The city of Bangor is a major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine. The population of the Bangor Metropolitan area at the 2010 United States Census was 153,923. Bangor is the third most-populous city in Maine and the largest market town, distribution center, transportation hub, and media center in a five-county area whose population tops 330,000. Bangor, also known as the "Gateway to The Maine Highlands Region," is centrally located in the state and is within a 90-minute drive of Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Baxter State Park and the Moosehead Lake Region. The city is a major medical hub in Northern Maine with Eastern Maine Healthcare serving communities throughout central, eastern and northern Maine, and employing more than 300 physicians, many of whom hail from other cities and countries. The University of Maine, the flagship campus of the University of Maine System is located nine miles from Bangor in the town of Orono, and adds significantly to the city's cultural life. There is also Bangor's Husson University as well as Beal College. Bangor is a center for retail trade, and in recent years has generated close to a billion dollars annually in sales. Much of the sales activity was attributable to non-residents from Canada, northern and eastern Maine, making use of the plentiful shopping facilities in the Bangor Mall and elsewhere in the city. Downtown Bangor is the site of the regional headquarters for six commercial banking companies. Two of them are among the state's burgeoning community banks, those banks whose ownership remains in the communities in which they operate. The city is undergoing a major economic boom with the addition of the $56 million Cross Insurance Center as well as the many new small businesses, restaurants and boutique shops opening downtown and throughout the city along Broadway and Stillwater Avenues. All of the above supports the dire need for a Whole Foods Market in this growing city. Please sign this petition and ask Whole Foods Market to consider Bangor as a location for a new store.
