NATIVES AND NEWCOMERS

Maine may never be known for its diversity, but former State Planning director, Evan Richert, recently described the details of a potential culture clash that has been the source here of anecdotes, misunderstandings and some excruciatingly long planning-board meetings for decades. Mr. Richert’s catalog of values differences between native and newcomer is well worth considering.

Out-of-staters have been drawn to Maine’s natural beauty for as long as Maine has been a state. Their attractioin to Maine has become essential more recently given Maine’s very low birth rate and the out-migration of young adults. But these new residents may bring different assumptions about what matters to longtime residents of a town, and occasionally conflict results – a phenomenon Mr. Richert noticed while surveying the state’s midcoast region along Route 1, where the number of native-born residents nearly have been equaled by the number of residents from away. In some places, the newcomers outnumber the natives by 2-to-1.

Some of this difference in perspective, Mr. Richert notes, is due to education – where about 30 percent of natives have college degrees in the region, 70 percent of residents from away do. That translates into income differences and differences in priorities. For instance, he said, newcomers might view someone’s woodlot as an attractive part of their community, while the native owner of that woodlot might see its value for the cash it would yield to pay for retirement.

An even more telling example is over traffic, where both native and newcomer might see a heavily traveled state road as a safety problem. The newcomer, however, may object to the traffic for aesthetic reasons – and want alternatives to accommodating more traffic – while the native might object to the congestion and want to fix the problem by widening the road, with less regard to aesthetics. Newcomers, Mr. Richert’s survey notes, are somewhat more inclined to walk or bicycle to errands.

The examples are generalities, of course, and plenty of exceptions on both sides can be found. But the value in pointing them out to both natives and newcomers is that they create understanding between two groups that live together sometimes uneasily and in doing so offer the opportunity for respect for previously unanticipated viewpoints.

The survey by Mr. Richert, who is now a research professor at University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School, also suggests that planning for growth ahead of specific problems increases the chance for these differing values to find common ground. Few people listen well during a crisis.

Part of what makes Maine so attractive to so many visitors is the stewardship by longtime Maine families; part of what gives Maine vibrancy are the new people moving here. The mutual dependence of these groups is often harmonious. When it isn’t, understanding the differing values Mr. Richert observes could help smooth the way.