On May 6, many people read an article in this paper about issues in Bayside. As readers were settling into the words, pictures and their own opinions, I was walking by a Bayside street cordoned off with police tape. A woman had just been shot. A ragged and street-worn man ran by crying, “Is she still alive?” I spoke to a bystander visiting from out of town. She was out walking but felt safer taking a cab back.

I continued to walk home, through exactly what the article describes: chaos and despair. A relapse factory.

Is this the neighborhood we want for our homeless, our visitors or ourselves? If residents don’t feel respected or safe, can you imagine how the homeless feel? Do you care?

These old problems are getting worse, but most of Portland hasn’t been listening. Will you listen now? Or continue to insist that it’s not that bad, that our descriptions are exaggerations and our pictures are exploitative? Will you believe only when someone is shot outside of your own house, or it’s your basement being used as a drug den, your front steps as a toilet?

The problems in Bayside won’t stay in Bayside if Portland cannot agree that enough is enough.

You have a choice.

You can get informed. Understand that some people can get their lives back on track, some will always need help and others will prey on them. Ask what works and where the money goes. Know your neighbors.

You can take action. Advocate for evidence-based programs. Support community policing. Make sure good works are done well. Vote. Demand other towns step up. Support building an adequate emergency shelter. And stop blaming people who are suffering for calling attention to the problem.

You can help.

Or you can wait for Bayside’s problems to come to you.

Sarah Michniewicz

Portland