Other towns have quietly given in to the chain store explosion that is changing the face of Maine communities. Rather than lament change, they are prodding corporate newcomers to help them improve the look of their community by creating a novel town center that will be unlike anything else in Maine. Don't expect this center to have the comfortable, authentic feel of a traditional Maine downtown. But it shouldn't look like Disney World or a shopping mall, either. What Falmouth is shooting for is a hybrid Main Street, a 21st-century town center that balances automobile traffic and corporate commerce with civic scale.
Community leaders defend their vision.
This will be an honest town center, they say. It accepts the reality of the existing, car-centered shopping district and tries to shape the evolution, not fight it or ignore its influence on how people behave and where they gather. But we are building on what was here in the past. We're not trying to create an artifical future. It helps to know a little history to appreciate Falmouth's predicament.