MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • February 18, 2024
The Franklin Street four-lane road that divides Portland’s peninsula once was part of a vibrant neighborhood populated by Scandinavian, Armenian and Jewish immigrants. Business owners lived above corner stores, kids played in the street, people walked and biked to work. Then, in the ’60s, as the nationwide push for urban renewal aimed to clear cities of their so-called decaying areas, the neighborhood was decimated to make room for the modern-day arterial and the large grassy median. In a few years, Franklin Street could become the center of a lively residential neighborhood again instead of just a wide urban thoroughfare people take to get in and out of the city. The street could be bustling with pedestrians and bikes instead of cars. New housing could rise over busy storefronts near the ample green space of an expanded Lincoln Park.