So, Um, Is Bangor, Maine, Cool?

If the Internet's greatest power is its centrifugal force -- art, business, politics, etc, can be produced anywhere and sent everywhere with a high-speed connection -- why are people moving to already existing cities with already established scenes instead of creating their own? Bangor, Maine, may be an extreme example, considering its harsh weather, but: Couldn't, or shouldn't, Bangor be cool?

I visited Bangor last month for Kah-Bang, an indie-rock festival held in a park on the Penobscot River, which runs through downtown. The show was exceedingly cool, with great performances by Ra Ra Riot and Ida Maria, but I was also struck by downtown itself: about seven blocks by seven blocks, with lovely, old-style New England facades and, on a summer Saturday afternoon, almost entirely empty. There were several unused storefronts and, aside from concertgoers who decided to take a walk (and stop somewhere for a beer), barely anyone around.

In an interview with the Bangor Daily News, the festival's organizers explained they conceived it while sitting at a bar, talking about how cool it would be to have an indie-rock show in Bangor. Actually executing such a festival, they argued, is "further proof that Bangor is finally turning the corner and building a head of steam as far as there being a real art and music scene in the Queen City. All it takes is a few motivated people to make cool things happen."

Indeed. Whoever serves as Bangor's mayor should hitch his tenure to those organizers. They're the people who make places exciting, attractive and buzz-worthy, which, with some luck and 15 years, turns into families and businesses, people patronizing other businesses and a busy downtown. Convince the council to approve property tax breaks for opening stores in specific buildings downtown, incentives for licensing art galleries/spaces, group marketing for local businesses with the city's planning office. Whatever it is, the mayor needs to go to that bar, talk to those organizers and create a strategy for what they think would make Bangor work. It starts by creating your own scene and exporting it.