I spent some time in Pickering Square this week.
No one swore at me or asked me for money or cigarettes.
A gentleman waiting for the bus joined me on my shaded bench and told me he had finished mowing some lawns and was planning on mowing a few more when the day grew a bit cooler.
We chatted for a few minutes and he was off to jump on his bus.
It was the most pleasant part of my visit.
Let’s face it. Pickering Square simply isn’t the most charming place to spend an afternoon. It’s noisy and it smells of gas fumes since it abuts Bangor’s Community Connector bus depot located at the Pickering Square Parking Garage.
There are dozens of city spots that are much more inviting to rest or enjoy a sandwich at lunchtime.
Pickering Square is a bother and has been a bother for more than a decade.
It may have held promise when those bricks were first laid and the fountain erected, but its proximity to the bus depot and its central downtown location make it an attractive hangout for some whom many would just as soon not have in their backyard.
And really, that’s what Pickering Square is: downtown’s backyard.
The Bangor City Council, police chief and downtown merchants met in 1999 to try to tone down the behavior in the square. At one of those meetings, then-Police Chief Don Winslow mentioned that money had been earmarked for a surveillance camera system which would allow for real-time monitoring of the square at the police department.
Apparently that system was installed and it was used for some time but stopped working a few years ago. It has never been repaired or replaced and has been virtually forgotten. Current Council Chairman Cary Weston indicated he was interested in having the system looked at to see if it could be made to work again in order to restore a sense of safety for those who use or walk through the square.
The concerns expressed in city council chambers back in 1999 were largely the same as those mentioned today: panhandlers, foul language, intoxication and a general sense of uneasiness about the place by those who work, shop, play or dine in downtown Bangor.
My time at the square was in the middle of two midweek afternoons. I was not at all uneasy. There is enough foot traffic through and around the square during a weekday that I felt no concern for my safety.
I watched as business people, men and women, together and alone cut through the square from one part of downtown to another. No one seemed even a bit nervous, though there certainly were groups of young people gathered around the various benches surrounding the square’s perimeter.
What appeared to be grandparents talked and laughed as they led a couple of young children through the square toward the parking garage.
No one bothered them or seemingly paid them any attention at all.
But when an elderly man took a seat on a shaded bench, reading a newspaper, presumably waiting for a bus, a young man who had been part of a much larger group broke away, wandered over to the man and proceeded to sit on a nearby step facing him, only five feet away.
There seemed to be no reason, other than perhaps intimidation, for the young man’s movement. Eventually, one by one, other members of the group wandered over, sitting beside the elderly man on the bench and standing around him.
He kept reading his paper. They didn’t seem to be talking with him, but I felt a bit like I was watching a bullying scene unfold on a playground.
Finally, his bus came.
Meanwhile, another elderly man, this one with a walker and wheeling an oxygen tank, sat alone on a bench on the opposite side of the square.
The same young man walked across and sat down beside him, again not saying a word. Again, one by one his friends wandered over to him and they began their conversation, which mostly consisted of foul language.
The elderly man stood his ground and held his place on the bench. After 20 minutes or so the group seemed to grow bored and left for another nearby bench.
The groups that were there the days I spent in the square seemed to just wander from bench to bench. Some would leave, others would join, others would return and the whole time they would wander from bench to bench.
The language was rough and disturbing, but sadly it’s not abnormal to hear the same in a grocery store parking lot or while walking through the mall.
If you are troubled watching young mothers and their friends hanging over baby strollers with cigarettes dangling from their lips and fingers, then perhaps spending an afternoon at Pickering Square isn’t for you.
While I was there a Bangor police cruiser parked for some time near the edge of the park and another drove slowly by two or three times.
Some have said it gets more disturbing in the late afternoon and is concerning for downtown workers leaving for the day. Bangor police have indicated they will have an officer on foot patrolling the area more closely during those hours.
A continued effort to bring interesting activities to the square could also go far to disperse those who hang out there now. Historically, the problem with that plan has been getting people to turn out for those events, especially ones scheduled during weekdays. The River City Cinema’s Friday night movie and Thursday’s Cool Sounds summer series and market on Thursday evenings are both successful.
