BANGOR, Maine — Monday afternoon’s Bangor City Council workshop on Pickering Square attracted a lot of interest from local merchants and included news on a possible major redesign of the downtown park and busing hub.
The workshop was organized as a three-pronged update as Bangor police Lt. Mark Hathaway briefed councilors and city staff members on the addition of foot patrols and an increased police presence in the area, something that the local merchants effusively praised.
But it was the presentation by Peter Witham and Amanda Soucy from the planning department and a report by Bangor Community Connector Superintendent Joe McNeil that generated even more interest.
“The problem we have now is we’re outgrowing the area,” McNeil said. “We’ve really maxed ourselves out in terms of the size of that operation.
“We have sorely outgrown the current location at Pickering, going from a low of about about 480,000 rides per year to currently just over a million.”
McNeil said Bangor’s public bus service currently operates nine buses at the Pickering hub.
An ongoing effort to redesign the area to better use the square space by city staff members may pair two complementary efforts.
“They’re looking at redesigning the Pickering Square area to better serve Bangor’s needs and we’re obviously a major part of Pickering Square now, so if we can find another location to serve our needs, well, that’s what we’ll look at,” McNeil said.
Witham and Soucy presented four options for consideration, ranging from slight tweaking to what amounted to an almost complete redesign of the square, closing down Broad Street to traffic and opening the current Pickering bus oval and park for more parking while shifting the location of the park and bus hub operations.
“First we’ll have to conduct a study and then go from there,” McNeil said.
There’s also a matter of economics. Since Federal Transit Authority aid funds were used to build Pickering 20 years ago and it was designed to be in use 40 years, the city would have to pay half of the funds back, which McNeil pegged at around “the high one hundred thousands.”
Growing pains have been a concern for Community Connector for a number of years.
“We had a consultant look at it in 2002 and he came up with 12 alternate locations, two of which are now occupied,” said McNeil. “And now that we have larger buses with greater turning radiuses, even fewer of those are viable.”
McNeil said the Community Connector operates a hub or pulse system with buses running from several different locations.
Lt. Mark Hathaway, the interim Bangor police chief, said that the increased police presence — which includes one mobile unit dedicated solely to downtown, a regular foot patrol and a plainclothes officer — has been well received by merchants and residents.
Many people had complained about public drunkenness, panhandling, vandalism and objectionable behavior by transients and a few youths around the square. They also lamented the loss of the police bike patrol.
“We have increased our contact downtown,” Hathaway said. “The biggest thing is having a presence. Those who may want to start something don’t if we’re there.”
The foot patrols will continue for another month or two.
When asked what he needed from the council such as new ordinances or penalties, Hathaway said the first thing he needed was patience.
“I’m hopeful we can develop a more permanent, year-round presence downtown and at the square and I don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t bring it back in the spring,” Hathaway said.
This sounds like a wonderful idea, (gulp koolaid). We can use the surplus of taxpayer dollars the city has realized by allowing the concerts, methadone clinics and the casino to Bangor.
I watched part of this meeting and spent most of my time rolling my eyes. There was no shortage of ignorance surrounding the issues here, especially those coming from some of the Council members. Gallant seems more or less intent on driving the methadone clinics out of town and creating new ordinances to lock up everyone who he doesn’t know, which is great, except that Maine is full of opiate addicts who need treatment. Longo seems to be falling for some of that thinking – at one point he asked if there had been an increase in bus ridership since the methadone clinics opened – demonstrating a level of judgmentalism and superficial thinking that was rather alarming.
The only thoughtful comment seemed to come from Sprague, who pointed out that we need to avoid laying blame for every social ill on the people who need to ride the bus to get to work, buy their groceries and see their doctors. Sure – lets move the bus stop. But let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that doing so will solve every problem. The reality is that its just going to land in some other corner of the downtown district, where is where it needs to be.
Bangor has made its bed, now it’s time to sleep in it.
put the new bus hub right next to bangor pd and see how the ‘productive citizens’ that hang out in pickering square like that!
Uh, more parking near… a parking garage? Brilliant.
Take a page from Greyhound’s playbook. Move the hub out to Dysarts.
Years ago Bangor needed some folks with the same sort of vision that revived the old market areas which became Portland’s Old Port/Commercial St.area. Instead, they Bangor’s down and replaced them with parking lots. When they finished there wasn’t much left. Too bad – there were some lovely old buildings along Exchange and in and around the old produce market square.
Sounds like a lot of time and expense just to get some boisterous hacky sack players out of the square.
What neighborhood do they plan on relocating the bus hub? I suggest to move it to the corner of West Broadway and Hammond.. Tear down some houses and make a parking area. Its funny how the city praises public transportation then concider it a blite on the city… What a bunch..
Taken off the front page quick enough.. Hey what neighborhood do you think they want do distroy by putting the hub there… If you move your compost pile, it is still a compost pile.
I’m not sure that the people who disapprove of the crowd at the bus station like the country club set any more or less. You just can’t see the wealthy as easily on the links, at the “loaf” or sailing their boats off the coast of Maine. Some folks always need someone to dislike and these people are right in full view. There will always be a Pickering Square somewhere in any city.
When the bus hub was placed where it is now, what stakeholders were invited to comment? what grants were received? what promises were made and to whom? There must have been a rationale given for moving the buses from under the windows of 6 State St. and Bangor Savings Bank over to its present location. Does anyone remember what the arguments were at the time? More space, relocation to remove congestion? I’m sure the urban planners had the best location all mapped out back then. What has changed?
My guess is they’re basing it off ridership which has grown considerably since 1990. Also, space constraints, today’s buses are larger and longer. Two routes which once used minibuses now use full size buses, and bangor’s newest buses are four feet longer than the older ones.
As far as im concerned, neither of these arguments hold water. The present hub can handle the increase in pedestrian traffic just fine, and perhaps more of the square can be utilized if Bangor were to have additional buses downtown.