Buying up Maine

In the Jan. 2 edition of the Bangor Daily News, Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s David MacDonald singles out people from Texas and Singapore who are apparently buying up Maine property as a reason to get coastal property off the market.

I agree that this is a serious problem, perhaps even more serious than MacDonald realizes. Just last summer I saw possible evidence (four Asian men in cowboy boots on Ellsworth’s Main Street) that there may in fact be a conspiracy of Texans and Singaporeans trying to buy up Maine. Let them stay in their own state or country; before you know it we’ll be having chicken-fried Chinese food on restaurant menus.

We don’t need any more Texans or Singaporeans spending their money in Maine. But, rather than spending a lot of money buying property to take it off the market, why not try newspaper ads in Texas and Singapore, telling them we don’t want them here. Might be a cheaper way to solve the problem.

John Edwards

Surry