By GARY REMAL
Staff Writer Sunday, May 06, 2007

enlarge Staff photo by Joe Phelan

This aerial photo taken last month shows the Kennebec Arsenal in Augusta. City officials are hoping a developer's plans for a hotel, leased office space, retail shops, restaurants, and snack and convenience stores on the complex will lead to a renaissance of Augusta's downtown. Slideshow: Augusta comes of age

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Boosters point to the riverfront community's gleaming high school, its new YMCA, and several planned housing projects.

They champion a private developer's plan to renovate the historic Kennebec Arsenal buildings into a retail and residential complex.

They speak with pride of the cutting-edge cancer center that opens this summer, and the shopping center that will follow in the fall.

But they do so cautiously, mindful of past efforts muted by economic uncertainty and political inaction.

"We have momentum and optimism working for us," said Mayor Roger Katz. "But it won't last forever. I believe we have a window here of three to four years to put the pieces in place for a more liveable city and riverfront. We need to seize the opportunity."

That may be easier said than done, say two of the state's leading urban planners. One of the city's greatest assets -- being the capital -- is also its biggest liability.

CRAFTING AN IMAGE

Outside its municipal boundaries, Augusta's image is inextricably tied to that of state government, experts say.

Nationally known urban expert Mark Lapping says he knows and likes Augusta's human-scale city and its people.

But the city has a problem being seen outside the Statehouse dome, said Lapping, a professor and land-use planner at the University of Southern Maine.

"When they think of Augusta now, they think state government," he said. "You don't necessarily see an entertainment center or a business center."

Former state economist and gubernatorial advisor Charles Colgan -- who lived in Readfield for many years before moving south -- said Augusta remains a punchline for comments good and bad about government in Maine.

"Augusta is a metaphor for state government for almost anyone who lives in the state," said Colgan, a professor and chairman of the Muskie School of Public Service's Community Planning and Development Program at the University of Southern Maine.

"I think all capital cities, with the exception of Indianapolis and Boston, suffer from the same thing when government is the only thing in town," Colgan said.

Americans' natural skepticism of government tends to rub off on the seat of that power, he said.

"I think Augusta clearly does need to identify itself as a place as opposed to Augusta as the capital," Colgan said. "The image of the capital dominates. Augusta needs to build on the idea that being the capital brings a lot of business and action. They can't start with the assumption that people know Augusta the city as opposed to Augusta the capital."

GROWING CITY DWELLERS

There are other forces at work.

Everyone in Maine, even those who live in the state's largest cities, thinks of themselves as rural dwellers rather than city residents, Colgan said.

"In Maine, it's very tough to talk about cities," he said. "I've been doing a lot of work in that area the last several years and most of Maine's future lies in its cities. But in some sense, talking about the city of Augusta raises that really strong automatic bias (against urban life) we seem to have."

"The challenge for Augusta, as well as for cities like Bangor and Portland and South Portland, is to get people's heads around the idea that 'cities in Maine' is not an oxymoron," Colgan said. "We need to get past the idea that Maine is this bucolic, rural paradise and really start to focus on our cities."

City leaders need to look beyond the city proper if they are going to sell their community to a new generation of city dwellers or retirees moving to town for ease of transportation or increased access to medical and other services, he said.

"More than ever, people with a lot of choices for housing are looking for places with a high level of amenities, recreation, natural resources and cultural events," Colgan said. "They want to be in places with lots to do, lots to see and an attractive place, and I'd say Augusta would have to build on the assets of some of the surrounding communities for things like lakes and water recreation."

Or housing.

SEEKING NEW RESIDENTS

Lapping said Augusta and surrounding towns could benefit from the increasing housing costs in the Portland area.

Portland has become such a desireable place to live that increased competition for housing has pushed people farther and farther away from that city. But the state capital still has a ways to go before it has the appeal of the state's largest metropolis, he said.

"What people see in Portland is restaurants and the Old Port," Lapping said. "Those things bring people downtown and keep them. Until Augusta develops that form of legibility or image, it's going to be a tough slug."

He noted that Portland's Old Port area was not a sure bet when it was started and it has taken a long time and plenty of money to get it to where it is today.

"Unless you have business (in Augusta), people are not brought in off the Interstate to see the city," Lapping said. "You don't say, 'Let's take 15 minutes and see Augusta,' see the Capitol and 31/2 hours later say we've got to come back when we can spend more time."

