Quincy Hentzel Discusses What's New with the Portland Maine Regional Chamber of Commerce

Lisa Belisle: Hello, I'm Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to or watching Radio Maine. Today I have with me Quincy Hentzel, who I first interviewed in 2017 when she was just newly in the role of CEO of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce. And that would be Portland, Maine, because we are Radio Maine. Today I have the great pleasure of bringing her back into the studio with me once again. Thanks for coming here.

Quincy Hentzel: Thanks for having me.

Lisa Belisle: So, I asked this question right before we came on the air because I've been kind of interested for five years. That's a long time, especially when you throw a pandemic in there. Some economic challenges. I guess what's been going on for you?

Quincy Hentzel: Oh, wow. A lot, I would say. The pandemic, obviously that was a huge experience for everybody, but at the Chamber, it was incredibly interesting to be at the forefront of what was happening in terms of businesses being able to stay open, having to shut down and reopening, just to watch how our communities survived the pandemic. That was two years of my work at the Chamber. So that was probably the biggest thing that I've had to deal with in my tenure. Outside of that, we've just been doing a lot of work around advocacy for the communities we represent. We've done a lot of really good work around DEI and racial equity. It's very much ongoing, but bringing the business community together to figure out what we can do collectively to bring about racial equity in the greater Portland business community. And right now we are just getting back to events. Our Chamber, I've been really proud of the events we've done in the past. Those pretty much came to a halt for the last two years. We kept up a lot virtually on Zoom, but just bringing those back, that feels really good, to bring people together.

Lisa Belisle: One of the initiatives that I read about is called Standing in Solidarity. I know that is something that has been important to you and to the Chamber, because Portland does really have a diverse community, and making it possible for people to bring their businesses out and give them visibility no matter what part of town they live in or where they're from, I think is really important. So tell me about that.

Quincy Hentzel: The Standing in Solidarity initiative was something we did in, I believe, July of 2021. And it was a statement that we had businesses rally around. We had about 450 businesses sign on to the Standing in Solidarity statement, which was basically businesses saying that they wanna promote racial equity. They do not stand for discrimination, they wanna promote racial equity within their organizations, within the business community. Then there was a pledge for businesses to actually do something. We wanted to make sure it was more than just a statement people were signing onto, but a pledge to really look internally in their own organizations and figure out what they can do, whether it's around hiring practices or just making their organization a more welcoming organization for people of color. And then out of that initiative came a racial equity strategic plan we did with the business community in Greater Portland.

So we had about 60 to 80 business leaders who came to the table over a 15-month process to really work through what are the things that we as businesses can do to help promote racial equity in Greater Portland and make us a more welcoming community. We can't fix everything, but businesses play a really important role in that. So we wanted to look at what we could do collectively, knowing that it's more powerful to work together than for everybody just to work in their silos. So that was a project that I'm really proud of, and I'm incredibly proud of our business community for rallying around that. We have the plan and we're now working on the implementation of the plan. So I think that was something that was pretty fantastic that was born out of Standing in Solidarity and really took place throughout the pandemic when we were all locked down at home.

Lisa Belisle: So you talk about this plan that you're starting to implement. What are some of the features of this plan?

Quincy Hentzel: There's four different pillars of the plan. And the first one I think is fairly basic, but something that we just hadn't been doing a really good job of. That is creating networks of people of color. Individual organizations and businesses may have a couple people of color who work at that business, but how can we connect all of the businesses together and really grow that community? And through the process, we found that there are organizations that are doing that. So we're partnering with community groups that have already done this and really just trying to make the tent bigger and bring everybody together. There's also a pillar that deals with pipelines for high school students and college students. How do we get college students here? How do we show them that there are job opportunities for them here?

Then how do we keep them here when they graduate? One of the other pillars is just helping businesses find resources to do their own internal DEI and racial equity work. That's gonna be a bigger piece of this, and one that will take building out basically a platform. Where do we share the information, how do we share the information? The last pillar is just going to be an ongoing pillar, and that is continuing to form relationships with other groups in the community. What are the BIPOC groups that are doing this work already? How can we align that work? How can we support that work? And continuing just to build relationships with all of the individuals who are doing that important work in Greater Portland.

