Portland City Officials Respond to Disturbing Video Showing Drug Abuse, Fights, Crime in Bayside Neighborhood

Portland city officials on Tuesday responded to a disturbing video published this week by a Bayside neighborhood landlord showing rampant drug abuse, violence and public indecency outside of his building.

The video, shared on Monday by Portland landlord Ned Payne — viewed over 4,200 times on Youtube as of Wednesday — is a compilation of security camera footage recorded over a period of several months depicting the scene outside of 19 Portland St.

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Payne’s footage shows clips of young children having to step over homeless individuals sleeping on the stoop of the building, tent encampments, open drug use and apparent drug deals, public urination, fights and a man racking and showing off a handgun to a group of people.

WARNING: The video below contains graphic content and includes strong language, violence and drug use. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.

Payne told WGME Tuesday that the front steps of his building have become the scene of daily drug use, crime and violence over the years, and that tenants living in the building are “petrified.”

“There are fights, screaming, drug abuse, drug dealing,” Payne told WGME. “And it happens every day.”

“I think the tenants that live here are petrified,” Payne said. “Every single time they open the front door, they have no idea what’s going to greet them outside.”

“Kids shouldn’t have to live like this. Families shouldn’t have to live like this,” he added. “And it’s just something that has to be dealt with.”

The building is situated close to the Elena’s Way low-barrier homeless shelter, operated by the nonprofit organization Preble Street.

The city’s Health and Human Services and Public Safety Committee brought up the video during their Tuesday meeting to discuss ways to increase police presence and outreach in the Bayside neighborhood and respond to the safety concerns of the public.

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Portland Police Chief Mark Dubois informed the committee that “there’s definitely an increase in activity” in the Bayside area, saying that officer initiated calls and arrests in the neighborhood are up about 20 percent from 2023, with 1,450 officer initiated interactions this year to date.

Chief Dubois said there is a dedicated Bayside detail that operates in the area daily from noon to 8 p.m., and as a result of the recent complaints they will double the detail to include four officers.

City Councilor Kate Sykes, who was elected to represent District 5 last November and is the former co-chair of the Maine Democratic Socialists of America (Maine DSA), said the video is “really hard to watch,” but that it also contains “some kind of beautiful moments between human beings there.”

“As difficult as those interactions are, and the things that are happening, there’s kindness there,” Sykes said.

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“And so I think this is one of those moments in a community where we can become really divided, and I think understanding that the suffering that we’re seeing there is all of our suffering,” Sykes added. “It’s the suffering of the people on the street, it’s the suffering of the people who have to live in that area and see that every day, it’s the suffering that gets compounded when videos like that go out to the rest of the community and, you know, reverberate.”

Committee Chair and At-Large City Councilor April Fournier expressed similar sentiments, saying “I think we feel compassion and sadness for the individuals who are the ones that are sleeping on the stairs, because I can only imagine having someone take a video of one of the lowest moments of my life and disseminate it to the public for everyone to see.”

“I don’t want to in any way dismiss the concerns that are brought forward, you know, we hear you, we definitely recognize the critical nature of the situation,” Fournier said, adding that “it is a very slow and challenging process” to increase outreach efforts to address the situation.

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Responding to the video Portland Mayor Mark Dion said that while he appreciates the Councilors’ “balanced approach,” he is “troubled” and that he has to “speak for the neighborhood.”

“You know, I can contemplate this is an abstract fashion, but they have to live with it, that’s their stoop, they walk that neighborhood,” Dion said. “I don’t know how I’d feel as a father having to traverse that space with my daughters having to go off to school — I don’t want to lose sight of that.”

“When they’re racking a handgun, I’m not sure outreach is the answer,” Dion said. “When they’re injecting somebody into a vein or artery in their throat, I’m not sure therapy is the appropriate answer at that point.”

“I don’t want the neighborhood to feel like we’re trying to create some equity balance here that everybody’s needs are being met as we approach it,” he added. “I think we have a responsibility to meet needs, but we have a responsibility to our residents and their safety, because it’s their home.”

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District 1 City Councilor Anna Trevorrow responded to Dion saying she “felt the need to offer some rebuttal comments.”

“I don’t feel we should be setting up a dynamic we’re picking sides in this,” Trevorrow said.

Trevorrow said Payne’s video being publicized is “very divisive,” and “capitalizing on fear and stigma.”

“We need to be looking at global solutions to it that doesn’t pit one side against the other, and certainly not the people who are the most marginalized and have the least resources,” Trevorrow said.

“I appreciate the rebuttal Councilor,” Mayor Dion replied to Trevorrow. “I don’t have problems picking sides — I’ve spent a career picking sides to try to advance one proposition or another, and the side I took tonight is for the general public safety.”

While discussion of the video was not on the agenda for the committee’s Tuesday meeting, Councilor Fournier said conversations regarding the Bayside neighborhood will be ongoing and a part of the committee’s future meetings.