From what I saw this week, Councilor Pat Blanchette’s suggestion of a smoking ban in the square would certainly be a game changer.
It certainly wouldn’t end the problem, however. It would simply relocate it.
When my daughter was younger her and I used to visit the children’s museum often. We always parked in the garage and never once had a problem walking across the square. Yes, bad things do happen now and then but I’ve seen bad things happen in the middle of nowhere.
Singapore
Renee, can you just come out and tell us what you and your friends have in mind for our use of Pickering Square and let’s either say yes or no to it, instead of this ridiculous drip drip drip effect of trying to set an idea in place. The BDN can’t even spring for a new photo for this story, it is so worn out. May I suggest another rotary be built there? or perhaps a lily garden? or both?
Obviously, some people believe the Square is theirs.
These intimidating people should be kicked out, helped by a pair of size 12 police boots.
Or perhaps a Charles Bronson/Clint Eastwood type ?? Time to put in a call to Curtis Sliwa and the Guardian Angels ?? In the absence of some serious butt kicking a possible way to reduce the problem would be to play some classical music out of speakers around the fountain and benches in addition to the suggested no smoking ordinance . Unfortunately the situation likely would just surface at another location
Where do you come from Chris? This doesn’t sound like a Maine viewpoint to me. Maybe we need to bus you out of the area.
I remember the classical music thundering out of an upstairs window in the Square. Sort of like a Brave New World behavioral modification clinic. Too Dystopian.
Smoking ban does seem like a good idea to help curb the bs.
Smoking is a legal activity and profitable for the state. They just whine about it. If they really cared about public health, cigarette sales would be banned.
I am not a smoker, but come on….seriously, a smoking ban? While they are enforcing that maybe that they can write people up for littering. There is trash left all over the place on a nightly basis and if not for one very dedicated city employee who spends hours picking up butts and other trash each morning, downtown would not look nearly as nice as it does. The new sidewalk art spray painted on the walking bridge added some nice green color to the area too.
Smoking ban is where the city council is headed, who is going to enforce that!
As a non-smoker myself I agree. A smoking bans are like drunk driving laws. There will always be some that will not care and do it anyways. They will smoke on the sidewalk, the street, or the sidewalk across the street. I doubt it would keep any of them away.
For the whole of Downtown??? outside the bars toooo????
Dear Renee,
Every time I see your photo I do a double-take thinking you’re wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. I’m sorry, I just had to tell you :)
An eclectic group in that picture…
Would have been nice to go sit near the old man and give the punks a taste of intimidation. Every one of them are gutless wonders.
Charge ’em with loitering. Then get a judge to have them pick up butts in Pickering Square.
Its a public square?! Therefore not loitering hah
Loitering is defined as an act of remaining in a public place (get that?) for a prolonged period of time. Under certain jurisdictions – it is illegal. Hah!
So you want to limit the city’s use and exclude people who are not like you, that you find offensive? Kind of hard to do in the greatest free country on the planet, though lots or people seem to be trying.
Under the parking garage is a large empty space for rent. We could fence that in like a fema camp, have a jury in the park decide who gets placed in it, then charge for tours to look at the freaks in the cage.a money maker all the way around.. we could hire an outside contracter to do the job and blame it all on them. Let the Sterotyping begin!!!
People lurking around looking for trouble and antagonizing respectable people, should be driven out – kicked out.
You are just assuming they were looking for trouble, and I did not read how they were antaganizing anyone. Maybe therye were actually hoping for a conversation with an adult, if one would initiate it. Driving people out, kicking them out, tar and feathering them, whatever is anti-American, where all people are free. If they actually break a law, it should be dealt with, but if not, they have just as much right to be in a public park as you do.
Perhaps “they” were not antagonizing anyone. But the scope of the column and other stories suggest there is a genuine concern among those who walk through downtown, and, even those with businesses located downtown.
