CIVIC DREAMS

Without the required tens of millions of dollars, Bangor can dream all it wants about a new auditorium without anything much happening. But the dreaming can be more than a distraction, and the thoughts of placing a new facility downtown rather than at Bass Park should be welcomed by the public.

A resolve by the City Council last week formally placed the council’s support behind making a spot downtown the next site of a new arena and convention center. The complex would be used mostly in the evenings and weekends, when parking is available. As was noted by city officials, a downtown facility would bring more people to the heart of Bangor, helping shops and restaurants and encouraging further development. It would also provide an opportunity to build a major edifice to help define the downtown, a design that incorporates the city’s history and looks forward to a vigorous future.

HOK Associates, an architectural firm from Kansas City, reduced an original list of 20 possible sites for the complex to nine, including the current location at Bass Park and a couple of variations in that area. But a spot mentioned repeatedly is at the end of Exchange Street, at the corner of Washington. This has several advantages, including proximity to the parking garage and Main Street. A block once crowded with activity could again thrive and help the city complete the nearly half-century-old promise of urban renewal.

There are other potentially good places as well. What the council has done well is express its interest in combining the necessity of replacing the old auditorium with the virtue of putting it in a place that will do the most good for Bangor. That is encouraging and suggests the new complex will end up being far more valuable to the region than the old one ever was. Now, all that’s needed is for an unanticipated $30 million to arrive.