Category: Comms Team

The Comms Team manages technical aspects of the BNA’s communications and digital presence, including the website, workspace coordination, social media channels, community calendar, newsletter, and outreach materials. The team ensures that neighborhood news, events, and opportunities for engagement reach residents through multiple platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Nextdoor. The team also helps support The Baysider newspaper. By maintaining clear, accessible communication channels, the Comms Team helps keep the community informed, connected, and empowered to participate in shaping Bayside’s future.

Show Up and Get Your Voice Heard!

On By BNA AdminIn Comms Team, Events, Governance, Uncategorized

Several events are coming up that encourage public engagement in local policy making, and we want to make sure Bayside voices are being well represented at all levels of government. Please put the following on your calendars:

Bayside Neighborhood Association Board Meeting

Tuesday, October 7⋅6:00-7:30pm

Steve Hirshon Community Room at Unity Village, 24 Stone Street, Portland, ME

Meeting Agenda

October Team Reports

September Minutes

Coffee with Constituents

Wednesday, October 15⋅4:30 – 6:00pm

Coffee By Design 1 Diamond St, Portland, ME 04101, USA

Your elected representatives in the Maine Legislature want to make sure we stay connected to the needs and priorities of Portland’s neighborhoods. To that end, we are hosting a “Coffee with Constituents” gathering.

Think of this as a neighborhood coffee hour — an opportunity for us to sit down together in a casual setting, listen to what matters most to you and your neighbors, and hear directly how state government can better serve our community.

We are reaching out to you because neighborhood associations play a vital role in shaping the
life of our city. We would appreciate you sharing this invitation with members of your
association and encouraging them to join us.

We look forward to the conversation and to learning from you,

Rachel Talbot Ross State Senator, Senate District 28 (including Bayside)

Yusuf Yusuf Representative, House District 118 (including Bayside)

Matt Moonen House Majority Leader, District 117

Sam Zager Representative, House District 116

District One Meeting with Councilor Michniewicz

Thursday, October 16⋅6:00 – 7:30pm

Portland High School, 284 Cumberland Ave, Portland, ME 04101, USA

The City of Portland’s Annual District Meetings will begin Thursday, October 16, 2025 with the District 1 meeting hosted by Councilor Sarah Michniewicz. Mayor Dion, City Manager Danielle West, and City staff will also be available to discuss neighborhood issues and answer questions from the public. These meetings are the public’s opportunity to meet their district councilor, the Mayor, and representatives from the various departments within the city. 

The City will once again offer free childcare during these meetings. Staff from the Parks, Recreation & Facilities (PRF) Before and After the Bell Program will provide childcare assistance for children ages 5-12. Families will need to sign a liability waiver and sign in/out of the program. Family members must be attending the meeting to utilize the service. The program will take place in adjacent spaces to the meeting from 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM only. No pre-registration is required. 

Check the Bayside Neighborhood Calendar for more events

BNA Team Reports September 2025

On By BNA AdminIn Arts & Music, Baysider, Citizens' Trash Brigade, Comms Team, Events, Garden, Governance, Relevant Developments, Safe Streets, Social Services, Trees & Greens, Welcome Team 
Bayside Business Breakfast Club — Stacy Begin, lead — Betsy Boyd, board liaison
	The Business Breakfast Club agreed to a new coupon idea for the fall cleanup rather than a raffle. This year every volunteer will receive some kind of discount from participating businesses. The group also discussed lending more support to the Baysider through an advertising program. The group is moving forward with a visitors’ map and applied for a $500 micro-grant through the city’s sustainability office to finish the project. Next meeting is Sept. 24th at the Maine Access Immigration Network on Oxford Street.

BNA Citizens’ Trash Brigade — Megan Holt, lead — Rob Sylvain, board liaison 
	Annual BNA Fall Community Cleanup, Saturday September 20th 10am-noon. Every fall for decades Bayside neighbors and friends have come together to clean up our streets and sidewalks and enjoy each other's company in preparation for winter.  This year every participant will be given a valuable Bayside Business Coupon Card, good for deep discounts at sponsoring Bayside restaurants, shops, services, venues and vendors.	

