This is a story I missed because, well, I hadn’t gotten a ticket in Portland, Maine for quite sometime. But when I got one today, I thought, “I wonder if they still forgive a couple of tickets a year?” Turns out they ended it on July 1, in an effort to collect the $500,000/year they think they were losing out on.

I can’t check the numbers, but it is a little sad that they made the decision. I didn’t go looking for tickets to meet my forgiveness quota – but if I was in downtown Portland for lunch and really wanted dessert, or to continue shopping, I could without feeling the dread that I’d get a ticket. It made Portland a nicer place than most…

But I get it. Cities and towns need money. But that’s where the logic breaks down. Parking meters, in theory, shouldn’t be revenue generators. The original point of meters, etc., is to create turnover – to get new commerce into the city. The money pays for the enforcement. When you change that scenario to one that most communities have (“Hey, we can make money off this!”), you’re forgetting that each ticket is someone whose experience in the city was a little less enjoyable. Maybe they’ll stay for less time. Maybe they’ll skip that extra store or that extra course (both of which are more valuable than the ticket they’re avoiding.) Or maybe, they’ll just skip going into town altogether. After all, I can get that stuff online, right?

If you’re Newbury St., the possible ticket may be a cost of shopping. If you’re Exchange St. in Portland, there aren’t quite as many guarantees.

And I don’t mean to pick on Portland here. I love the city, and I will go back over and over and over. But it’s something for communities to think about. Customer experience isn’t just for the stores to worry about. And towns have more to worry about than whether there is parking available. They control the first impression a shopper has of a community, and the last impression they get.

And in the long run, that impression may be just the ticket for return business.

“It’s my dream that someday Magic Beans is big enough and secure enough that anyone who works for us would get three months maternity leave, but that’s just not an economic reality right now,’’ she said. Instead, she said, “some months, my husband and I don’t get paychecks.’’

Funny, I never used to think about these issues. At all. (Apologies to the working moms out there.) But I have to say that maternity policy is one of the bigger holes in our workplace environs in general, for both mothers and fathers. But how one balances the needs of a business, especially a small one, with the needs of parents and babies, is a heck of a question. My wife knows firsthand the challenge of being a contributing part of her business while being a mom.

And a brilliant choice of people to interview who have a foot on all sides of this issue by Megan Woolhouse and Katie Johnston Chase.

A tip of the hat to all who rode. A certain little six-week-old kept me from making the trek in 2010, but from all accounts it sounds like it was yet again a big success. If you have never undertaken something like the PMC, the 192 miles — and the fundraising — can be daunting. But it is doable. It’s not surprising when you start talking to people about cancer that everyone knows someone whose life has been affected/lost to the disease.

And then they want to help.

So maybe, just maybe – give the ride a try. Or volunteer! They need 3,000 volunteers each year, and it ends up being a fun way to experience part of the weekend without making quite as massive of a commitment.

Congrats riders! I’ll see you on the road next year!

See, who says the Democrats couldn’t save money?

The New York Times has a gentle reminder that parents need to unplug from the gadgets and deal with kids, lest the wee ones feel forgotten. That’s bad news for a guy like me, who sometimes likes to use the net as an escape from the ‘real world’, especially when stressed. Some call it avoidance. I prefer to consider it my happy place.

Time to find alternative strategies and solutions – but this probably means the end of those romantic nights with the wife, sitting side-by-side on the couch with our laptops — and IM-ing to each other.