Help!! I need to write a simple social sciences essay on New England

[TrogL]

I had a vacation in Maine years ago but all I really remember is a lot of fishing boards and tourist traps.

I need to talk about more than tourism. I understand transportation is an issue as well as the lack of industry.

Where do I start?

[momophile]

1. wikipedia?

good luck!

[WritingIsMyReligion]

2. 1) Tourism really IS an issue.

(We all hate tourists, but we won't admit to it; they're the region's lifeblood.)

2) There's no industry, it's true, once you get north of Boston. That's why tourism is big.

3) Northern and rural New England = no public transportation.

4) The ocean. Fishing. Lobstering. (Not really so big any more, but c'est la vie.)

[TrogL]

3. What was the issue in the lobstering industry?

CBC was talking about it awhile ago.

[LSK]

4. start with this

Pats suck!

:D

[Alexander]

7. They suck so much, they won 3 Super Bowls in 4 years!

:evilgrin:

[XemaSab]

5. Land use is a big issue

There was an article in the NYTimes earlier in the week about Baxter State Park and the lady who founded Burt's Bees.

She wants to buy land and add it to the park, but the locals are uneasy about it.

[Alexander]

6. Insurance. Investment banking. Fishing.

Oh wait, that's just Connecticut. :P

Yes, one thing I noticed while living there for the first 20 or so years of my life was that there's not a lot of industry, and what is there, is usually smaller, less grandiose stuff, like engine parts or explosives components.

I don't know if this will help with your paper, but we New Englanders are also a cold, distant bunch. The personal bubble is much bigger up there, we tend to keep our physical distance unless it's someone we're intimate with, and most of the poetry and writing (some Mark Twain, Emily Dickenson) has a feeling of isolation.

Oddly enough, I had more close friends up there in that cold, isolated place than I do here in Arizona.

[grasswire]

8. what about the Moonie takeover of fishing towns?

That might be interesting. Just google moonie and gloucester and fishing and you'll get some links. I believe I read that all restaurant grade sushi is now controlled by the Moonies.

[sarge43]

9. Changing demographics and the impact on regional politics

Moderate NE Republicans - a dying breed

NH's first Dem leg in close to a hundred years

[MountainLaurel]

10. A few things

That I've heard discussed since I moved to Maine:

* The exodus of college graduates due to a lack of jobs requiring degrees.
* Debate on the high taxation here.
* Tensions over immigration.
* The fact that everything happens at the town level (as opposed to county) means that a lot of functions are duplicated while at the same time the smaller jurisdictions can't get much buying power.