Relevant Developments Team — Amelia LaBreck, lead — Jim Hall, board liaison
	Councilor Michniewicz will address the board tonight regarding the former Federated Property now in city hands. A representative from Maine Music Alliance will address the board regarding the Live Nation project. Full list of current property development projects here: https://tinyurl.com/bnaprops 

Tech Team — Joey Brunelle, lead — Jim Hall, board liaison
	New deadline for submissions to the next issue of the Baysider is September 3rd. Advertising is being solicited to offset printing costs. Johnny Sylvain has successfully ported the google calendar, contacts, and email forwards to the new admin account.
	
Garden Team — Holly Picotte, lead — Susan McClosky, board liaison
	The garden is in full bloom and is looking very beautiful!
	
Tree Team — Avery Yale Kamila, lead — Susan McClosky, board liaison
	The Tree Hugging event sponsored by the Bayside Neighborhood Association and Portland Parks and Recreation is now scheduled for Saturday, September 13th on the Bayside Trail. The Penobscot Nation drum group will perform a welcome ceremony, Portland’s Supervising Park Ranger Liz Collado will lead a forest bathing experience, Rangers will also serve white pine tea, and have tree-related resources and information available. City Arborist Mark Reiland will be displaying the trunk of the oak tree removed from Oxford Street to spark interest in a future public art project. Deirdre Paul is designing a flyer for Am-at-eur Service to print.

Art Team — Kincaid Pearson, lead — Betsy Boyd, board liaison
	Portland Downtown’s utility box painting program call for artists ends September 2nd. Seeking funding for a public art project using material from the oak tree recently felled to make way for Reveler’s apartment building at 89 Elm Street. Amelia Labreck has agreed to assist in reviving the BNA Black Frame Art Sale fundraiser. 

Safe Streets Team — 
Bowman has stepped down as team lead. Looking for new leadership. Scott Morrision reports the following through Jen Rogers at Midtown Community Policing:
a) August 2025- Citywide- 6,852 ; Bayside-1,040 ; 15.18% 
b) August 2024- Citywide- 6,873; Bayside- 1,187; 17.27% 
c) 2025 Bayside Monthly Average- 19.33% (2024 avg.-19.28%) 
d) 2017-2025 Bayside Monthly Average- 18.13% 

BAYsideBees Events team — Deidre Paul, lead — Peter Markoe, board liaison
	Deidre and Peter have aligned on a date for the Pet Costume Parade and Block Party.  We are eyeing the Bayside trail as the location, and have applied for the city block grant to help fund activities that will bring neighbors to the event, whether they have a pet or not.  

Budget and Finance Committee - Chair Peter, Tom, Rob.
	The finance committee has not officially met, but the GiveButter campaign is live, and we already have two donors! 

Membership and Outreach Committee - Chair Colette, Betsy, Susan.
	(Corrections welcome) The MO committee met in mid-August to formulate a plan for canvassing the neighborhood. They generated a form that can be included as a QR code within the membership packet. We are figuring the best date and time to begin canvassing along with routes and groupings.

Change is in the Air!

On By Bayside Neighborhood AssociationIn Comms Team, Governance

Change is coming to Bayside — Let’s make it good!

Our neighborhood is going through some major changes, and so too is our neighborhood association. Two of our longest-serving board members—Alex Landry and Deborah Van Hoewyk—are stepping down for separate personal reasons, both leaving very big shoes to fill. The board is seeking to appoint immediate replacements for these seats. At least one of the seats must be held by a Bayside resident, and the board is encouraging renters and BIPOC members of the community to inquire. Please contact  board@baysideportland.org for information.

Longtime BNA board members Alex Landry (left) and Deb Van Hoewyk (right) with neighborhood leaders at the then newly proposed Midtown Project site walk in 2013.

Other ways to help:

The BNA Teams need neighbors and friends to help us help each other. Join us!

BNA Board Meeting recap

On By Robert SylvainIn Comms Team, Uncategorized

Tuesday night the BNA board met for their monthly meeting, reviewing team reports and how they align with the BNA strategic vision. We also welcomed as a special guest newly elected Senator Rachel Talbot-Ross, who provided a legislative report and fielded questions about the state of the State. The Senator emphasized how our neighborhood is affected by politics at every level of government, and offered her support and continued advocacy. We’ll be hearing from Senator Talbot-Ross on a regular basis and she can be reached via email at Rachel.TalbotRoss@legislature.maine.gov any time.

Thanks to the BAYsideBEEs Team working to add fun to every BNA event, the board capped the evening with a map challenge game, shown in the photo. Thought-provoking and laugh-inducing, we’re looking forward to similar team-building activities in the future.

