Bangor

Bangor is a city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Penobscot County. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's 3rd-largest settlement, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121) Modern Bangor was established in the mid-19th century with the lumber and shipbuilding industries. Today, Bangor's economy is based on services and retail, healthcare, and education. The final syllable is pronounced gor, not ger as in Bangor, Northern Ireland, and the city of Bangor in north Wales. The first European known to have explored the area in 1524 was Estêvão Gomes, a Portuguese navigator who sailed in the service of Spain in the 1520s. The Spaniards, led by Gómez, were the first Europeans to make landfall in what is now Maine, followed by the Frenchman Samuel de Champlain in 1605. The Jesuits established a mission in 1609, which was then part of the French colony of Acadia. Bangor has a humid continental climate, with cold, snowy winters, and warm summers. In 2015, local celebrities and business owners recorded the YouTube video "How to Say Bangor" Bangor and Hampden were sacked by the British during the War of 1812. The 2nd Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment held the first to march in the Battle of Little Round Top in the Second Battle of Petersburg, 1864.

Name and pronunciation

Bangor is the primary city name, but also Glenburn, Hermon, Veazie are acceptable city names or spellings. Founded as Kendeskeag Plantation, Bangor was incorporated as a New England town in 1791. The reason for the choice of name is disputed. The final syllable is pronounced gor, not ger as in Bangor, Northern Ireland, and the city of Bangor in north Wales. In 2015, local celebrities and business owners recorded the YouTube video "How to Say Bangor" to teach people how to say the name. The video has been viewed more than 100,000 times since its release in October. The town is now home to more than 20,000 people, many of whom live in and around Bangor. It is also home to a number of charities, including the Bangor Foundation, which helps people in need of financial support. The city is also the home of the Bangors, a charity that helps people with disabilities, as well as other charities such as the Alzheimer's Foundation of America and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which has helped more than 1,500 people since its inception in the 1970s. The name Bangor is also used to refer to the town of the same name in the United States, where it was incorporated in the 1790s as a town. The word Bangor means 'town' or 'city' in Welsh, and has been used since the 16th century. It was also known as 'Bangor' in the 18th century, when the town was first settled. The current name is derived from the name of a Native American tribe, which was based in the area.

History

The Penobscot people have inhabited the area around present-day Bangor for at least 11,000 years. The first European known to have explored the area in 1524 was Estêvão Gomes, a Portuguese navigator who sailed in the service of Spain in the 1520s. The Spaniards, led by Gómez, were the first Europeans to make landfall in what is now Maine, followed by the Frenchman Samuel de Champlain in 1605. Bangor arose as a lumbering boom-town in the 1830s, and a potential demographic and political rival to Portland. In 1861, a mob ransacked the offices of the Democratic newspaper the Bangor Daily Union, threw the presses and other materials into the street and burned them. The 1st Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment, mustered in Bangor and commanded by a local merchant, lost more men than any other Union regiment in the war (especially in the Second Battle of Petersburg, 1864). The 20th Maine Infantry Regiment held Little Round Top in the Battle of Gettysburg. A bridge connecting Bangor with Brewer is named for Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the regiment's leader and one of eight Civil War soldiers to receive the Medal of Honor. The Confederate States Navy captured several Bangor ships during the Civil War. The main markets for lumber were the East Coast and the Gold Rush, and Bangor was also shipped to the Caribbean and California via the Gold Coast. The city was also developed for shipbuilding.

Geography

Bangor is located at 44.8°N 68°W. The city has a total area of 34.59 square miles (89.59 km²) The city is on the banks of the Penobscot River, close enough to the Atlantic Ocean to be influenced by tides. In 1807 an ice jam formed below Bangor Village raising the water 10 to 12 feet (3 to 3.7 m) above the normal highwater mark. In the Great Fire of 1911 Bangor lost its high school, post office & custom house, public library, banks, two fire stations, nearly a hundred businesses, six churches, and synagogue and 285 private residences over a total of 55 acres (23 ha.) The area was rebuilt, and in the process became a showplace for a diverse range of architectural styles, including the Mansard style, Beaux Arts, Greek Revival and Colonial Revival. The destruction of downtown landmarks such as the old city hall and train station in the late 1960s urban renewal program is now considered to have been a mistake. The recent re-development of the city's waterfront has also helped re-focus cultural life in the historic center. Bangor has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), with cold, snowy winters, and warm summers. In 1976 a storm gale of surge went up the PenOBscot, flooding Bangor for three hours. About 200 cars were submerged and office workers were stranded until the waters receded. There were no deaths during this unusual flash flood flood.

