BNA Dev Team Shows Up for Bayside

On April 16, 2026April 22, 2026 By BNA AdminIn Relevant Developments, Uncategorized

Wednesday afternoon the City of Portland hosted the first of two public feedback forums related to the Midtown Properties in Bayside. Members of the BNA Relevant Developments Team, including team lead Amelia LaBreck, vice-president Rob Sylvain, and treasurer Peter Markoe attended to make sure Bayside voices are heard throughout the process. The city also is soliciting feedback though an online survey, here: Midtown Project Community Survey

The next public forum is scheduled for April 29th at City Hall. (The session’s hours have been extended to accommodate more members of the public, and will now be held from 4pm – 7pm.) For more information visit the City of Portland Website. Click the link below for an overview of the BNA’s position on Midtown, or use the search tool to the right for some historical perspective.

City Announces Public Process for Midtown Development

Please take the survey and consider joining us at the next public session. Feel free to contact us with any questions or ideas at developments@baysideportland.org As always, we want to hear from you!

Gnome Making Event Success!

On April 4, 2026April 22, 2026 By Robert SylvainIn Arts & Music, Events Team, Uncategorized

Get ready for the Bayside Gnome Roam! 🧙‍♂️

What a night! During April’s First Friday, dozens of neighbors and friends packed Maine Clay Collaborative for our Gnome Roam prep event — and the results were magical. Scores of handmade clay gnomes are now drying, ready to be fired up and let loose on the streets of Bayside.

So what happens next? The fine folks at Maine Clay will fire all those little characters in the kiln. Then we’ll fan out across the neighborhood and tuck them into nooks, perch them on stoops, and hide them in plain sight — ready for neighbors to discover during Bayside Week, April 25th through May 2nd. Find one, photograph it, share it. It’s part art project, part hide-and-seek, and totally Bayside.

Bayside Week is shaping up to be something really special. Get a head start on the Gnome Roam by showing up at our kickoff cleanup event from 10am-noon on Saturday April 25th at the Bayside Community Garden. Check out everything that’s happening at www.baysideportland.org/community-calendar/ — and if you have an event to add or want to get involved, reach out to the events team.

Let’s show everyone why Bayside is the Playside!

Thank You Maine Clay Collaborative!

Earth Day at Deering Oaks

On March 31, 2026April 22, 2026 By Robert SylvainIn Events Team, Trees & Greens, Uncategorized

Coming Soon:

from our friends at the City of Portland Office of Sustainability: Portland’s upcoming Earth Day Celebration on Saturday, April 18th from 11am-2pm at Deering Oaks Park by the Bandstand, just steps from the opening day of the Portland Farmers’ Market.

Annual Spring Cleanup

On March 28, 2026April 24, 2026 By Robert SylvainIn Uncategorized

Save the Date:

The BNA Citizens’ Trash Brigade is teaming up with The City of Portland Office of Sustainability, Portland Parks, Recreation and Facilities, and The Portland Parks Conservancy again this year for the Annual Spring Cleanup. This event will also clear the way to kickoff Bayside Week, with lots of surprises, so stay tuned and keep in touch!

Afterparty at Bayside Bowl!

Charlie is reserving some lanes for us and every participant in the cleanup gets to bowl a string for free!

Free string of Bowling for all cleanup crew participants
Appetizers courtesy of the BNA Events Team
Party continues late night with Consider the Source at Bayside Bowl 8pm

Levitt Foundation Funds New Festival

On March 17, 2026May 10, 2026 By Robert SylvainIn Arts & Music, Events Team, Uncategorized

Coming August 1st 2026 to the Bayside Trail:

2026 BPM Drum Festival

The Bayside Neighborhood Association presents the first inaugural BPM Drum Festival on the Bayside Trail this summer thanks for a generous grant from the Levitt Family Foundation which leverages the power of free, live music to strengthen the social fabric of communities, creating places people love while amplifying local pride, activating underused public spaces and fostering more healthy, equitable, and thriving communities one city, and one concert, at a time. A perfect fit for Bayside!

