The three issues that the Bayside Neighborhood Association has chosen as priorities to strengthen the neighborhood are housing, diversity, and community safety.
Housing (Link to Housing)
Diversity
The neighborhood serves as a transition area for immigrants from as far away as Somali, and Cambodia, as well as home to families over a couple of generations.
The
BNA is seeking to develop an outreach-oriented program to reach the more
recently arrived in order to encourage new membership.
Issues to overcome include language barriers and an increased
multi-cultural awareness.
Some
approaches that have been tried include flyers and leaflets translated into
languages known to be spoken by area residents, and a potluck held at the Boys
and Girls Club of Portland. This is
a subject of focus for BNA over the next year and a committee has been developed
to address improving communication with immigrant populations.
Members
of BNA worked with a group from the Nursing School from the University of
Southern Maine this past summer to perform a “door to door” survey to
determine accurate demographics within the neighborhood. The
Multilingual/Multicultural Office from Portland Public Schools provided
translations into four languages. Information
collected from the survey included those concerning housing and safety, as well
as queries about open space, length of intended residence in Bayside,
children’s play spaces and educational facilities.
BNA will have the results of the survey by the end of January.
The
Nursing School is planning on starting a project next year that will focus on
the transitional needs of those who have utilized social services in Bayside.
The
students will be offering home visits and possibly set up a temporary nursing
station to provide services to those that may have found housing and/or jobs and
need to maintain access to health care for mental and physical illnesses and
medications.
Community
Safety
Bayside
has also taken a proactive stance in promoting safety in an urban area
experiencing its share of crimes that range from drug dealing to vandalism.
One of the first steps to combating a feeling of powerlessness in the
neighborhood was creating a Neighborhood Watch program with the help from
Midtown Police Center.
Within
Midtown Pam McNally serves as the liaison between community needs and the police
department, promoting educational awareness programs and answering phone calls
from concerned citizens. Midtown
helped provide training to residents that emphasized increasing awareness of
their surroundings and contacting the police when trouble arose.
Members of BNA would like to have a community-policing center within their neighborhood, which have been tried successfully around other parts of Portland, budget constraints have prevented this from happening so far. This past summer a police presence was afforded Bayside in the form of a foot patrol, and Sandy Elder is continuing to present the needs of the neighborhood to the city council to get something more permanent so that residents will continue to feel empowered within their neighborhood.
[ Home ][ Location ][ Development of the Bayside Neighborhood Association ][ BNA's Priorities ][ Housing ][ City of Portland ][ Social Services ][ Vision for Bayside ][ Economic Development ]
[ What's New in Bayside ][ Conclusion ][References ]