Demographics

As of 2012, the estimated population of the Bangor Metropolitan Area (which includes Penobscot County) is 153,746. As of 2007, Metro Bangor had a higher percentage of people with high school degrees than the national average (85% compared to 76.5%) and a slightly higher number of graduate degree holders (7.55% vs. 7.16%). As of the census of 2010, there were 33,039 people, 14,475 households, and 7,182 families residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 93.1% White, 1.7% African American, 1,2% Native American, 0.3% from other races, and 2.0% from two or more races. The median age in Bangor was 36.7 years, with 48.2% male and 51.8% female. The city is the third most populous city in Maine, as it has been for more than a century. Of the 205 black citizens who lived inBangor in 1910, over a third were originally from Canada. Irish-Catholic and later Jewish immigrants eventually became established members of the community, along with many migrants from Atlantic Canada. The average household size was 2.10 and the average family size was2.76. In Bangor, the average age of a resident is 17.8 years, while in Maine it is 18 years, and in the U.S. it is 19 years, according to the 2010 census.

Economy

Bangor is the largest market town, distribution center, transportation hub, and media center in a five-county area whose population tops 330,000. The Bangor Savings Bank, founded in 1852, is Maine's largest independent bank; as of 2013, it had more than $2.8 billion in assets. Hollywood Casino, operated by Penn National Gaming, originally opened as a slot machine only facility. In 2007, construction began on a $131-million casino complex in Bangor that houses, among other things, a gaming floor with about 1,000 slot machines, an off-track betting center, a seven-story hotel, and a four-level parking garage. Bangor Raceway at the Bass Park Civic Center and Auditorium offers live, pari-mutuel harness racing from May through July and then briefly in the fall. In 1990, the USAF East Coast Radar System (ECRS) Operation Center was activated inBangor with over 400 personnel. The center controlled the over-the-horizon radar's transmitter in Moscow, Maine, and receiver in Columbia Falls, Maine. With the end of the Cold War, the facility's mission of guarding against a Soviet air attack became superfluous, and though it briefly turned its attention toward drug interdiction. The system was decommissioned in 1997 as the SSPARS system installationthe successor to the PAVE PAWS installationin Massachusetts' Cape Cod Air Force Station reservation. The 101st Air Refueling Wing, Maine Air National Guard, part of the Northeast Tanker Task Force.

Arts and culture

Bangor has many Greek Revival, Victorian, and Colonial Revival houses. Many buildings and monuments are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Bangor State Fair has occurred annually for more than 150 years. Bangor has a large fiberglass-over-metal statue of mythical lumberman Paul Bunyan by Normand Martin (1959) There are three large bronze statues in downtown Bangor by sculptor Charles Eugene Tefft of Brewer, including the Luther H. Peirce Memorial, commemorating the Penobscot River Log-Drivers. A memorial has been placed by Bangor City Council and members of the LGBT community along the Kenduskeag Stream honoring the memory of Charlie Howard as the victim of a hate crime. In 1984 he was beaten and thrown off Bangor's State Street Bridge by three young men in a what would become a high-profile example of violence against LGBT people. In May 2011, vandals spray-painted graffiti and an anti-gay slur on the memorial. The Maine Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance, which later became EqualityMaine, was formed in Bangor. The city has had a municipal Historic Preservation Commission since the early 1980s. The town is home to the University of Maine Museum of Art and the Maine Discovery Museum, a major children's museum was founded in 2001 in the former Freese's Department Store. The annual KahBang Music and Art Festival (now defunct) is held on the last Friday of July each year.

Sports

Bangor was home to two minor league baseball teams affiliated with the 1995-1998 Northeast League. The Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race, a white-water event which begins just north of Bangor, has been held since 1965. In 1985, the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship changed hands for the first time outside of Puerto Rico at an IWCCW show in Bangor. From 2002 to 2017, Bangor had been home to Little League International's Senior League World Series. The Penobscot is a salmon-fishing river. From 1999 to 2006, low fish stocks resulted in a ban on salmon fishing. Today, the wild salmon population (and the sport) is slowly recovering. The Bangor Lumberjacks played in the New England League from 2003 to 2004. Even earlier the Bangor Millionaires (1894-1896) played inThe Bangor Blue Ox (1996-1997) and the BangOr LumberJacks (2003-2004) played for the Bangors in the Maine State League. They were part of the Northeast League from 1995 to 1998. The Blue Ox won the league's championship in 1996 and the Lumber Jacks won it in 2003. The Lumberjack's last win came in 2004. In 2005, the Blue Ox lost in the final game of the Maine League Championship Series to the Maine Red Sox. The Red Sox went on to win the league title again in 2006. In 2007, the Red Sox won the World Series for the second time in their history.