Lisa Belisle: I think it's a really important thing that you're describing, this idea that it's probably more relevant to people that they are able to find work, that they're able to have a meaningful profession, that they're able to support their families. All of these things are so incredibly foundational to meeting people's needs. I think the work that the Chamber does is all about the economics of making that happen. So being able to bring together the theoretical importance of this with kind of boots on the ground. What's the operational meaning of being more inclusive, being more diverse, and really creating that network strategy. I think that's really admirable.

Quincy Hentzel: Thank you. A huge part of this plan is to build our workforce in Maine. In order to do that, we really do have to be more diverse. We need to be a welcoming place for everybody, and everyone wants to be in more diverse communities. The younger generation, that's what they're looking for. They want to be in communities that are diverse. So we have to make sure Greater Portland and Maine fits that, otherwise we're not going to be able to attract people. So I think this plan isn't going to fix everything. It's a piece of it. I think it's just like a foundational block that will bring businesses together and get us starting to work collaboratively together to make us a more welcoming community. Other different initiatives and efforts will come out of that, I am sure. But this is just the first step, and I think it's a really important step.

Lisa Belisle: One of the things that I often ponder is this idea that it's important to ask people what they want and need. So if you're talking about people of color, for example, not making an assumption that I would know what they actually think is important, what they need, what they want for their families. I think sometimes it can be easy to fall into a trap of a little bit of a savior complex. I'm calling myself out as a straight-up white woman who has her own set of privileges and biases. So have you learned anything interesting as you've been having conversations with people who are in these various communities about what it is that they want and need?

Quincy Hentzel: That's a great point, and it was something that we really were very intentional about as we did this work. We wanted to make sure that we had people of color at the table to tell us what they needed. To your point, we assume we think we know what needs to be done to fix the situation, but we just don't. So part of the strategic plan was bringing along different partners, different individuals of color who are in the business world right now, different non-profit groups that are doing work with BIPOC populations. And we learned a lot of things, but I would say one of the things that we learned, it came right out of the gate and it was definitely a theme, is that a lot of BIPOC individuals just don't feel like they have a community here.

And that became the focus, and we heard it from BIPOC individuals, we heard it from the employers too, because a lot of the employers were at the table saying, we can have mild success attracting people of color, but they don't stay. When they leave they say they didn't feel like they had a community here. There's not people here that look like them. That really was something that was said multiple times immediately in the process and then carried through the process. So I think our hope with this work is that we do build that community for so many different reasons, but even for the people we're attracting here, they're not staying here. So that came directly from the BIPOC individuals who were part of the strategic planning process.

Lisa Belisle: One of the other things that I know that the Chamber is interested in is affordable housing. And that's been a big issue in the Portland area, because obviously it's a great place to live, but it's expensive. What are you doing about that right now?

Quincy Hentzel: So affordable housing has quickly become the Chamber's number one priority. That wasn't always the case. I'm not even sure affordable housing was on our policy priority list four years ago. Things have changed a lot in Portland and Greater Portland and really across the country. But what we've discovered, which is probably pretty obvious, is that if you don't have housing, you can't attract a workforce. So I just was talking about all this work we wanna do around making Greater Portland a very welcoming city for everybody and attracting people from far and wide. Well, if we can't house them, all of that work is kind of for nothing. So we're trying to crack the nut around housing. It's not easy. It's very difficult to build housing in Portland for a whole host of reasons, separate and apart from why it's difficult to build in South Portland, Falmouth, Cumberland. We've had regulations passed in Portland over the last few years that have made housing and affordable housing just really challenging to build.