I don’t wish to deprive anyone of their “rights” to walk, talk, and do almost anything they want to. But – that means anyone and everyone including oldsters, who would just like to sit and read a newspaper, without interference.
I respect everyone’s rights, as I expect others to respect mine, too.
Pickering Square has this issue by design. It is an island surrounded by pavement, a bank, the parking garage, and the old Freezes’ Building. This crowd couldn’t hang out at West Market Square (during the day) because of the business that surround the area that would run them off.
How about some respect for your fellow human beings? No group should have the “right” to infringe on everyone elses, especially the elderly or handicapped who can be prime targets for for some of these nitwits.
So get right down there and take action! Or call the cops if you suspect something going on with intimidation of the elderly. They are just up the block for crying out loud. Quit moaning about problems and do something when you see them. They will stop.
When I have an issue I address it. I live 90 miles from Pickering Square, don’t think I’ll be seeing anything soon…
So why is it your problem at all then? Why are you commenting on something you aren’t even a part of? Did you see any elderly being targets? It could be a fake story, or could be a misunderstanding, or could be an isolated incident for all you know for a fact.
“The Bangor Daily News encourages comments about stories”…
Sorry about that. Of course you are right on second thought. But my point is, do you know that any of the things stated here are going on? We are having a class war here in Bangor and the BDN seems to be aiding only one side. This is infuriating to me.
God Bless you Renee… all this time when I thought sterotyping had gone away with the PC movement and now we can finally disparage people once again… We really have to do something about these people because they don’t fit into my lifestyle and bother my Kama. as for smoking in the square, when I walk downtown and the sidewalk bars are open all I can smell is smoke.. Ban smoking in pickering square and around all downtown businesses please.
maybe you should ban all exhaust smoke from any outside location in bangor or anywhere else.. what you breath outside from exhaust on a daily basis will harm you so much more then cigerette smoke ever will outdoors… inside is another matter all together.
So you choose to ban smoking in the park but not 10 feet away at an open bar. LOL
Good morning fellow Bangorians! A beautiful day to get out and about the City! If Pickering Square is not your cup of tea, go somewhere else! Or stay home, that’s really the safest place.
Most accidents happen at home.
While I admit that some of what goes on in the square is disturbing, do you really see a smoking ban as the solution?? Seriously?? I see, so the group of thug wannabee’s were all smokers?? The one’s that keep wandering from bench to bench every last one is a smoker?? Smoker’s once again are the problem?? Quit with the anti-smoker hysteria please… I spend enough time riding the B.A.T. listing to all this garbage smack talking, profanity, and rudeness… The last thing I personally need is to not be able to grab a smoke while waiting for my transfer to arrive / leave… How about making a go at DEALING with the real issues instead of hyping up another lie against smokers… We are not evil, vicious, and all out to destroy your health… B.P.D. are present in the square and should be doing a lot more to intervene on the ones that are making the square an uneasy place to be…
Look, man. Non-smokers hate cigarrette smoke. Smokers tolerate it because they crave the nicotine. While I think a smoking ban is not a solution to this issue, cigarrette smoke in my breathing space is definitely an affront to my health. On the other hand, open-air smoking in a big space like the square is is no problem, IMO.
Years ago, a short and sprightly young cop, could be seen dashing up and down the sidewalks, in and out of Freese’s, the Eastern Hotel, Viner’s. It was like he never stopped. A big smile. A greeting for everyone. He was tireless. He was everywhere you looked. Believe it was Officer Tommy Walsh.
On Exchange Street, two cops, a burly Steve Seguino’s and towering Jim Scripture’s presence was well known – especially to those ready to take a swing on a gut full of booze.
Cops on the beat maintain order and keep the traffic moving. There were others, too. We have a great police force today. Hopefully, the cop on the beat will be restored Downtown. But instead of leaving it all to one officer, make it two. That’s four arms, and two pairs of rock solid police boots to give some of these antagonists a lift in life.
Yes, it had a secure feeling having a police officer in town. I miss that secure feeling when I have to walk through town..
