DON’T ABANDON DOWNTOWNS

There is a growing propensity, under the pretense of saving money, to propose moving municipal offices and services out of town centers in favor of outlying locations. Fortunately, these efforts are being challenged because this troubling trend should be stopped.

In Bangor, city councilors last month reversed a November vote to build a new police station downtown. Instead, they now favor a larger lot on Maine Avenue near the airport. According to city officials, the bigger lot will allow more space for parking and expansion and it will cost less to renovate buildings there being vacated by the University of Maine System, which, ironically, is moving downtown to play a bigger role in the city’s revitalization. City officials also now want to hold onto the downtown parcel, located at the corner of Main and Cedar streets, because it has development potential.

What is missing from this discussion are the difficult to measure notions of community identity and cohesion. Just as they should not consider moving city hall out of its central location because a commercial office building would bring in more revenue there, Bangor councilors should not be so eager to move their police station to the outskirts of town.

City Councilor Annie Allen, prompted by calls and e-mails from residents and businesspeople unhappy about the potential move, has asked councilors to reconsider their stance at their meeting tonight. The council chairman says this is unwarranted because there is no new information. This may be the case, but that is only because the council has not devoted as much time to consideration of the move to Maine Avenue as they did to finding a downtown location. The Main Street location was chosen after months of review; Maine Avenue after only a few weeks.

Councilors in Old Town have also decided to give more time to consideration of a plan to move their municipal offices out of downtown to a now vacant elementary school at the edge of town. Again, this proposal was presented as a way to save money as councilors were told it would be less expensive to renovate the outlying school rather than one in the middle of town.

However, the one-page economic analysis offered last week was far from thorough. Questions such as the potential benefits of locating both municipal and school district employees at the in-town Helen Hunt School have not been addressed. When the in-town municipal office is vacated, it is likely to be taken over by the city’s public safety department, which has steadfastly and wisely rejected suggestions that it, too, move to an outlying location.

Rather than hurry to relegate a police station, which must be visible and accessible, or municipal offices to the far side of town, councilors in both communities are wise to fully consider the long-term ramifications of such decisions.