*Drummers from the Penobscot nation graced our beloved Bayside Trail at the tree-hugging event* in 2025.

We believe that the BPM Drum Festival is the first EVER to synchronize the beats of several groups performing simultaneously. The impetus of the idea, however, came from another unique local festival called Vigorous Tenderness which features avant-garde chamber music in plein air. Both festivals invite the audience to move freely along a route from one sonic space to another, sometimes blending performers’ work, as well as the surrounding sonic environment. The idea for using drums came naturally from the plethora of ethnic drum groups in our culturally diverse neighborhood, as well as a wildly successful tree-hugging event we staged on the Bayside Trail featuring a local
Penobscot tribal drum group.

*West African drum master Namory Keita and friends at the Bayside Block Party in 2025*

Bayside is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the State of Maine. Long neglected and red-lined by cynical city policies, it is now the subject of intense land speculation. Meanwhile the vacant lots and unkept promises can make it
hard for residents and visitors to enjoy our few greenspaces. The Bayside Trail was designed to connect the neighborhood and create positive change, and the Bayside Neighborhood Association is committed to making that promise a reality. The BPM Drum Festival is our chance to do just that, and celebrate our shared hope for the future.

working logo — looking for an artist to help make a better one— is that you?

This will be the first inaugural year for the BPM Drum Fest. Many block parties, fairs and community events over the last 25 years have brought us to this moment. We also have strong partners at the City Office of Sustainability,
Portland Downtown, Creative Portland and other community organizations who have helped us in the past. We’ve reached out to several drum groups who are excited to participate, including the Keepers of the Penobscot Drum, Taiko Maine, Namory Keita, and others. We’re looking for volunteers, fiscal sponsors, and other collaborative partners to help make this dream a reality. Can you help? Contact eventsteam@baysideportland.org

New Year’s Resolutions

On January 9, 2026January 9, 2026 By Bayside Neighborhood AssociationIn Uncategorized

2026 promises to be a big year for Bayside! With thousands of housing units under construction and in planning, new hopes for public greenspace, and the potential for a game-changing community center in Bayside, the future has never looked brighter when you focus on what we can do together locally. Here’s a quick look the year behind us and a peek at what’s to come:

Hundreds of new affordable housing units broke ground in 2025, with more on the way

…and SO much more. Scroll through our “news & events” page for a little trip down memory lane. Our website got a little refresh recently too, so each of the new BNA teams has its own page. Website traffic has increased threefold this year, and so have donations!

Looking Ahead…

Over one thousand new housing units are in development right now in Bayside, with hundreds more proposed, not including the potential for more in the Franklin Redesign and newly re-acquired Midtown Properties, which the BNA believes should also include open space and park amenities to support the new housing. Keep a tab on things and make your voice heard on the Relevant Developments Team and the Trees and Greens Team.

Save the Dates…

BAYSIDE WEEK is coming this spring! Bookended by the Annual Spring Cleanup on April 25th and the Annual Meeting and Elections on May 2nd, many events and activities are being planned throughout the week, including the rollout of a new vistors’ map by the Business Breakfast Club, a treasure hunt, Jane’s Walk, plus the new Bayside First Friday and more. You can help by joining the Events Team.

A new issue of The Baysider is in the works. Deadline for submissions is January 15th. Contact baysider@baysideportland.org for more information.

Join Your Community Organization…

The BNA offers opportunities to serve your community in many different ways. We have a new team lead for the Safe Streets Team, and we’re reforming the Welcome Team too, so there’s lots of room for new team members. There’s always the chance to start a new team if you have an area of interest you’d like to rally with your neighbors to pursue.