Police officers on the downtown beat are needed. You and others would feel more secure. It will also broaden the scope of the department, both in public relations and investigations.
First, I completely agree with your point about beat patrols. I think we even need extend the idea to full community policing as well.
That said, I couldn’t stop laughing when I read your post. It was like reading a 1940s crime novel:
“He could lay a crook down smoother than a brick on mortar! And the dames loved him too, but he only had room in his big dumb heart for one gal; Lola. Ahhh, Lola! She had eyes the color of money and legs that went all the way down to Portland…”
Yours is better. What’s the title?
Before Weston goes and wastes money restoring a surveillance system that the cops don’t use and don’t want, we should another look at moving the bus hub out to the airport area. We don’t need to have it in the middle of town.
All the streets meet that are on bus routes downtown, it makes no sense moving the bus station.
Cameras with an open online server where anyone can look like the have in lincoln would work, also a big screen monitor on the outside wall of the parking garage with cams aimed at the park would work because people would know they are live online.
Then they’ll see who is meeting who for lunch downtown! How would that work?
Wrong – we had the cameras. They didn’t work, the police didn’t care to staff them and when the broke, nobody said anything so that they wouldn’t get put back into service.
Did the cameras have the 50′ Big Brother screens, so you could see which bankers were cheating on their wives as they walk to the Lexus and they could see themselves at the same time, caught en flagrante?
Most of the people that take the bus don’t have a car so how will they get to the airport area to get on the bus to take them where they need to go?? I have seen so odd remarks on here and this tops them all!!
Um…a bus would still stop there, it just would cease being the hub for all of the buses. See how easy that was?
So the point of moving the hub would be???
Why would you not have the hub of a public bus in the center of a city?
I use to be part
of the square crowd over 5 years ago or so before i got my own place
& had my son. That group was much more respectable than the the
generations after us… But, it’s all the same type of kids over the
years, kids who have a rough home life, kids who are homeless or just
wanna get out of their parents house for most of the day *that was
me* most people I’d say under 40 these days have a bit of a trucker
mouth, just something that has come with the younger generations,
just because someone talks like a trucker doesn’t mean they’re a
delinquent… Has far as people being scared or intimated by those
who socialize down there, they are just judging, the people who hang
out down there aren’t exactly dressed to impress the professional
types who have to cut through the area, they are either half clothed
girls wanting to show off their assets or baggy pant wearing guys who
are simply dressing the “in” way, some dress ratty &
appear unkempt, not always by choice, but because they have little to
no clothing & no where to shower shower daily, except maybe a
over crowded shelter where you probably have to make an appointment
to shower. There have never really been any major crimes in the area,
no one or not many people have been killed, attacked or robbed going
through the area when these people have been hanging in the area, so
as I said before, peoples worries are based on them judging these
people by looks basically. Crimes that HAVE been committed in the
area are usually done by drunk patrons of the bars down there. Even
at the height of the bath salts problem, there weren’t many if any
issues caused at the square. Police do patrol it well, but even if it
wasn’t patrolled I don’t think there would be any more problems than
there have been. Alot of people who socialize daily down there
respect the area because they know the stigma of it & they don’t
want to lose the privilege to socialize with so many friends at once.
It may get worse over time because it does seem like as the years go
by it seems each generation is less respectful, not just those who
frequent the square, but everyone. I was shocked to have a young kid
open the door I was about to walk out of, rather than pushing past
me, he paused & held the door open for me & let me walk out,
thats a rare trait for younger kids to have now a days & that is
pretty sad that I am 26 & can realize this! I sometimes think
that my generation is the last to have most of us with any courtesy &
respect, especially towards those older than us! Back to the subject
at hand though… You are probably more safe walking through the
square than you are any where else in the downtown & surrounding
area. Don’t judge a group of kids socializing who may tend to get a
bit loud & may be mouthy & may not dress to your standards of
“upstanding” kids, hell a clean cut person is more likely
to cause problems than someone dressed poorly. Don’t stereotype
because that will mostly likely lead to a false feeling of security.
