Kennedy Park is a neighborhood in

East Bayside East Bayside is a neighborhood in Portland, Maine. It is bordered by Franklin Street on the west, Washington Avenue on the east, to the north by Marginal Way, and the south by Congress Street. It is bordered by the neighborhoods of Bayside, the O ...

in downtown

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...

, built around a park, athletic fields, basketball courts, a playground and the Boyd Street Urban Garden.

Demographics

The neighborhood is part of Census Tract 5, the most diverse neighborhood in the state of

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

. While the

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

population of Maine was 97% according to the 2000 census, the White population in Census Tract 5 was only 71%.Neighborhood is Maine's most diverse
in the

Portland Press Herald The ''Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram'' is a morning daily newspaper with a website that serves southern Maine and is focused on the greater metropolitan area around Portland, Maine, in the United States. Founded in 1862, its roots e ...

, 3 April 2001 According to the 2010 census, Census Tract 5 is the most diverse section of Portland, Maine. It is 60% White, 21% Black, 6% Hispanic, 8% Asian, 1% Native American, and 4% Multiracial.

History

Kennedy Park was built in 1964-1965 as a

public housing project Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

after much of the neighborhood's historic housing was torn down during controversial slum clearing and urban renewal policies that led to the creation of the city's historic preservation entity, Greater Portland Landmarks. In 1958, Portland's Slum Clearance and Redevelopment Administration demolished 54 housing units in the tight knit immigrant neighborhood, which fragmented the mostly Italian and Jewish communities. Later 100 housing units were demolished along the historic Franklin Street, which was turned into a two-lane highway that truncated streets and still divides the city. The park is named after

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

. There are 160 rental units. During its first few decades, the neighborhood was known for crime and drugs. However, in recent years, the police have reported significantly less crime in the area. From the 1980s onward, the neighborhood's demographic began changing; common ethnicities in 2001 were "Thai, Korean, Cambodian, Japanese, American, Somali, Spanish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Eritrean, Ethiopian etc..." By the 2010s, the industrial properties in the neighborhood began to be converted into breweries, coffee roasting facilities, restaurants and art galleries. New condos have been built. The noise from live music and events has caused noise complaints from neighbors. On the

4th of July Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music) In music a fourth is an interval spanning four staff po ...

in 2021 and 2022, police officers were attacked by fireworks in the neighborhood while responding to calls involving gun shots and shootings. The police said the majority of people at the scene were not neighborhood residents. The 2022 incident occurred in the vicinity of an intersection of neighborhood streets that were rendered dead ends from the slum clearance and redevelopment circa 1950s-1960s.

Location

Situated in the

neighborhood, Kennedy Park is close to Franklin Street. Local schools are Portland High School and East End Community School.

Franklin Towers Franklin Towers is a 16-story high-rise building located in Portland, Maine, at the corner of Franklin Street and Cumberland Avenue, rising to a height of . Construction was completed in 1969, and its primary use is residential. It affords resi ...

, Maine's tallest residential building, is located nearby as well.

References

Neighborhoods in Portland, Maine Public housing in the United States Populated places established in 1965 Apartment buildings in Portland, Maine {{Maine-geo-stub

Demographics

History

Location

See also

References