The widening gap Impoverished parts of Bangor getting poorer, wealthy areas getting richer

BANGOR – Before her two children returned from their first day back at school, Debra Anderson spent the last free moments of her day off tidying up her modest townhouse in Sunset Meadows.

Since her divorce about four years ago, the part-time hairdresser has lived in the low-income housing development off Union Street with its patched parking lot and identical blue-shingled apartment buildings.

But four years is enough, she said.

“It’s been a good place, and it’s served its purpose,” said Anderson, who with her fiance hopes to close the deal on a fixer-upper on Cedar Street in the next two months.

The move will be up for the 37-year-old mother and her family, which will be leaving one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, according to recently released figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The new numbers – from the “long form” mailed to one of every six U.S. households – suggest the gap between rich and poor in the last decade grew not only in Bangor but also in 14 of Maine’s 16 counties, with Waldo and Knox counties bucking the trend.

The Maine communities with the largest gaps between rich and poor were diverse and geographically far-flung. They include the northern Aroostook County college town of Fort Kent and Waterville and Lewiston, blue-collar cities whose mills have largely disappeared.

In Bangor, the divide between the city’s four richest and four poorest areas increased 24 percent during the 1990s, with households in the wealthiest areas earning an average median income of $64,707 compared to just $14,212 in the poorest sections.

That means in the four poorest areas – which in 1999 included Sunset Meadows and parts of the former military housing in Capehart – people in the median household had $1,921 less after inflation than they had 10 years ago.

For comparison, in the four wealthiest areas those in the median household had an extra $7,887 after inflation in their bank accounts at the end of the decade. In 1999, the city’s richest neighborhoods included Fairmount Park and the posh dead-end streets across from Eastern Maine Medical Center known as “Pill Hill” for the high concentration of doctors living there.

On the southerly section of Howard Street – in the middle of the city’s wealthiest area – Neil Comins and his family have settled into their modern, split-level home after moving to the city’s east side about a year ago.

Like Anderson, Comins, a University of Maine astronomy professor and author, was looking for more space for his family – his wife, two boys and a cat.

The four-bedroom home with its big back yard fit the bill.

“For an in-town location, it’s as ideal as I’ve ever come across,” said Comins, 51, who moved from his “warm and fuzzy” west-side Silver Road neighborhood – also among the city’s most affluent – to the larger house. “The rooms are huge. It’s easy to live in.”

There are sharp differences in income in Bangor’s neighborhoods, with the median household in Anderson’s area of town earning just $11,756 compared to $73,438 in Comins’ area. But that’s not where the differences end, with some general principles holding true throughout the city.

Among those principles are by and large, the higher the household income in the area, the higher the percentage of people living there who are married or hold at least a master’s degree, according to an analysis of the census figures.

And while there was no one clear reason for the jump in income disparity in the city, analysts said it could have much to do with the already well-documented exodus of people – mostly middle-income families – to the suburbs.

While the median household income in Bangor dropped about $2,500 after inflation in the past decade, surrounding areas such as Hampden saw growth on the order of nearly $11,000.

Elsewhere surrounding the city, Holden saw its median household income jump about $10,800, with Hermon and Veazie both posting gains of about $5,500.

Statewide, the apparent divide between rich and poor seen in many areas could suggest a transition – painful for some – to a technology-based economy, said Evan Richert of the University of Southern Maine’s Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service.

“It’s those who have received an advanced education who were able to embrace the economy, while those stuck in a resource economy are falling off,” Richert said. “To put it simply, the software programmer is doing well. The medical technician is doing well. The textile worker isn’t.”

At her state-subsidized apartment at Sunset Meadows, Anderson said she did just fine, with plenty of playmates for her children and few maintenance responsibilities.

“It’s kind of a steppingstone,” said the single mother, now eagerly anticipating the day she and her husband-to-be can sign the needed papers and move into their new home. “I can’t wait.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.