“There’s a man in the street naked.”
That’s what one mother who lives on Webster Avenue North heard from her young son as he was getting ready for school at 6 a.m. Wednesday.
The boy was right and, perhaps saddest of all, his mother was hardly surprised when she pulled the curtain aside and took a look at the spectacle unfolding in front of her home.
“Just another day,” she told me.
Another day when the routine of the families that live on the middle-class street are interrupted by general drug-infused chaos.
To shamelessly use an overused catch phrase, it is their “new normal.”
Three weeks ago I ran into the same mom as she stood outside her home with her arm protectively around her children as police in armored suits and guns surrounded the apartment building across the street. She was just returning home from work when police cars whipped onto the street and officers evacuated neighbors from their homes on an otherwise quiet Monday.
I try to reconcile her plight with the brilliant success of other businesses that are thriving in Bangor, despite the economy, and others that are opening to rave reviews and plenty of customers.
Just a couple of years ago I wrote a column about the number of higher-end downtown bars and restaurants that were forced to close up during the winter months due to low revenue.
Now the downtown is thriving. Even on weeknights restaurants and bars are teeming with patrons, and on weekends trying to find a place that can fit you in for dinner without a lengthy wait is a challenge.
Even as my husband and I have walked or driven from one place to another looking for a place to eat, our frustration is offset by the knowledge that people are filling the booths, tables and barstools of restaurants in a downtown that once was a forgotten and barren landscape.
“I had a woman tell me the other day that she and her husband went to five different places downtown before they could find a place to eat because every place was packed,” someone told me this week.
But the other day my teenage son and I waited at the traffic light at the intersection of Hammond and Ohio streets and watched the surreal scene around us.
“I feel like I don’t even know this city anymore,” I said to my son.
“I know,” he said. “It’s pretty scary.”
Have you sat at that intersection?
It was a little scary.
It’s a little bit scary, too, I assume, for anyone who stops into a Rite-Aid Pharmacy to pick up a prescription or a greeting card these days.
It’s a bit sad when the residents living around First and Second streets can’t begin to think about letting their children go to play in the city playground located there.
It has to be frightening for those who have loved ones dabbling or even consumed with the city’s drug scene to hear and read the reports of that drug-related triple homicide last summer.
“That’s what a city is,” my sister reminded me this week.
She’s right, of course.
So many things are going right for this city right now. There is a vibrancy that excites the newer and younger residents and a pride that is stalwart among the older residents.
But lying beneath it is an incredible, damaging drug culture that threatens it all and demands the action of both groups.
Those who are so excited about the latest restaurant opening need to be mindful of my friend over on Webster Avenue North, and those who are on First and Second streets, and those in so many other neighborhoods who are hopeful they don’t find a naked, drugged-out 20-something on their doorstep on any given morning.
It’s not a just a City Council issue or a police issue or landlord issue. It is a community issue and it is going to take some action.
Get use to it Renee, we have become complacent with a large segment of unemployed and underemployed young people who are more interested in drugs, alcohol and irresponsible heterosexual and homosexual sex. These people are takers from society they do nothing to make their community a better place
How discriminating was that post? You are pointing your fingers at: the unemployed and underemployed; young people and homosexuals. So, it’s their fault, and theirs alone that they are unemployed or underemployed, the age that they are and their sexual orientation which causes drug and alcohol dependency and hence forth places a burden and take from a society…….that has nothing to do with any of this? If I were you I would hope that you don’t get laid off by some ultra conservative corporation owner who is upset at the election results and lays off over 100 employees. Even though his own company increased production 6% in October. If this were to happen to you…….would you mind if I stereotyped you?
☆ミ
letstrythisagain is PARTIALLY right. There ARE some young people who are underemployed or unemployed because they choose to be and choose to be engaged in their activities. I don’t like being lumped in to that category because I work my butt off to make sure that I can provide for myself. But he’s right in that it seems like the majority of my generation want to be shiftless layabouts…
Paint with a broad brush much?