So part of what we're doing at the Chamber is trying to figure out and think through ways we can change that. Unfortunately, there was a rough draft that was passed in 2020 that has just made housing really, really challenging, and we can't change it for five years. So we're kind of in a holding pattern with that. The council can't touch it for five years. That's what happens when things pass via referendum in Portland. So our Chamber represents the surrounding communities as well. So we're working in Falmouth and Cape Elizabeth and South Portland, Westbrook, trying to really advocate for housing. And a lot of it surrounds education. There's a lot of NIMBYism out there where probably nobody would say, we don't need affordable housing, but whether they want it in their backyard or in their communities, a whole other conversation.

So what we do a lot at the Chamber is just trying to educate around the need for housing, why we need more density, why we have to start building up, and we just can't spread and sprawl across our communities. And the thing with housing is we need a lot of it right now, but it's not easy. Even if today we came up with a solution of how we were gonna build 2000 new units, it would take a couple years to do that. So it's a pretty challenging situation at the moment. I don't have a great answer of what we're going to do to fix it, but we are working in all of our communities that we represent, encouraging housing. Some are more open to it than others. In Portland we don't have a lot that is going to be coming down the pike, but there is housing being built right now that was all grandfathered in before the referendums passed in 2020. So there are a couple hundred units that are coming on and should be available within the next six to 12 months. So that's promising, but we really do have to figure out housing and we have to make it more affordable, or we're just not going to be able to grow the workforce that we need.

Lisa Belisle: Yeah, I think about my own children who have come back to, I guess one of them never left, but the other one is coming back to the state. And then I have another one who may or may not come back to the state. And you're a young freshman out of college, freshly out of graduate school, you have a lot of loans, you have a lot to give, but there's no inventory and you don't have a ton of money. You don't have a lot to actually spend on a mortgage. So I think that that is a problem that we're gonna have to solve if we're ever going to want to attract the people who grew up here to come back, in addition to other people who did not grow up here.

Quincy Hentzel: Oh, I hear that a lot from people, that their children have gone away for college and maybe did a couple of years in Boston, New York, and now wanna come back and they can't. And that is just a real issue right now. Same with students that are here for college. I think I mentioned earlier, part of what we really wanna focus on is, we've already gotten young people here to go to school. How do we keep them here? It's the same problem they have. They can't find an affordable place to live. And not everybody can live in downtown Portland. I get that. But people also wanna work in downtown Portland and live within a decent commute. They don't wanna move 45 minutes away. Not that housing's anymore readily available 45 minutes away, but it's a challenge, and it's something, again, it's like the number one issue on our priority list. There are a lot of really smart people who this is also their number one issue on their priority list. So I have no doubt we will figure it out. But again, it's gonna be a little bit of a long game, because even if we come up with the best idea tomorrow, you've gotta build it.

Lisa Belisle: Well, and this is all very interesting to me, because in my other job currently I work in a health system that's an hour up the road from Portland, and we have a lot of medical staff who can't actually find anything in our area who then commute up from Portland. So it's funny that it's actually become more of a statewide problem. And you'd think, oh, well you live and work in a rural area, so your hospital system, there must be plenty of farmland that you can just throw up a few condo sites. But you're right. Even if that is to happen, that requires time. So it's an interesting thing to be in a rural state outside of the Portland area and still have issues with housing.

Quincy Hentzel: I know, and it's the Maine legislature, last session, I won't go into the details of it, but they passed legislation that really gets to how we build more housing across the entire state. And it's the first time that I can remember, or that maybe it's ever happened, where the legislature has taken action on housing. Usually that's very much a municipality-focused decision, and it's left to the municipalities. But I think the state was seeing the issues we were having across the entire state with housing. We feel it more acutely in Portland just because there's more people in Portland, but every community's dealing with it. So to me that's a really good sign. It's a great sign that the legislature identified the issues we were facing and they took action on something that they've really never touched before. My hope is that what they did was a starting place and that they'll be able to do more to really encourage municipalities to build more housing, to add more density. So again, I feel like we're at that crisis point where everyone's eyes are on this problem. So I know we'll be able to fix it. It's just gonna take a little bit of time.

