, 07/02/2020 - 9:44am
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.
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Whatever.
Whatever.
Screw 'Em
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
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...
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
Hopefully they pull their heads out of their a**es by then.
Just like here, enforcement of covid regulations is non-existent
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-did-maine-leave-massac...
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
We should have never let them secede from the Commonwealth.
/s
This is confusing
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 ...
It has a double meaning
In any case: Massachusetts is an exception to America's coronavirus failure.
Agreed....
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
So if you come from those states you no longer have to quarantine so what's the controversy?
The issue ...
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
I mean, nobody has ever accused Maine of being quick on the uptake. Kind of impressed they caught up!
Have in hand
Without the right papers you can't travel.
Congratulations, America!
Maybe you can share your super secret science with more people
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
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!
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
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
Sooo.... you must not like the tolls NH charges on the way in then?
How are you getting from MA to NH
If you're hitting the Hooksett tollbooth?
What tolls are you speaking
What tolls are you speaking of pray tell?
That’s because their state
That’s because their state motto is “Live off Massachusetts or die.”
get tested
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
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.