Here’s a link to the BNA Teams Report as presented to the board:

BNA Team Reports 2025_02_04Download

Here’s a copy of the Board meeting agenda:

2025_02 BNA AgendaDownload

Here’s a copy of the Strategic Vision overview:

BNA Strategic Vision One-sheetDownload

Mid-month Update

On By Robert SylvainIn Business Club, Citizens' Trash Brigade, Comms Team, Governance, Relevant Developments, Safe Streets, Uncategorized

Lots going on in Bayside, and the BNA teams are rising to meet the moment. If you want to join a team, just send an email to any of the groups below, and a team lead will get back to you asap. If you have an idea for a team and want to get it started, we want to hear from you. Let’s do it!

The Tech Team is working on better communication pathways for the general membership, including mailchimp, which will allow us to send targeted email news and allow subscribers to tailor how they receive updates from various teams. We’re also now using google workspace to organize teams into google groups that can share files, calendar events, to-do lists, plus follow and archive conversations by topic within each team and between teams. Setting up the groups in a way that is simple to use but powerful enough to keep track of team tasks and communications, calendar events, shared files and important links has proven to be a challenge, but worthwhile. If you have experience and/or interest in admin tools please consider joining the tech team and helping us out.

Recent News

December’s Safe Streets Meeting was met with a strong response from the community and from the media. Troy Bennett from Bangor Daily News was in attendance and wrote this article about the effort and subsequently WCSH6 Newscenter Maine picked up the story as did WGME CBS13 shown below. The next Safe Streets Team meeting will be Tuesday, February 25th, 6:00pm in the Steve Hirshon Community Room at Unity Village, 24 Stone Street, Portland.

If you missed last month’s BNA Board meeting on zoom, you can view a recording of it here:
BNA Board Meeting January 7 2025 See below for details on the next board meeting.

Upcoming Events

Saturday January 25, 11am
BNA Citizens’ Trash Brigade
Parris Street Block Walk

UPDATE: With the recent snowfall we’re pivoting to salt & sand for sidewalks on Parris Street, which has several spots that need attention. We’ll provide buckets of sand & salt from the city lot, shovels and a few ice choppers. If you have an ice chopper please bring it! We’ll warm up afterward at Wilson BBQ. 

OP: We’re coming together for a short pickup party targeting Preble Street in particular, focusing on bits and butts that get overlooked during the Spring & Fall cleanup, and also to get eyes on the street to take stock of the pedestrian experience, flag infrastructure concerns, and to get to know each other. Afterward we’re planning to gather at Wilson BBQ to warm up, wind down, and plan for next month’s block walk. We’ll meet at 72 Parris Street and walk together. Trash bags and gloves provided.

Monday January 27, 6:00pm
Portland Music Hall Presentation
Composing Room @ Press Hotel
119 Exchange St, Portland, ME

The BNA Development Developments Team invites Baysiders to attend a public presentation by Portland Performance Ventures, LLC on their proposal for a 3,300-seat Live Nation music venue at the site of the old Press Herald printing press building across Myrtle Street from the Merrill Auditorium in Bayside. More information on the project is available on the city of portland website here:  https://selfservice.portlandmaine.gov/

Wednesday January 29, 8:30am
Bayside Business Breakfast Club
Isa Bistro, 79 Portland St. Portland, ME

The Bayside Neighborhood Association is starting 2025 with a renewed commitment to connecting with diverse stakeholders and providing opportunities for community members to come together in pursuit of shared goals. To that end, we’re excited to present the first of what will be monthly events specifically for Bayside business owners to meet in an informal setting to meet, chat, and plan a better future for all Baysiders.

RSVP here to get an invitation:  https://forms.gle/hWHtLfRxynBA2NrYA 

Next BNA Board Meeting:  Tuesday, February 4, 2025 6:00pm in the Steve Hirshon Community Room at Unity Village, 24 Stone Street. Open to the public. Please email info@baysideportland.org for more information. Check our community calendar often for updates and more events.

http://www.baysideportland.org

Mission Statement:
“The Bayside Neighborhood Association (BNA) empowers the Bayside community by building meaningful partnerships that promote health, safety, green spaces, diversity, housing, and sustainable development for all who live, work, and play in this unique urban neighborhood.”

We need your help! Please consider a tax-deductible donation to the BNA, a 501c(3) non-profit organization. Contact Jim Hall, treasurer for more information at jim@baysideportland.org