Maine’s largest paper thought it was breaking news with a story about the huge rise in police calls at the library.
But beyond a shallow catalog of police calls, the story never once mentions how this impacts children and families, placing them in literal fear of simply visiting their library.
The piece also downplays what it characterizes simply as “drug use, disturbances and littering,” when it is much, much worse.
The newspaper of record failed to point out that families no longer feel safe in the state’s biggest-city library.
And it goes beyond simply failing to point out just how far the quality of life has fallen in the city that once famously, literally arose from the ashes.
√ A Reny’s store manager was severely injured after an attack by an “unhoused individual.”
√ A security guard downtown was severely beaten by an “unhoused individual.”
√ The very-tolerant Portland Food Co-op has had to close its cafe and bathroom due to violence against staff and drug overdoses in the store.
Every business on Congress Street is being negatively impacted and the ones that haven’t closed are in tenuous situations.
But the Portland Press Herald glosses over all that negativity and simply publishes a police blotter that fails to acknowledge the underpinnings of the detritus in downtown Portland, Maine.
“Odd reporting from the Portland Press Herald,” a downtown resident told The Maine Wire. “It’s really sad.”
Portland Press Herald Glosses Over Fear At Maine’s Big City Library, Once An Urban Oasis, Now A Dangerous Drug Den Where Children Are At Risk
By Ted Cohen