Prescription Pills are the new normal of “America” and have been for years nothing new
Drugs are a big problem in Bangor(sadly)… this is nothing new… our police department needs to step up its game
Your all over the place.
Webster Avenue NORTH not North Webster Avenue.
Thank you for clearing that up….Now I can sleep tonight.
The drug “culture” has always been their. It’s the drugs of choice that have changed that part of the culture for the worse.
A hopping downtown is a new thing, and should be celebrated.
When I was five, my grandmother told me that I had a choice:
I could wear my cowboy boots and hat OR ride my bicycle. I couldn’t do both.
In this day and age, if you want a thriving night life (which Bangor once had moons ago) you will have drugs too.
Some of those “crowded bars” are in the business of moving product OTHER than booze. Some folks are no longer satisfied with “The one beer to have when you’re having more than one.” For others “Miller Time” starts before morning coffee.
Bangor had this problem in the early part of the last century, until the Womens Christian Temprance League shut the bars, moved the liquor stores down to the docks, and finally closed them altogether. Now the great pendulum of forgetfulness swings and daddies and mommies who know better will spend the grocery money and half the rent (as Roger Miller sang) in the local pubs… and business will be great for awhile.
You have a choice. You can have a rowdy noisey town with lots of late night activity and plenty of booze and drugs to fuel this party, or you can have a quiet family town where children can play in the parks, and look out the window without seeing naked strangers. You can not have (in this economy) both.
Choose wisely.
Right. Prohibition works so well.
Actually I think that was my point. did you get the part about “…the great pendulum of forgetfulness swings..”
When business has the reigns, the booze and drugs flow 24/7 When the Christian Temparemce League has the reigns the flow is shut off. Neither extreme works, but I don’t live in Bangor, so I suggested people pick a place on the continum where they want to be.
As an alcholic myself, I know that quitting would have been near impossible without New England’s old Sunday closing laws. That wasn’t prohibition, but it wasn’t a 24/7 party either.
METH A DONE
This was the beginning. It takes time for that much filth to weave itself into the fabric of a community. 3k drug addicts come to Bangor everyday. Think about what they bring with them. Until these methadone clinics are moved out of Bangor the problem is only going to get much much worse. Down goes real estate values, down goes the school system, down goes safety. All signs are pointed south.
Renee. Why don’t you do a story on how they got here, why they stay here and what has happened since they moved in.
Sit outside any methadone clinic and get depressed!
All they are doing is switching one drug for another.
True, but the drug they have switched to is employing people and getting taxes paid on it
Not so much get depressed, as get angry as you see your tax dollars go down the tube to pay for these idiots addictions and even mileage for their trip to the clinic….and then you get to ride the roads with them after they’ve got the ‘fix” you’ve payed for from your paycheck.
Round up all the addicts in Maine and drop them off on Grand Manan and let the Canadians deal with them! Time for the USA to adopt the tactics of out southern neighbors.
Really? 3000 drugs addicts come to Bangor every single day? I have respect for you but that is 100% BS.
You are right, it’s probably twice that, just 3 k going to the clinic to dose.
hm, three clinics that dispense methadone, that would be 1000 each. That would be about 100 per hour if they were open for ten hours a day, which they arent. that seems a little high, haha.
Its not so far off.They come from all over to go to the Meth clinics.It isnt pretty to watch mothers with babies,or pregnant women going to Acadia for the meth.Its pretty sad.
About half that as of February 11, 2011 (according to this article): http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2011/02/25/health/woman-shares-journey-through-drug-addiction-methadone-treatment-and-beyond/
Acadia 700 (capacity 900)
PCMTC 300 (capacity 300) this article says “near” that capacity
Discovery House 560 (capacity 700)
So 1560 (give or take since this is old information and who knows how the economy has affected the numbers) and the capacity of 1900.I wonder if we can find the most current number?
