BANGOR, Maine — More than 100 people gathered at the Penobscot Theater Wednesday evening for the first-ever downtown Bangor town hall meeting.
Everything from graffiti, crime and bike paths to crosswalks, the arts, parking and even the city’s motto was discussed by city officials and the 125 downtown residents, business owners and people who work in the area during the 75-minute event.
“I think it went well. We wanted to lay out some of our plans and hear what people said, and we did that and more,” said Bangor Councilor Ben Sprague, the main organizer of the meeting. “I think we should recognize how far we’ve come in the last 10 years and begin the next phase of this revival now with a 10-year vision for where we want to go.”
Bangor City Manager Cathy Conlow provided an overview about current city projects, Bangor police Lt. Steve Hunt talked about ongoing efforts to beef up police presence and security downtown, and Downtown Bangor Partnership Chairman George Kinghorn briefed attendees about ongoing efforts to continue to augment and add to the observance, celebration and exhibition of the arts downtown.
“We have hired eight new officers over the last month, and while they still have to complete training at the academy, they will fill key vacancies in our police force,” said Hunt, who also addressed issues such as the lack of a bike patrol downtown this year due to budget constraints.
Hunt also acknowledged the dissatisfaction expressed to Bangor police recently with problems at Pickering Square with drunks, panhandlers, vagrants and groups of mischievous teens, as well as a nearly month-long burglary spree.
“We’ve heard your voices. We get it,” said Hunt, who partially apologized for what he said some people saw as a slow police response.
“We have beefed up our foot patrols downtown with two more officers working weekend evening shifts in addition to our regular officer patrolling daily,” Hunt said. “As far as problems like graffiti or vandalism, we can’t solve all your problems, but we can address most of them, especially the more serious ones, and we need you to be our eyes and ears as well.”
A woman who recently moved to Bangor from Boulder, Colo., asked the first public question after a 25-minute presentation. She wanted to know what Bangor could do about adding more bike paths and trails.
Conlow said city staff members are looking at potentially reducing the width of some road lanes to accommodate cyclists on the sides of the roads, as well as adding bike lanes over the coming years.
Bangor resident Hank Garfield asked if Bangor’s Community Connector bus service hours could be extended later, but Sprague pointed out that extending hours of operation would be costly and that more people would have to start taking the bus to justify the added cost.
A couple people talked about the “dicey” conditions downtown, especially near Pickering Square’s parking garage, but the owner of the New Waverly pub said he thought Pickering Square was getting a bad rap and that the actual situation was being overblown.
Bangor lawyer Sam Lanham talked about the positive and beneficial effects his Lanham Blackwell firm received after moving the business from Evergreen Woods to 133 Broadway.
“The excitement of our employees and clients is much higher and we have a stronger vibe since moving downtown to a historic building,” Lanham said.
But Lanham also had concerns, specifically with graffiti.
“Our mailbox outside our business has been hit twice,” Lanham said. “What’s being done to address this?”
Hunt said catching graffiti violators isn’t easy, and that public help is key.
“It’s difficult to deal with and while we’ve had some luck policing it, there never seem to be witnesses who let us know as it’s occurring,” said Hunt. “We will charge people if we can catch them.”
Councilor Charlie Longo is leading an effort to discuss the problem and evaluate the feasibility of increasing fines and instituting stiffer penalties.
Chris Ruhlin asked for more parking, said the relocation of the skate park between Union Street and Maine Avenue was “despicable,” complimented Bangor’s current leadership, and offered a cautionary note.
“We have an opportunity to do some good, but we can also overreact,” he said. “As much as we want to stay a mental Mayberry, let’s not freak out and overreact.”
Sprague said this could be the first of a series of regularly occurring meetings.
“I’d like to see an annual downtown town hall meeting, and we have other neighborhoods that could benefit from similar events,” Sprague said. “Some people had specific concerns, but I was also struck by how many people had very positive comments to say about downtown Bangor.”
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I don’t feel any safer during the daytime down town that I do at night. During the day you have panhandlers on every corner many don’t want to take no for answer. Afternoon and evening you have a whole new crew trying to buy pills or sell them and quite often right in the open. I think more cameras and perhaps a business neighborhood watch or if there is not enough police to put down there because of the lack of officers perhaps the city should hire private security until the new 8 officers are up and running. I would love to give my business to local downtown businesses rather than corp-but at what cost. Bangor has a huge drug problem and until we can solve it or at least put a dent in it things are just going to get worse.