Government

Bangor was the first city in the U.S. to ban smoking in vehicles carrying passengers under the age of 18. The nine-member City Council is a non-partisan body, with three city councilors elected to three-year terms each year. In 2008 Bangor's crime rate was the second-lowest among American metropolitan areas of comparable size. In 2013, the City of Bangor signed an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court calling for the federal Defense of Marriage Act to be struck down. Bangor is included in Maine's 2nd Congressional District and is currently represented by Democrat Jared F. Golden. In the 1800s, sailors and loggers gave the city a reputation for roughness; their stomping grounds were known as the "Devil's Half Acre" The same name was also applied, at roughly the same time, to The Devil's Half-Acre, Pennsylvania. In October 1937, "public enemy" Al Brady and another member of his "Brady Gang" (Clarence Shaffer) were killed in the bloodiest shootout in Maine’s history. Brady is buried in the public section of Mount Hope Cemetery. Until recently, Brady's grave was unmarked. A group of schoolchildren erected a wooden marker over his grave in the 1990s, which was replaced by a more permanent stone in 2007. In 1913, the war of the "drys" (prohibitionists) on "wet" Bangor escalated when the Penobscot County Sheriff was impeached and removed by the Maine Legislature.

Education

Bangor is home to the University of Maine at Augusta, Husson University and Beal College. Bangor High School was named a National Silver Award winner by U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best High Schools" The private John Bapst Memorial High School is ranked in the top 20% nationally by the Washington Post High School Challenge. All Saints Catholic School, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, is in Bangor. The Bangor Theological Seminary, founded in 1814, is the only accredited graduate school of religion in northern New England. The private Bangor Christian Schools is located in the city's downtown area. The city's public schools include Bangor Elementary, Bangor Middle and Bangor high schools. It also has a number of private schools, including Bangor Preparatory School and the Bangor School of the Arts and Crafts, which was founded in the 19th century. It is also the home of the Maine State College, which opened in Orono in 1868. It was later renamed The Maine State University, and is now part of the U. of Maine System. It offers degrees in nursing, healthcare, business and more. It has a campus in Augusta, Maine, which is also home to Husson and Beale colleges. The U of Maine is the largest university in the state, enrolling about 3,500 students a year in a variety of undergraduate and graduate programs. In 2013, it was ranked No. 1 in the nation for its distance education program.

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine = 92.6. These Air Quality index is based on annual reports from the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The number of ozone alert days is used as an indicator of air quality, as are the amounts of seven pollutants including particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic chemicals. The Water Quality Index is 60. A measure of the quality of an area’s water supply as rated by the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The EPA has a complex method of measuring the watershed quality, using 15 indicators such as pollutants, turbidity, sediments, and toxic discharges. The Superfund Sites Index is 10. Higher is better (100=best). Based upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts. The UV Index in Bangor = 3 and is a measure of an area's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. This is most often a combination of sunny weather, altitude, and latitude. The UV Index has been defined by the WHO (www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-ultraviolet-(uv)-index) and is uniform worldwide.

Employed

The most recent city population of 31,753 individuals with a median age of 38.7 age the population grows by 2.06% in Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 926.85 residents per square mile of area (357.86/km²). There are average 2.02 people per household in the 14,604 households with an average household income of $34,249 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is 7.00% of the available work force and has dropped -3.79% over the most recent 12-month period and the projected change in job supply over the next decade based on migration patterns, economic growth, and other factors will increase by 25.42%. The number of physicians in Bangor per 100,000 population = 323.4.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Bangor = 38.3 inches and the annual snowfall = 55.8 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 130. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 177. 82 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 9.1 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 54, where higher values mean a more pleasant climate. The Comfort Index measure recognizes that humidity by itself isn't the problem. (Have you noticed nobody ever complains about the weather being 'cold and humid?) It's in the summertime that we notice the humidity the most, when it's hot and muggy. Our Comfort Index uses a combination of afternoon summer temperature and humidity to closely predict the effect that the humidity will have on people.

Median Home Cost

The percentage of housing units in Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine which are owned by the occupant = 44.19%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 55 years with median home cost = $139,490 and home appreciation of -9.44%. This is the value of the years most recent home sales data. Its important to note that this is not the average (or arithmetic mean). The median home price is the middle value when you arrange all the sales prices of homes from lowest to highest. This is a better indicator than the average, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. The property tax rate of $14.77 shown here is the rate per $1,000 of home value. If for simplification for example the tax rate is $14.00 and the home value is $250,000, the property tax would be $14.00 x ($250,000/1000), or $3500. This is the 'effective' tax rate.

Study

The local school district spends $6,977 per student. There are 12.1 students for each teacher in the school, 309 students for each Librarian and 300 students for each Counselor. 9.01% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 16.33% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 10.16% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).