Fall 2020 Community Cleanup and Raffle

On Saturday October 24 2020 the BNA held our annual fall community cleanup. We had 34 volunteers, masked up and socially distanced. We managed to clean up just about every street in Bayside. Our helpers included Amistad, their executive director, peer outreach team, and EIGHT of the people they reach; Coals Bayside donated coffee and hosted us in the outdoor dining area to distribute snacks and supplies and two Coals staff members helped with the cleanup. Portland Downtown, BNA board members, and community members also joined in, including new friends from the West End, and old friends from Parkside. Heidi Souerwine designed the posters.

Our generous raffle prize donors included Two Fat Cats Bakery, Leavitt & Sons Deli, Portland, Banded Brewing Co., Nomadic Goat Salon, and BNA board member Scott Morrison, who donated a Coals gift certificate. 

Spring Clean-Up 2016

Stephanie Scherer organized a team of BNA members, Bayside residents, and other local volunteers for a clean-up of Portland street and surrounding blocks.  Portland’s Public Works team provided support, tools, and collection of full trash bags to make a noticeable difference in the cleanliness of a typically litter-prone area of Bayside.

Community Meeting: Portland Needle Exchange

Our recent Community Meeting/Q&A discussion with Portland Needle Exchange hosted by the Bayside Neighborhood Association, was very informative.  Watch the video here:  Member Highlight – Bayside Neighborhood Association – Conversation and email programming@ctn5.org to express an interest in TV broadcast of the piece on Channel 5.

Walking Wilmot:  The Ghosts of Bayside

Ethnic diversity, urban change, and a whole lot of churches have characterized Bayside since its earliest days.  This walking tour on October 18 explored Bayside history, particularly in relationship to Anshe Sfard, the long-demolished Chassidic synagogue at Wilmot Street and Cumberland Avenue. Did you ever wonder what Bayside looked like BEFORE Franklin Arterial and Franklin Towers turned its eastern border into a midcentury modern mess?  Who lived here?  From worship to work, from living to learning, what was life like in Bayside. This tour covered the Jewish community in its context—an area once bustling with shops, rooming houses and private homes, churches, factories, and schools.  Bayside was a neighborhood of people usually on the way to somewhere else—immigrants lived side-by-side with local folks, and very few lived here for very long.  The walking tour and a presentation were the concluding events in a research project conducted by the Maine Historical Society (MHS), Mt. Carmel Cemetery Association, and the Bayside Neighborhood Association.  An online exhibit will open on the MHS website Maine Memory Network.

 

Spring Clean-up 2014 a Great Success!

Thank you to all the sponsors, volunteers, friends, and supporters who made our event possible, and a special hat’s off to BNA member Laura Cannon for organizing it.  Garbage to Garden partnered with many neighborhoods, including ours. City of Portland Public Works provided workers, gloves, trash bags, shovels and tools, mulch, and trash collection.  Couldn’t have done what we did without them!  We collected at least 20 large bags of trash and mulched dogwood trees from Elm St to Franklin St along the trail.  Click on the photos below to enlarge.

 

Join us this Saturday May 3, 2014, for our annual clean-up!

Meet at 10:00 a.m. on the Bayside Trail near Trader Joe’s for supplies and instructions!
Click on the image below to enlarge.

2013 Bayside Phoenix Fair was a huge success!!

Here are some photos from the fantastic September 15 event.

Join Us for 2013 Bayside Phoenix Fair!

We hope you will join us for a fun Bayside neighborhood event, brought to you by the Bayside Neighborhood Association. 

Help Make a Park from a Block!

Sunday, September 15, 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM

• Kennebec Street (“Phoenix Square”)  between Preble and Elm (by the Flea-for-All)
• West end of Bayside Trail at Elm (behind Trader Joe’s)

Come learn more about Bayside.

Join our campaign to turn this block of Kennebec Street into an urban park.

When the City extends Somerset Street and the Bayside Trail through to Deering Oaks, this street can become an oasis in Bayside. Phoenix Square will link Bayside Bowl, the new Portland and Rochester pub, The Shoe, the Flea-for-All, and other local businesses over to the trail, right at the doorstep of the Federated Cos. planned apartment complex.

Neighbors, property owners, business owners, and all those who live, work and play in Bayside are invited to come and socialize and enjoy games, food, music, puppets and more.  For more information, or to volunteer or provide further support for this event, please email bnaportland@gmail.com .

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:

 

Deering Oaks Rose Garden Circle Celebration

On June 21, Bayside and Parkside Neighbors joined Anne Pringle, President of the Friends of Deering Oaks Park, City of Portland staff, community volunteers from Serenity House and others to celebrate the replanting of the Rose Garden Circle in Deering Oaks Park.  The former roses were hard to maintain and required a lot of pesticides.  The new roses were specifically chosen by rose experts to adapt to the Northeast climate without the use of labor intensive care and pesticides.  (Click on the photos to see full-size; hit ESC to return to page.)

 

 

The Very First Bayside Neighborhood Association Flea Market

Saturday, June 1, from 11:00 to 4:00.

It’s all happening in the Goodwill parking lot next to Dyer’s Variety, 45 Portland Street.

COME ON BY!!!!

If you have any items you don’t need but are too good to throw away and you just haven’t gotten them down to the Salvation Army or out to the Goodwill, PLEASE DONATE THEM.  The BNA needs to start raising money–anything will help.  Anything that will fit on a table or on the ground in front of it is good (that’s pretty much everything, right?).  We’ll also have a rack for clothes (please include hangers).