Interesting, yet provocative. Your concerned about real estate values, school systems and safety and lastly blame. “That much filth to weave it’s way into the fabric of a community” where does this “filth” stem from? Is it that they got here on a greyhound? Maybe a plane…..most likely a car. All signs are pointed south?
Apparently it’s your desire to blame. What is it that you are blaming? You would love to have new businesses and markets, a busier airport and more tourist, more new houses built and construction of industry, as long as there is no influences from south? of Bangor?
You speak of methadone clinics and it getting much worse, yet you don’t speak of alcohol or pot making it much worse. Change is constant and random, along with change comes the good and bad, you can either resist it, which doesn’t work, or you can direct and balance it. But you cannot ignore it, nor can you stop it.
Judging from your post, everything in Bangor, the real estate values, the school system, safety everything is pointing south. But judging from the post, I think that you are simply pointing your finger saying……stop people from moving to Bangor, stop giving help if there’s a problem, and stop caring about anyone other than ourselves……….and my wallet.
Not sure of the time frame & correlation to the clinics, but something is definitely going on. This drug culture is responsible for a lot of pain, suffering, property loss, community loss, for innocent people. It might be time to acknowledge that the trade-one-drug-for-another approach has failed. Look around this town. It has changed for the worse in may ways over the last few (pick a # five, 10, more?) years & there seems to be no end in sight. Even in some of the most public areas (Renee mentioned the park near Shaws,) the parking garage, etc., there is something wrong going on when residents of this once proud city have to alter their behaviors because of the influence of these low lifes who have infested it.
& no, I offer no solution. The drug culture can be described as Mark Twain once described the weather, everyone talks about it, but no one does anything about it.
What can be done.
Shut down the clinics?
Not gonna happen, too much $$$ involved.
Lock up the perps?
Not gonna happen, too much revolving door “justice.”
Change the culture?
Not gonna happen, it is going to get even worse.
Organize a vigilante committee & go enforce street justice while the PD agrees to look the other way?
Hmmmmm…
I dont think it has changed that much. There have always been shady areas of town. I think the cops, and the media, have just sensationalized it for financial gain.
If you think that it hasn’t changed much, I have to question how aware you were about the amount of it years ago. We didn’t have as bad a problem as little as 10 years ago. Not by a long shot. Yes, there were always shady areas of town, but they were never as problematic behaviorally as they are now, and substances such as heroin and bath salts were far less available then.
It’s changed much. Ask any EMT what they think and they’ll more than likely say the same thing.
Pass a drug test before receiving benefits. Our tax dollars are
being used to reward these people for breaking our laws. Connect the dots folks!
Stop feeding these people and they will go away.
3000 a day? That’s just not possible and seems to be a huge figment of the imagination.
Blaming the methadone clinics is in vogue apparently.
The sky is not falling. People are living in exaggerated fear brought on by the media.
Yeah, without those methodone clinics, there would be no opiate addiction in Maine.
Dumb
Yessah
Bangor is so infested with drugs that I moved out of Bangor/Brewer to one of the quieter towns. Rent is cheaper, the area is nicer, no worries about drug parties or having to worry about someone bombed out of their mind just stepping out two feet in front of my car. The City of Bangor was nice…now it needs to be cleaned up. Some people might complaint that this solution violates civil liberties…but I say we call in the National Guard and let them kick in doors with the local constabulary and start getting rid of the dealers and the drug supply. Would rather the civil liberties of a drug dealer be threatened than have the life of innocent bystanders be taken and/or ruined because we have become a society that the only way to forget your pain is to get high on something…
Yeah – once the authorities get rid of the “bad element”, they can start on registered democrats, gays and minorities – or anyone else they don’t like.
A slippery slope to a right-wing dictatorship.
No thanks.
Furthermore.
Back in the day, I am quite sure Bangor “suffered” every spring when the log drives were over and masses of “hobos” came to the Queen City in their checked shirts and caulked boots – to spend their hard earned on illicit liquor and ladies of the evening at the Bangor House.