Don’t exile people from gathering just because people want to
prejudge & label them to be menaces, therefore feeling unsafe &
uneasy by them, don’t do so until they are causing actual problems!
People need to stop being so uptight & judgmental!!
My answer is ….where is your child’s father . He should have given you a safe place paid the rent and groceries …unless he ran out on you. Why did you let that happen to you ???
Please reread her last line several times.
Read my comment… once.
Where do these people come from… and where do they go to ?? Does moving from one bench to another every so often avoid the city loitering ordinances ?? Do these people panhandle or offer ” protection” to the old people who live in the Freese building in exchange for smokes or cash . It would be enlightening to know the answers .
Something that is rarely mentioned is a few years ago people wanted to clean up the downtown parks etc. The mantra then was to have the police ask the kids to go to Pickering Square. Do I remember that incorrectly?
The homeless and the uneducated will leave a bad taste in people’s mouth. People who talk and act differently, with their own set of rules, are usually seen as trouble. The question we should ask, without malice, why are they there? What can we do for them in order for our ideals to match our reality, what do we look for in our citizens and what ideals do they uphold? It is a tragedy against most faiths and common sense to judge those who were born to inequality. After judgement, nothing is done, besides more empty judgement and a wish for them to self improve without the means and or support.
Joe, do you think they are not happy with who they are??? self improve to who’s standards written by whom, people not like them.. ask most of them, that is their social time, except they can’t afford to hang 20 feet down the block with others hanging outside drinking… Ironic isn’t it. the bars have people drinking outside hanging out and in the square just hanging out is bad
I am replying to the “get rid of them” solution. People want to infringe upon their rights, ban their smoking, ban their loitering and watch their every move. People want to pre-screen them and profile the ones that are believed to be trouble. This creates a problem for them and for those that would want them gone. People would rather spend large amounts of taxes upon the poor in order to never see a poor person, then, they would rather spend to help a poor person.
Most of the individuals that occupy Pickering Square are homeless or living at a shelter, which would make them,also, homeless . Others have tenuous housing at best. I believe it is dis-genuine to say that the majority are happy, healthy, mentally well or job savvy. I believe that they lack skills in daily living. They do not know how to behave within most of western society, besides places of poverty. I will not pretend that they are just kids having a good time. I believe they are an at risk population and need support even if they are unaware that they require it. I do not see their difference as “bad”, but I do see a problem with the vast majority of the supposed ‘unwanted’ on our streets with no future and all the time in the world for everyone to blame them for all that goes wrong in our local area.
Every where else in Maine you have to be 21 to smoke cigarettes … in Pickering square doesn’t apply.
IMO, the long and the short of it is that the majority of these miscreants simply don’t have enough to do with their time. Myself (and I suspect most here) can barely find time to get enough sleep, let alone loiter in what should be a nice place to meet and enjoy any given afternoon.
I went by there several times today and saw people enjoying the square with no problems whatsoever. Go down there and look. This is publicity to promote an agenda in my opinion.
I don’t doubt that, but these daily visitors (who spend 12+ hours daily there) should be WORKING or VOLUNTEERING if they can’t find work. This daily inactivity by so many is what has made the U.S. an up-and-coming third world country.
People sit and hang around all parks in this country everyday, thats what parks are for to enjoy, Everyone loiters in parks thats what they are for
I’m not talking about several hours here, several hours there. I’m talking about the people I see there every day who never seem to have anything to do other than hang out (while I go to work to support my family and others, others go to school to prepare themselves to ‘give back’ and others volunteer). Without an equal contribution to the betterment of our society (through effort and sacrifice) we have reaped the predictable end-product of a failing country.
We went down there this evening, walked around and observed the downtown
in general. The most rowdy people due to public drunkenness, were in
Broad St. Park area outside the pubs. Meanwhile Pickering Square appeared to have sober young
adults playing hacky sack and socializing.
See you in Pickering Square this evening! To observe the actual facts of downtown Bangor at night. Come on down!! Can someone call that obnoxious ice cream truck to play tunes and sell ice cream. That’d be fab!!