Lisa Belisle: So I'm gonna ask you a question that I hope is not too uncomfortable. It's not about your personal life, don't worry. During Covid there was quite a bit of push and pull between keeping people safe, like health-wise, but also keeping businesses open and enabling families to continue to earn a living. In Portland, this was very intense, and I know the Portland Art Gallery had its own version of this and for a while was a hundred percent virtual. Chamber, it sounds kind of similar. How do you navigate that as the CEO of the Portland Regional Chamber, where you're, yes, of course we want people to be safe, of course we know this is a virus we don't yet have a vaccine for, and also shutting down businesses, the money evaporates.

Quincy Hentzel: Great question. It was everybody's first global pandemic, so I always like to try to keep it in perspective. It was incredibly challenging. I mean, I don't need to say that to anybody. We all know it was incredibly challenging, and we were all trying to figure out collectively together, what do we do? And being a Chamber, the administration did a really fantastic job engaging chambers of commerce. There's chambers all across the state, and engaged us in thinking through how to best handle businesses. Did it all shake out the way I would've ideally liked it to? But I can say that, sitting here now, more than two years out from when we shut down, it was really hard. We were at the table advocating for businesses, but also keeping a very keen eye that it's the health of the people of Maine that we were most concerned about.

I think back to having these conversations in April and May of 2020 and then where I sit now, and just the lack of information we had then. We were all focused on hand sanitizers. We weren't even wearing masks. Nobody even thought about it. So we were all kind of learning about the virus and the pandemic at the same time as we were trying to figure out what is the best way to keep people safe, but also not shut down the economy entirely. I think in the end, we did a pretty decent job at it. There were points there where we were shutting businesses down and then reopening, but then shutting down again, that for a business was far from ideal. But at the same time, we were all going through it the first time. I think we now kind of have a handbook. I'm hoping we never need that handbook again. But all in all, I think it ended up okay, and at the end I think the health of Mainers was the utmost important, and we did okay. We were one of, I think, the better states in terms of Covid deaths, and it took a toll on businesses for sure. I am just so happy we are coming out the other side of that.

Lisa Belisle: Yeah, and I think you're right, I think Maine did a pretty good job, and obviously hindsight only gets us so far. So rehashing potentially the things that we did that were frustrating at the time wasn't as important as, what lessons do we learn moving forward into the future. But I think it's such an interesting thing for me in healthcare, because sure, you can keep people alive through Covid, but then are you somehow having an impact by restricting them economically and financially, by giving them just enough to live, but not anything more than that, and think about that long-term impact on people's health. So I don't have any answers, and I don't know what's right or wrong in this particular case, but I certainly think it brought up a lot of things that many of us, especially in healthcare, are still dealing with. You shut down a business, somebody can't make a living, and then when it comes time for them to deal with a health issue that's not covered by their insurance, or maybe their insurance no longer exists for them, they don't deal with it. And now you're 3, 5, 7 years out and then the health condition is even worse. So it's an interesting thing. We always have to balance the short and the long term gain.

Quincy Hentzel: I was just saying earlier, I can't wait to see the Ken Burns documentary on Covid 10 years from now as a look back, because I think it'll be amazing for all of us who have gotten through Covid to look back and to really see how it played out, and 10 years from now to really be able to look at the impacts of Covid, whether it's on kids who were going to school during Covid, on businesses. It's just gonna be a fascinating documentary.

Lisa Belisle: Yes. I definitely think that's true. So now that you're moving back into the gathering space, what are some of the things that you're starting to do again with the Chamber that are bringing people together, rebuilding the community, and just engaging again in the way that you once did?

Quincy Hentzel: The best thing about our community is the people, and that was the hardest part of Covid, is not being able to be together. And our Chamber does a lot of really great events that bring people together. And we weren't doing those for a solid year. And then I think we tried to bring some events back when people thought it was safe to gather, and then we shut them down again. And really just now, since probably June-ish, September-ish, we've started to do events again, and it feels great. And I am realizing now how much I missed events for the last two years. So we're starting those up again and it's fantastic. We do a lot of different series and presentations, educational opportunities, and really, at the core of all these events, the purpose is to bring people together and to let people form those relationships, because again, it's part of what makes our community so wonderful. Portland's a fantastic and beautiful city, but I probably wouldn't live here if I didn't love the people that I work with. So I think that's probably the number one thing we're doing right now, kind of coming out of Covid, is just getting people back together, getting them in the same room and letting people start to form those relationships.