Some sh, different century.
Bangor survived.
No jackbooted thugs required.
Yessah
I’ll take the”jackbooted thugs” who are there to protect me over the massive influx of drugs and dealers. Alcohol and prostitution are minor compared to the bath salts problem.
You deserve the government you want then.
Pity, there are no direct flights from Bangor to Tehran.
Yessah
It’s a shame that you want to live in a drug and crime infested city. Would rather clean up the crime and problems than have them still here…
Actually this is not just a community issue. It is a City Council, Police and Landlord issue and it’s about time for them to step up.
The health clinics, doctors, providers of the poor are making millons per year in the drug industry, who do you think is going to stop them.. It is an Industry funded by taxpayers dollars, allowing the elite/powerful to make millons. They won’t let you change it. They don’t care. it’s all about the money. follow it..
I’m down in southern Maine and my visits to Bangor I can count on one hand. It just sounds so surreal…it’s really that bad?
And coming to.you!
I’m not a city dweller. Don’t like congestion. So I doubt I’ll see it where I am. Though never say never I suppose.
Renee,
I love it when I see comments like this, especially from liberal newspapers. Im not sure if YOU personally are a “left wing liberal democrat” or not, but my point is this, get use to it. The liberals, the ones who want to “coddle” these individuals, from arrest, through court and sentencing, through probation and reahab have no one to blame but themselves. It’s going to get worse and the sooner you all come to grips with it, the sooner you can take a long look in the mirror and come to the reality that your just as much a part of the problem as they are the better. Now with that, as you have probably guessed I am a Republican AND I am a Law Enforcement officer. You all have tied our hands and with the recent results in both the LOCAL and NATIONAL elections we are closer and closer to having leg irons on as well. It’s sad that our children, both yours and mine are all seeing whats going on in our streets and how bad they are. Hopefully your not a “left wing liberal democrat” and in full agreement of my comments, if thats the case Im sure youll push to have this published in the comment section of the newspaper. If you are a liberal, than I’m sure it will just end up in your “trash” email bin out of fear that your acknowledging it makes you just as much a part of the problem as they are.
Take care and GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES.
Anonymous
Why do Christians type certain words in all CAPS? Is this taught in church or bible study? Only Christians do this for unknown reasons. Can you explain why Christians such as yourself do this?
I’ll bet he is one of the survivor’s of the Murray Coal layoffs…….he’s just kissing butt to keep his job. “all of our hands have been tied……blah, blah” It’s funny how that same company boasted just last month that it increased in production, and these people were laid off because of the election results?
If I were Renee I would hand write your post on a piece of toilet tissue,…..use it accordingly…..and FLUSH IT. The problems that she speaks of aren’t “liberal” or “conservative” problems, they are societies problems. They are regional, state, national and world problems……they are not secluded to Bangor Maine. There are liberals and conservative throughout our society, drugs do not know the differences, nor cares , between the two.
Why not”god bless the world”?After all we’re all in this together.It’s my understanding that Jesus was a liberal.You know, feeding the poor and all that left wing sort of stuff.Sorry your candidates didn’t fair too well last Tuesday,but as the saying goes “the people have spoken”Better luck next time.Peace and love Nikky
When are you moving to Costa Rica?
Come on now folks, we must be tolerant an understanding. Don’t disrespect people just because they are different! We will soon be voting on legalizing drugs, and people’s rights should be respected. After all, it’s the right thing to do!
Getting what they vote for
Yup!
Ohio and Hammond—the high school kids call the store “Ghetto-betters” (no fault of the store). Bangor has lovely city neighborhoods and high, high taxes–and as a probably-not-permanent resident of the city, I wonder why New York can clean up its act, and Bangor can’t. I drove through downtown Bangor one recent weekday at 2:30 pm, and between West Market Square and Hammond Street, driving on Main, I saw two people who literally could not walk for drunkeness. Why are we permitting this to happen?