I don’t feel any safer during the daytime down town that I do at night. During the day you have panhandlers on every corner many don’t want to take no for answer. Afternoon and evening you have a whole new crew trying to buy pills or sell them and quite often right in the open. I think more cameras and perhaps a business neighborhood watch or if there is not enough police to put down there because of the lack of officers perhaps the city should hire private security until the new 8 officers are up and running. I would love to give my business to local downtown businesses rather than corp-but at what cost. Bangor has a huge drug problem and until we can solve it or at least put a dent in it things are just going to get worse.
Yes, Bangor does have a big drug problem. Now, how to get rid of it. Some came from here, some moved here, all will stay if we make them comfortable. Just sayin!
Very true. Our city council, not the current one, allowed 3 methadone clinics to open up shop in our city. How can one expect to bring in 3k to 4k daily junkies and not expect to have a drug problem. This is why other planning boards and councils have said no to methadone requests. Until they go away, the drugs will not go away…period. Until then, it would be nice to see someone on the council at least address the issue. C’mon man.
but but but… methadone is a legal drug, same as booze, and there are plenty of booze clinics in downtown Bangor.
I am downtown every day and regularly take my lunch outside in one of the parks. I am rarely spoken to by any of the panhandlers or other ne-er-do-wells. I think a lot of people are alarmed by their presence, but they do not seem to be very bothersome.
II guess I don’t get it there are bikes why is it so expensive to maintain so buy some bikes at wall mart
The woman from Colorado asked about “bike paths and trails.” Cathy Conlow responded with the possibility of “reducing the width of some road lanes” to accommodate bikes and adding bike lanes.
Sure, Conlow. That’s a great idea. Those bike lanes will come in real handy during the five months that Bangor’s roads are covered in snow, salt, grit, slush and ice.
Best $126,000+ this city ever spent.
I hate to break it to you, but even if we put a cop on every corner, graffiti will remain a problem. You can increase the fine to a million dollars and graffiti will remain a problem. As long as you have people, specifically the young, who have nothing better to do but sit around and smoke and drink collect welfare, this will always be a problem. It isn’t a coincidence that this occurs so much in Bangor. We have hundreds if not thousands in this city who have nothing better to do than eat, drink, drug and procreate. Its no wonder they are breaking into your cars and tagging your mailbox. People were meant to be productive. When they aren’t, they find other ways to manifest that production.
Nice way to exclude the majority of Bangor stakeholders! Do you think only the downtown residents and business owners have a stake in the problems? And what’s up with inviting the people who work downtown? Many of them don’t even live in Bangor!
HA,HA,HA. Stake holders!!! The word is taxpayers.
Yeah, but don’t forget the Agenda 21 terminology is stakeholders not taxpayers, but you are correct. Good job!
I’m pretty sure that this was not an “invite only” event, and I do believe it was posted on the City’s scghedule of meetings, just like every other public meeting. I was not personally invited, but knew it was happening (I did not attend).
If it was there, then I apologize. The article sounded like it was for only some people to attend and not all.
Leona2u is right. There is a huge problem during working hours (on workdays). I work downtown and have a window overlooking a portion of downtown…I see people drinking, urinating, begging, throwing trash in the stream,drinking, urinating, drug deals, begging, fighting,drinking, urinating etc..every single day (yeah I see a lot of male parts from my window)…all while tourists and professionals are walking by.. These indivduals generally seem to disappear during the late evening/night hours and you have the professionals and their family and friends going out to have drinks and dinner after work…I think we are wasting time “monitoring” this crowd on weekday nights..If you want to see a big difference downtown put and officer downtown starting a noon and ticket all offenses no matter how small…The weekends do pose a different problem and I would have an officer on the street from noon Friday straight through 6am Sunday (during summer)
Once again I wasn’t invited to a city event. scrow you and your elitest bunch..
You invite, actually incourage the people here you don’t want on your streets, then complain.
Bangor in the name of progress, so much wants to be like other States that it will lose it own idenity.. This is not Colorado and thank God. We don’t have cities with a millon or so people in them. the population is spread out into the county and people use cars to get to Bangor. bike paths for 50 people when you have 30.000 cars coming through the city everyday doesn’t make sense.
Next time the city has an event that will cost the taxpayers, Let the taxpayers know.
I’m pretty sure the meeting was as publicized as any other public meeting. I was not individually invited, but had heard it was going on. Do you check the schedule of meetings that the city posts?
Before the story was modified, it clearly Stated who was invited. businesses/residents of downtown and people who worked down there even if they didn’t live in the Bangor.. Why was that paragraph removed WVOM_sux?