Lisa Belisle: One of the areas that Portland is really well known for, as you are aware, is our restaurant scene. And that's also one of the areas that has been really challenged, not only in Portland, but everywhere else. What are some of the things that you're hearing from people who have been able to remain open through Covid, and are there signs of light that they can point to, that maybe we can reach some point of stability that we were at prior to this?

Quincy Hentzel: I think we're facing a labor shortage across the board for every industry. I think every business that I talk to, they are having trouble hiring people. I think that has hit the hospitality industry even harder. I can't really explain why that is. I think there's a whole host of reasons why, but restaurants, bars, anybody in hospitality is having a really hard time with labor, and you're seeing restaurants close, coffee shops close, bars close. And it's almost a hundred percent because they can't find the workforce, which to me just breaks my heart, that that's the reason why they can't stay open. And there were some long-standing staples in Portland that closed recently or during the pandemic. And again, it's all because they can't find workers. And so there's a whole effort focused on figuring that out and helping hospitality navigate that.

I do think that we are seeing a light just with people going back out, eating out in restaurants again. We just had a really great tourism summer. I was in downtown Portland every day, and just the foot traffic that you would see, the cruise ships coming and just the people all over the city, and they're in there enjoying our incredible foodie scene. So I think that was really helpful to hospitality this summer. But the labor issue is still there, and that's just gonna be really challenging for businesses. So I'm gonna just say to the listeners, get out there, go visit your favorite restaurants, go visit your favorite servers and your favorite bartenders, because those that are open, we wanna keep them open, that's for sure.

Lisa Belisle: Well, as you're saying this, I'm thinking about any recent opportunities that I've had to go out, whether it's in Portland, or we were in Boston last weekend. The restaurants are full. And I think that that is wonderful, because I think it speaks to people wanting to reconnect and this pent-up demand and not wanting to cook for themselves yet again. But I also know that in looking at the faces of the servers, it's very challenging, because they're trying to manage multiple different tables. Or if you're in front of the house and you're trying to juggle, there's a two-top, but I can't really put anybody there because I've already got a server covering multiple spaces. And so I guess I wonder if there's a way that we can somehow manage our expectations of restaurants and other hospitality venues so that we aren't coming across as having similar concerns that might drive them away from those jobs.

Quincy Hentzel: I think that's a good point. I think, as you're out there visiting our foodie scene, just have patience and just know, I have heard from some restaurateurs, customers will come in and they're a little frustrated because they see tables open, but they can't be seated for like 45 minutes. Or maybe the service might be a little bit slower than we're typically accustomed to. But just keep in mind everyone is short staffed, and we should be grateful that they are keeping their doors open for us, even if it is fewer days during the week, maybe shorter hours, and just have patience and just know that again, we're all facing the labor shortage. They're facing it in a more acute way, and then we can feel some of the impacts of that if they don't have enough staff to serve customers the way that they would like to. So I think that's a good point that you raise and something we should all keep in mind.

Lisa Belisle: Yeah, and it's hard because we all wanna just have a rest from this pandemic, we all want our lives to go back to normal. But in healthcare, our parallel is that we are also understaffed. There's a huge workforce shortage. And we're really trying to take care of the patients that are coming through the doors, but also all the ones who didn't come through our doors a few years ago. And I think people are getting very angry and frustrated, and we've gone from being the frontline heroes to not heroes at all. The violence in the healthcare workplace setting has risen dramatically, and complaints, and we understand that people are upset. Similar to, I'm sure if you're a server, I understand, I would love to be able to do for you what was done for you before the pandemic. But I think we're all just a little kind of heightened in our frustration generally, with having shut down for the last two-plus years. So I don't have any good answers for that.

