For the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure of running the One LA campaign with Gabrielle Russell. We both love Lewiston-Auburn and are excited about our cities’ future together.
As the campaign progresses, I’ve noticed a theme among the opposition’s arguments against unifying. Nearly all of reasons offered explicitly tear down or criticize the neighboring city. The problems facing Lewiston and Auburn are not unique to one city or the other, but that seems to be a never-ending topic of those opposed to unification.
The opponents’ reasons against unifying the two cities run the gamut from “We don’t want to pay for Auburn’s new high school” to “Everyone in Lewiston is on general assistance.”
The majority of these comments aren’t even remotely rooted in fact, reflect outdated stereotypes, or simply pander to perceived biases. I think people would be happy to know that the state of Maine is funding the new high school in Auburn and nearly everyone is not on general assistance in Lewiston.
The irony presented here is inescapable.
Does the respective opposition in either Lewiston or Auburn believe these lies and half-truths about their own city? They do not, but their opposition to unification forces them to remain silent. Herein lies a reality that is profoundly sad: the only thing bringing the opposition together is their negativity.
While the opposition chooses to focus only on obstacles, we, as pro-unification, recognize that both cities have tremendous assets that when combined, will be able to overcome these obstacles and help our entire community reach its potential.
A unified city would allow us to have a unified economic development plan that would combine our resources, focus on these combined assets and pursue goals that will bring greater prosperity and opportunity to the entire region.
Business owners and developers looking to invest in the area want to see a single unified plan with consistent rules and strategic vision. Each city lobbying prospective investors to locate on their side of the river because it’s “better” than the other side doesn’t serve us in the long-run. Competition is healthy, but not with each other. Our competition shouldn’t be with our neighbors, but with New England, other states and other global cities.
Our image in the state has been completely undeserved for a long time. We have growing businesses, hardworking, talented people, beautiful architecture and available space for businesses and homes just to name a few things. A combined Lewiston-Auburn would be able to mount a powerful marketing campaign to attract many to our city — if we focus on what our positive assets are. A message that showcases the opportunities for growth on both sides of the river can build on our history, assets and possibilities and draw businesses and new families here.
Our schools do an excellent job of educating our children, but in a hypercompetitive world, we can do better by offering more programs and activities. This is possible with a combined school system with nearly 9,000 students, making it the largest in the state. We would have economies of scale that would lower administrative costs and allow us to provide more academic and extracurricular programs that we can’t currently do alone without raising more taxes.
A future Lewiston-Auburn city government would be more streamlined than the total of our two governments now. We will have one city council and one mayor and one management structure. Joining city governments will provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
As we rethink city government, we won’t be held back by “that’s how we’ve always done it” but can organize people and departments in ways that create efficiencies. This organizational efficiency will allow us to save millions of dollars per year with a 10-year estimate of $20-40 million in savings and avoided costs. This can help stabilize the tax rate, halt service cut-backs and allow us to invest in improvements that will benefit all residents.
The mighty Androscoggin River is a common resource that we both share and is a uniting factor for both Lewiston and Auburn. We already are one community and one economic entity. Pulling in different directions is going against the current. If we forge ahead together we can realize a future that is positive — building on our combined strengths and reaching our full potential together.
Carl Sheline lives in Lewiston and is office manager of Center Street Dental in Auburn.
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