Portland is often associated with the mythological phoenix, the animal that rises out of the ashes of its apparent death. Life here has often been a struggle: to overcome the disastrous fires of 1775 and 1866; to rebuild after the change in Canadian policy in 1920 that devastated the waterfront; and to outlast the Depression and the other economic crises that have affected the area. The people of Portland have always faced these problems head on,...