Quincy Hentzel: I don't either, except I do know, early in the pandemic, we, with a bunch of other great community partners, launched this campaign called Be Kind. And we were kind of in a similar place where businesses were short staffed, maybe not open all the time, the way they were operating was totally different than what we were used to. Customers were getting frustrated. So we launched this very simple campaign to remind people to just be kind to each other and have a little more patience. And I feel like we need to bring that back, because the frustration's probably almost heightened now, because we are coming back to a little bit more of normalcy. At least it looks normal, but things aren't normal, but we're expecting it to be normal. And so I think just a reminder to people that we may be coming, I don't wanna say coming out of the pandemic, I know we're still living with it, but we're moving to a different place of the pandemic, but the impact of the pandemic is still very real. And every business is struggling in some shape, way, or form. And so we just really need to be kind to each other.

Lisa Belisle: Yeah. It is like having some sort of major medical illness. Your body's just not gonna snap back right away. It's just gonna take some time. You're gonna have to have some patience with your body. And I think similarly, we have to have some patience with the world around us and acknowledge that there's a lot going on right now, and it really isn't gonna do anybody any good to get upset and angry about things that most everybody, I think they are trying really hard to do the best possible job they can, given the limitations.

Quincy Hentzel: I agree.

Lisa Belisle: But again, I say that I don't have any answers, and I'm not trying to be preachy in any way. I just don't know a way through it other than just being a little bit more mindful that everybody's dealing with the difficulties.

Quincy Hentzel: Right.

Lisa Belisle: So one of the things that I'm wondering about for you is, you've been doing this job for five years, and for half of them during a pandemic. So good job with that.

Quincy Hentzel: Thank you.

Lisa Belisle: Looking forward to the next five years in your kind of ideal world, where would you like things to be with the Chamber, and assuming that we get back to some place of relative normalcy following, hopefully what will become endemic?

Quincy Hentzel: Well, I think what we're doing right now is really listening to our members in our community, because things are different now than they were before the pandemic. And there's different issues and challenges. I've talked about the workforce, I've talked about housing, really trying to figure out what it is that businesses need right now to ensure they can stay in business and then hopefully grow, right? Because ultimately we wanna be growing our economy. So we're continuing to do that, and hopefully as we continue to listen, our priorities, our initiatives, our efforts are gonna change to make sure that we're addressing what the needs are. We're also really ramping up our advocacy efforts. I think the Portland Regional Chamber has always done a really good job around advocating for our businesses. The political climate right now is so challenging and so divisive, and I won't go down that rabbit hole, but it is something that we are faced with and not just think about, but deal with every single day as we're trying to support businesses and make sure Portland and the Greater Portland area remains a place that businesses want to be and that people can live.

And so this is our focus. And so advocacy has become even more important than it ever has been for our organization. So just continuing to ramp up those efforts and to make sure that our businesses know what we're doing for them. We do a ton of stuff, I think, behind the scenes. And I've always been talking to my team and our board about, we've gotta make sure we're talking about what we're doing and that we're bringing people into the fold and making sure we're hearing from all different voices. We wanna hear from everyone in our business community. So just continuing to listen and do outreach and just make sure we are on top of those advocacy efforts. Because if we don't have a business community, we don't have a community. So that's where our focus will be.

Lisa Belisle: Well, I can say that the Portland Art Gallery really appreciates the work that you are doing through the Chamber of Commerce. So it's been really fun to catch up with you and to hear more about what you've been doing over the last five years. And I hope that you continue to be as successful as you have been to this point.

Quincy Hentzel: Thank you. Thanks for having me. And I hope you'll have me back in another five years.

Lisa Belisle: Oh, at least. Absolutely. I'm Dr. Lisa Belisle and you have been listening to or watching Radio Maine. Today I have been speaking with the CEO of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, Quincy Hentzel. I hope that you continue to do all the great work you're doing.

Quincy Hentzel: Thank you, Lisa. We will.