Katz has pinned some of his hopes for the future of Augusta on an anticipated wave of state-worker retirements, looking to attract a fair number of their replacements to rebuild the city's population.

But Colgan pointed out that the homes of baby boomers in the communities that have traditionally competed with Augusta will come on the market at the same time. Many of those people were brought to the area in the 1970s-'80s when state government saw a huge influx of federal funds.

"Most of the expansion of Kennebec County coincided with the explosion of a lot of federal programs," programs and dollars that no longer exist, the economist explained.

A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT

But former City Councilor Judith Johnson-Marsano says the city needs to be doing things differently to brighten its future.

Johnson-Marsano, 60, served as Ward 2 city councilor from 1990-1994. She also ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1998 and lost her bid to unseat Ward 2 Councilor Donna Doore in 2006.

In the interim, she has been an organizer of several citizen petition drives challenging City Council actions and has remained active in a range of municipal forums, often questioning the direction of city officials.

Johnson-Marsano and her husband, Richard, own a Hallowell antiques store. She graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in Baytown, Texas. She worked as an elementary school teacher in Maine for 14 years and as a social worker for two years.

Looking to the future, she said more concern should be shown to residents' finances, the local impact of the national housing foreclosure crisis and increases in spending that lead to higher taxes for city residents.

For instance, Johnson-Marsano criticized the cost of Katz's inauguration ceremony and travel expenses for City Council members to attend a National League of Cities convention in Washington.

"The high level of taxation is always" a concern, she said. "(Former Mayor) Bill Dowling did a good job holding the line. But when you see them do this sort of thing, then you have a problem -- squandering, I'd say."

Even with a new high school building, Johnson-Marsano is worried the city is not graduating as many of its high school students as it should be. She said school officials should provide more opportunities for students looking for careers that do not require university degrees.

Johnson-Marsano pointed to a study conducted for the Augusta school board last year that looked at the graduation rate for the class of 2006.

On first blush, the study appears to indicate that only 57 percent of the students who started in ninth grade at Cony High School graduated or received a GED, and Johnson-Marsano pointed to that statistic as a failing grade for the school.

But an examination of the study results -- once students who transferred to other schools or were subsequently home-schooled are subtracted -- indicates 79.6 percent of the class graduated either from high school or from the city's adult education program.

While higher than the percentage referred to by Johnson-Marsano, the figure is still lower than the anticipated 92 percent to 94 percent graduation rate for the class' senior year alone, which school Superintendent Cornelia Brown said is the statistic usually published for comparison with other schools.

"The most important thing to change is the school system," Johnson-Marsano said. "I look at the schools and think they're going backward, and that's not a good thing."

She also gives the city failing grades for protecting its residents and neighborhoods from the impacts of commercial development. City councilors are too willing to change zones that protect homes to encourage business growth, she said.

"People are really worried," Johnson-Marsano said. "When you go door-to-door, they really want their neighborhoods protected and the City Council is not sending out a message that they will protect neighborhoods. I hear people say, 'I want to live in Augusta but the way they do things, there's no security.' "

In addition, she said, the city has not taken full advantage of its historic past. City leaders have been reluctant to establish historic districts to protect some of Augusta's historic homes and other buildings, she said.

REASON FOR OPTIMISM

Despite those criticisms, Katz said he believes the city is headed in the right direction.

"There's always naysayers. There's always folks who say you can't do it," Katz said. "There's a real opportunity in Augusta right now for good reason, but it won't be around forever. We need to take advantage of it."

Augusta's chief executive has placed great emphasis on bolstering the city's population, hoping it will grow from more than 18,000 residents to as many as 24,000 sometime during his life.

Along with that, he said the city needs to establish a "vibrant" downtown.

And he wants to put in place the infrastructure, especially water and sewer lines, that will encourage development on the east side of the Kennebec River.

"It's not sexy, but it probably will determine the kind of development that takes place over the next 10-15 years," Katz said.

He believes suburban towns that have traditionally drawn population from the city are seeing their costs going up and with higher fuel costs, long-distance commuting becomes less attractive for people who might be convinced to move here.

"It is an exciting time and we've got to be willing to take some risks," Katz said. "I keep thinking that Babe Ruth holds the record for striking out. If you're not swinging, you're not hitting."

Gary Remal -- 621-5642

gremal@centralmaine.com