The BNA board also has activated the nominating committee to find potential new board members. Every year at the Annual Meeting, one-half of the board is elected for a two-year term. The nominating committee will be announcing the number of available seats in the coming weeks, and a slate of candidates will be announced 30 days in advance of the May 2nd elections. If you’re interested in running for the BNA board of directors, please contact board@baysideportland.org

Neighborhood Meeting Dec 1st

On November 26, 2025December 4, 2025 By Robert SylvainIn Events Team, Relevant Developments, Safe Streets, Uncategorized

The Harvard Kennedy School of Government is calling all Baysiders to participate in a forum to discuss the impacts of climate change and attendant severe weather events in our community. We want to hear from you, and hope you’ll take time to gather with your neighbors to share our thoughts, concerns, and ideas on how to move forward together.

Please share and post this flyer widely. Here are translated flyers for speakers of other languages:

“Join us for an interactive, in-person community engagement session focused on stormwater, flooding, and climate impacts in Bayside. Over about 90 minutes, residents will work together around a large neighborhood map to identify valued community features, share past experiences with flooding using simple color markers and optional notes, and highlight what kinds of resources or support they have used, or might need, in future events. It’s an opportunity for residents to share their own experiences and contribute to supporting the future of Bayside.”

PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT:

November Board Meeting

On November 11, 2025December 4, 2025 By Robert SylvainIn Governance, Uncategorized

The November BNA board meeting was moved to November 11th to make room for election day. Monthly meetings are held online on odd-numbered months, and as always the public is welcome to attend. Email info@baysideportland.org for a link to the zoom meeting. Below is the agenda, team reports, and minutes from the October meeting.

2025_011_04 BNA Agenda Download

BNA Team Reports 2025_11_04 Download

BNA_Minutes_2025-10-7 Download

Bayside First Friday Nov 7th

On November 7, 2025December 4, 2025 By BNA AdminIn Arts & Music, Events Team, Uncategorized

Another First Friday is upon us, and it looks like the rain will hold off until afterward!

Highlights:

A new neighborhood gallery and performance space is joining us at 47 Portland Street, on the 3rd floor. Open Systems Studios‘ current exhibit “arhythmias” went up last month and was a great hit. If you haven’t seen it come down tonight and check it out before December’s new offering.

Happy first birthday to Maine Clay Collaborative! In addition to the usual Friday free clay play open studio event, they’ll be serving up birthday cake while it lasts. Join us!

Photos from last month’s Bayside Art Walk:

Fall Baysider Drops!

On October 14, 2025December 4, 2025 By BNA AdminIn Baysider, Uncategorized

The latest issue of The Baysider is here! Look for print editions all around the neighborhood, at the Public Library, and local businesses like our sponsors: Two Fat Cats Bakery, Leavitt & Sons Deli, Bayside Bowl, The Studio Portland, Fortune Teller Tatoo, Isa Bistro, Maine Clay Collaborative, Coffee Me Up, CycleBar, and more. Special thanks to Dale Rand printing for helping us out. For more information about advertising or submitting and article for the next issue, contact baysider@baysideportland.org

Baysider FALL 2025 final Download

The Baysider features items of interest to the Bayside neighborhood and the broader Portland community.
We invite everyone who lives, works or plays in Bayside to send in submissions: opinion pieces, neighborhood news, reviews, interviews, historical trivia, photos, original fiction, art—you name it! Anything related to Bayside. Also please submit events for our community calendar, ads for local businesses, ideas for future issues, and spread the word.

We are also seeking volunteers to regularly help with writing and design. If that’s you, please email us at: baysider@baysideportland.org Thank you to everyone—past and present—who has made The Baysider possible and who continues to make Bayside a special place.
— Joey Brunelle & Rob Sylvain

Please contact us if you are interested in contributing or sponsoring our publication. Advertisement specs available upon request.

Thanks to Special Collections Librarian & Archivist Abraham Schechter, the Portland Public Library’s has been digitizing their collection of The Baysider which lives in the Portland Room archive. The public can now access searchable pdf copies of many issues of The Baysider at the Portland Public Library Digital Commons website. More to come!

https://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/baysider/

See our Archive of The Baysider for downloadable pdf versions of previous issues.