And poor Webster Ave North. I almost bought there 4 years ago. There but for the grace of God goes each and every one of our sweet little city neighborhoods. I have, over the course of 10 years, watched the Tree Streets go downhill, watched the 1-2-3 Aves, with their lovely city houses, get worse and worse, watched Little City lose ground and Fairmount get surrounded. And all for higher taxes than just outside the city. This city needs to fix it or die.
Welcome to the tyranny of Socialism.
Could you please define the term “socialism” and explain how it is similar to yet different from “Marxism” and “Communism”?
Since theSlots, Methadone Clinic, Bathsalts losers and countless perves hit the area my home and vehicles have been robbed several times. (yes I do use locks) and also Rite aid robberies. The do nothing its not their fault attitude is why I am moving far, far away. Good luck and God bless you all, your gonna need it. time to kiss this s@$& hole goodbye!
I must live in a very safe part of Bangor. While I get to see some interesting people now and then the police have yet to swarm a house anywhere near where I live. I’ve never seen a naked man or woman walking down the street or standing in it.
I have lived in Bangor for over 7 years now and I feel just as safe now as the day I moved to Bangor. I live in the same location and again, I’ve seen some interesting things but nothing to cause me any sort of alarm. While I do have my CFP and I do carry often, many times I have left the house not armed and still felt safe.
I would give up being armed for an entire six months and I would still feel 100% safe in the city of Bangor and not worry about where I go. Those that complain about the crime in Bangor have never really lived where crime takes place. I have lived in high crime neighborhoods where hearing gun fire was not uncommon, where you didn’t travel into certain places once the sunset.
To those that are worried, move away. Run into the country, do as you desire but Bangor is not the big bad place people make it out to be, it really is not.
Drug related triple murder a in our city, a 100 k per week drug ring on Ohio, free meth a done everywhere and gang violence on the streets in downtown. Stabbings, murder, embezzlement, sex offenders and so on. A real heaven.
Glad to know you carry as do I and you can be guaranteed i will squeeze that trigger the first time anyone threatens my family. Call me crazy, I don’t care.
Kevin, have you considered that some who complain about the rising level of crime in Bangor moved here to get away from such activity? Have you considered that the complaints come because we do not want Bangor to become the type of city from which we fled? Perhaps you moved here for other reasons but many have moved here to raise families in a peaceful, low crime city. We want to keep it that way. Unless people take a stand against this change in dynamic, Bangor will have areas you cannot enter after sunset.
I didn’t move here rather 4th generation born here at st. Joes hospital in fact. I gave been to all parts of the world and set up shop in many places but always came back to Bangor as home.
I know Bangor as well as anyone and know crime in big cities. For the size of Bangor it’s crime stats are heading in the wrong direction. There are neary 3k junkies that come to Bangor everyday to get their dose. With their travels to Bangor they bring their old life with them and many of those are still living that life of drugs and violence. There is a huge market for trash in Bangor and until we get out of that business, it is going to get worse beyond imagination.
congrats on 7 yrs of living in bgr, I have been here for 45yrs also spent time in NYC and Boston and LA. per capita bgr has a huge crime rate and the rate of violent crime is zooming. Feeling safe?
The last 10-15 yrs have brought serious decline to this area. Proir to that if there was A murder it was huge news. now they are slicing girls throats by the river. burning homeless people under the Kendugeag River bridge, and gangland style drug murders complete with burning cars, gang shootings on cumberland street, and our local paramedics responding to stabbings on a disturbingly regular basis. feeling safe now. what I have said only scratches the surface.
Well good for you Kevin that you feel safe! However, the people that have lived here and been raised here all their lives have seen a big change. This is not the city I grew up in and it isn’t the city I really want to live in right now, things are getting worse everyday here and we are not talking about comparing this city to other cities here. If you lived here all your life you would know that and I think it’s unfair that you tell us that we should move away. I have been to other cities and know this is safe compared to them but this is not the point.
