The Development of Bayside Neighborhood Association
by Kyra Adkins and Brian Aromando
A student project in Urban Geography taught by Dr. Lydia Savage at the University of Southern Maine

The intent of this project is to explore the development of a neighborhood association and to examine the forces that guide their activities.  We took into consideration the inception  of the group,  communication networks that both exist and have been established with municipal departments and how the location of the neighborhood shapes priorities. 

With this project we were hoping to explore successful factors and strategies that a neighborhood association could adopt in order to advocate for their interests.  The neighborhood association we chose to explore is the Bayside Neighborhood Association of Portland, Maine.  

Bayside neighborhood exists as an inner city urban environment in Portland, Maine.  Portland has been built on a Peninsula with limited land available for new development.  The Bayside area represents mixed use zoning where industrial enterprises are  just down the hill from a residential neighborhood.  It also serves as a central place of social services for the people of Southern Maine, including shelters, soup kitchens, as well as state and federal service centers.  Some of the current industrial uses include scrap metal yards that no longer represent the most efficient use of a limited resource (land) for a city seeking to establish itself in an economic service sector. The neighborhood has experienced a recent history of neglect from the city of Portland and is now being viewed as a place to focus future development.  While pressure for development increases the residents of Bayside are faced with issues that range from deteriorating housing to community safety, and have developed the neighborhood association as a means