Today Portland is facing  a two percent vacancy rent and Bayside is considered one of the few remaining areas of affordable rental units, although housing stock in Bayside has been in deteriorating condition for the past fifty years.  Current residents reflect the diversity of Portland as a  neighborhood  serving as a transition community  for immigrants enrolled in the refuge resettlement program, housing for seniors, and mixed economic levels. 

In 1944 a study was conducted by the American Public Health Association Committee that concluded existing housing stock was inadequate to meet the needs of families living in the neighborhood. 

  Instead of improving that stock a significant amount of housing was lost as a result of municipal policies adopted embracing urban renewal methods that favored parking lots , thoroughfares and commercial development by private entities. 

(To view the differences in available housing stock from the year 1942 to the year 1972 a series of Sanborn Maps are available thanks to the Osher Map Library at the University of Southern Maine.)

With development pressure on the peninsula growing this past decade the city council voted in 1999 to institute a six month moratorium on demolition to the housing stock until a plan could be adopted guiding development in Bayside.  In the document titled Implementing the Vision for Bayside some suggested measures for addressing this issue include

Cost is a major part of developing new housing,  policy issues include dedicating local, state, and federal resources in the pursuit of this goal.  Future partners and stakeholders involved will include the development of non-profits, private developers and investors in addition to state and local resources such as the Portland Housing Authority and Maine State Housing Authority.

  The goal of developing housing in Bayside is to create a thriving urban neighborhood where people will want to stay.  As residents pointed out in the charrette sponsored by Architalx , factors such as scale, design, and density have a tremendous impact on people in the neighborhood.  The planning department has indicated that these priorities will be given attention in the future design of housing.

As property owners continued to demolish housing in favor of more profitable ventures the Portland City Council took action in 1999 and instigated a a six month moratorium on razing older housing stock.

A study published by the Portland planning board, Implementing the New Vision for Bayside is considering partnering with non-profit organizations and developers to rebuild housing in Bayside. As development pressure increases the study indicates that an important factor in a successful redevelopment involves a conservation policy to make sure that demolished units are replace with contemporary housing stock.

The first new housing development being built in Bayside now is the  result of a lot of hard work by members of the city council, BNA,  and private developer Richard Berman.  Taking a parking lot and converting it back into housing, the thirty-unit complex has been dubbed         Unity Village, symbolic of the diversity within the neighborhood and the efforts it took to secure its creation.

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[ What's New in Bayside ][ Conclusion ][References  ]