Well the way I look at this is that Bangor is one big dumping ground. We give out to many services freely. Half of these people are not even Maine natives and they have arrived on the bus from other cities that probably gave them a bus ticket. Why can’t the city cut back on the amount of general assistance they give out? Why should our tax dollars continue to go up to help support these people? Why do we have three methadone clinics with a population of less than 50,000 people in Bangor? These are questions that the City Council need to address and as far as saying it is everyone’s problem you are wrong. We as people cannot control who comes here and lives here and we certainly did not have a say on 3 methadone clinics in Bangor. It is going to be up to the City Council and local law enforcement to make well over do changes if they want to keep this city safe.
Jakeey999,
In one sense it is everyones problem, and WE do pur part by paying very high taxes. the council fails by not using that rescource effectively and efficiently. But with council members as delusional as ours would you expect anything diferent?
Nope I actaully wouldn’t!! Maybe it’s time as residents in Bangor we all march in there as concerned citizens but it would take at least a hundred of us if not more for them to listen.
This is a product of the decline of our culture………to a great extent. But there is much more to it then that.
Bangor has become a “service center” for all kinds of “drifters” from all over eastern Maine, as well as out of state. Stephen and Tabitha King are proud of their efforts to create shelters for runaways and other street people. All kinds of meal suppliers, methadone clinics and other services exist for these folks, and, as the saying goes, “If you build it they will come”.
Read the police beat every morning and look at how many of those charged with crimes are listed as “transient”.
When Bangor stops being a refuge, some of this will go away.
Close the shelters and arrest and run out of town, all the “vagrants” and see if that doesn’t help.
Where will the runaway teens go, once you succeed in closing down all the help they need? Back to the abusive families they may be fleeing? Further south, to be trapped into prostitution?
Needy people don’t just disappear when you figure out some way to get them out of your own part of town. They still exist, somewhere, and they are still in need. Their addictions don’t magically vanish and they don’t magically find work.
These are human beings, even though you despise them.
I never saw my father drink booze. He did not smoke pot, Nor did he do any drugs or swear.
I dont drink booze[except college], i dont do pot or any drugs or swear
My now adult kids dont drink booze, nor smoke POT or any drugs or swear
Their kids will not drink booze,nor smoke POT or any drugs or swear.
Do you see where boozing,smoking POT and doing drugs really comes from? And how to prevent it?
You are delusional if you think that NO ONE in your family drinks, does any drugs and do not swear.
People live in their own little worlds.
Our education system is failing our youth if they aren’t smart enough to take care of their health. Why would anybody want to be ignorant and useless? They just don’t know any better. What did they learn while they were in school? If we don’t take a different strategy in educating our masses then the poor and ignorant will always be among us, slowly killing themselves, and usually on the taxpayers dime. Our society is not getting the proper education if we have so many self destructive people in this day and age. We have a generation of parents that can’t teach this stuff because they were never taught how to live happy and healthy.
Wow, that was incredibly arrogant and downright awful. No wonder you guys lost.
Between the meth clinics and the “legislation” of pot what was expected. We tell our kids drugs are bad but then we set up places all over where people can buy them.
It’s more than a little absurd to blame “liberals” for people doing drugs. Hit yourself in the head with a shovel the next time you go for the dog whistle of “liberals to blame for Bangor’s drug problem”.
Human beings have been using drugs and drinking alcohol since they figured out how to do so.
People are just stupid, that’s all there is to it. If liberals are to blame for drugs, then conservatives are to blame for not praying hard enough to fix these problems. Since prayer works so great.
PS, Jesus was the biggest flaming liberal ever. You show how much you REALLY believe that story when you do EXACTLY what Jesus told you not to do. Hypocrites!
Even when I was a kid, first and second streets were streets to avoid. Ohio wasn’t the best either. A little over a decade ago I was told Bangor was the heroine capital of the state. Nothing has really changed.