To donate, please bring items down to the parking lot between 10:00 and 11:00 so we can get them priced.  If that time can’t work for you, email me and we’ll see what we can do about picking them up.

If you look around and decide you want to have a table all your own, the BNA can retroactively permit you with the City (that will cost only $20 because the BNA’s getting the big-bucks operator permit). We have SOME extra tables, and you can put stuff on a tarp or blanket on the ground, a card table, whatever.
P.S.  Dyer’s makes great chowder!

 

Bayside Health Fair 2013

This year’s Bayside Health Fair on May 18 brought lots of neighbors out for this fun annual event, which featured informational tables, free ice cream, baby goats, live music, Irish step dancing and more.  Kids had lots of activities, including free fitted bike helmets and a raffle that included free bikes, free tickets to the Children’s Museum and other fun prizes.

The fair is presented by the University of Southern Maine Bayside Community Nursing Partnership with Bayside Neighborhood Association and Midtown Community Policing.

Hats off to the USM nursing students who are the primary organizers and do a wonderful job of bringing this annual event to Bayside!  We appreciate their hard work!  Click on the photos below to see larger images.

City of Portland Bulky Item Collection Program April 2013

Visit the website at http://recycle.portlandmaine.gov/ to learn more about the “Bulky Waste Sticker Program.”  There is an informational video that should tell you all you need to know.

For a list of items that can and cannot be picked up click here.

Large bulky items have a $40 fee per item for items weighing over 30 pounds and/or are too large for one person to lift safely.

No household hazardous waste or E-waste is accepted.

Holiday Cookie Making Party!

Unity Village Community Room
2-4 pm Saturday December 22
24 Stone Street, Bayside

Please email Steve Hirshon at steve.hirshon@gmail.com if you have a recipe you’d like to make so we can have ingredients available.

Kids and friends of Bayside welcome!

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Thank you to everyone who supported the Bayside Neighborhood Association’s

Annual Meeting & Harvest Dinner
on Saturday, November 3 at the Boys & Girls Club

It was a wonderful event with great food, friends and discussion.

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PHOENIX SQUARE: 

IMAGINING A NEW PUBLIC SPACE

Saturday, September 29, 8:30 a.m. to Noon

Starting with a hearty breakfast, this event marks the culmination of BNA’s participation in the Meeting Place project, a year-long series of community-building art projects.  The event signals the opportunity for neighbors to claim the block of Kennebec Street between Preble and Elm streets for future public space by using Creative Placemaking tools, which includes creating four temporary places on the block, as teams come together to re-imagine Phoenix Square in their own unique ways.

Schedule:

8:30 a.m. Family Style Pancake Breakfast ($2/$5 family)

9:00 a.m. Create a Playground
including kids activities

10:00 a.m. Open Square
team competition to re-imagine places

11:00 a.m. Open Air Theater
Share stories and experiences of Baysiders past and present

All are welcome to watch or participate!

Please email us at Bayside_Neighbors@msn.com if you would like to volunteer or participate!

Meeting Place is an arts-based community development project to increase pride, unity, economic vibrancy and civic engagement with a diverse (economic, racial, ethnic, age, gender) group of residents in four Portland neighborhoods.  Participating neighborhoods include Bayside, Libbytown, East Bayside and the West End.

Each neighborhood has a lead artist who is working on the Gateway Arts Project for the neighborhood-wide festival in September:

“Libbytown Street Poems” led by Betsy Sholl, featuring stories edited into Poetry Sidewalk Stencils

“West End Snapshots”  led by Tonee Harbert, featuring stories and photographs

“Bayside Stories” led by Daniel Minter, featuring stories and block print images on Art Cards

East Bayside “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors,” led by Tim Clorius, Jonathon Cook, Jan Piribeck, and Kelly Rioux, featuring Wire Fence Murals made with recycled materials

All the art work and stories generated will be exhibited in various neighborhood locations during
Meeting Place Neighborhood Open House Days:
September 22nd – Libbytown & West End
Sept 29th – Bayside and East Bayside.

Partners include Creative Portland, Portland Buy Local, Portland Trails, Portland Housing Authority,
Portland Adult Education, League of Young Voters, Maine Historical Society and the City of Portland.

For more info:

Meeting Place Bayside on Facebook

BNA Facebook

Art At Work Website

BAYSIDE BLOCK PARTY

Saturday, September 8, 2012
Portland Street

This year’s Bayside Block Party was another huge success, featuring Karaoke, a kids Moon Bounce Castle, games, yard sales, watermelon, ice cream and more.  A huge thank you to our sponsors:  Preble Street; Goodwill Industries of Northern New England; Lost Coin Cafe; G.R. Dimillo’s Bayside Restaurant & Sports Bar, the City of Portland, Dyer’s Variety Store and Ricky’s Tavern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BAYSIDE NURSING COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP
ELEVENTH ANNUAL HEALTH FAIR

On a recent gorgeous Saturday on May 19, 2012, from 11:00a.m. to 2:00p.m., The Bayside Nursing Community Partnership held their 11th annual Bayside Health Fair.  The fair featured music, games and face-painting for kids, a raffle and representatives from local community organizations, including the Portland Public Library, The Frannie Peabody Center, the American Red Cross, and many others.  It provided an important opportunity for neighborhood residents to learn about critical health and safety issue.  The Bayside Nursing Community Partnership  is part of the USM School of Nursing.  The Bayside Neighborhood Association participated by hosting informational tables about BNA and the Bayside Community Garden.