The Promising Past, Problematic Present, and Fortuitous Future of Portland’s Forest Avenue

Forest Avenue was Portland’s the gateway to the state’s interior, before travel by that means was even feasible. It once hosted freight rails, electric inter-city commuter rail, and provided grazing, blacksmiths, and barns for the city’s horse-drawn public trolleys.

The coming of the private car wiped out this infrastructure over a couple decades, turning Forest Avenue into a place lined with car dealerships, gas stations, and certainly not trees. The legacy of this infrastructure – hidden cobblestones, abandoned rail rights-of-way, old car dealership warehouses converted to housing and studios, and multi-family housing that was ideal for workers commuting by trolley, leaves us with the bones for a great integrated neighborhood.

But, our main street was been surrendered to cars, particularly those commuting through, without much regard to the people who actually live here.

Kids can’t cross the street to visit a friend or go to the book store. Parents guide bike busses of school kids through circuitous back streets to avoid the speeding pickups and broken beg buttons at intersections. A few sad souls walking through the neighborhood toil over unshoveled sidewalks ignored by absentee strip mall owners.

The City of Portland has heard these concerns and is looking at options to give Forest a serious road diet – reducing lanes, adding bike infrastructure, street furniture, and trees. But will the status quo prevail? Will grumblings from commuters, with a commute lengthened by a couple minutes, overcome the needs of thousands of residents for a safe and humane quality of life? If we get this right, the desirability associated with “the Peninsula” – Portland’s historic downtown district famed for walkability and livability so rare in Maine and even the country – could be extended down Forest Ave, right through Woodfords Corner. Can we do it? And what can you do to help make it happen?

The walk will be flat, on sidewalks, about 2 miles total.