LEWISTON Brenda Akers loves her apartment on Knox Street. She loves the smell from the bakery and the easy walk to the park and library.

But Akers has seen the city plans. She has seen maps showing where apartment houses will be torn down to make room for new parks and roads. The city calls it the Heritage Initiative. Akers and others call it the end of the line for many people who live in the path of construction.

I know what it means, the single mother said Thursday night. It means people will be getting kicked out of their homes. That makes me really sad.

Temperatures were in the low 40s Thursday night and dropping fast. A brisk wind sprang up by nightfall, and the air was cold. It was surely not a night to sleep outdoors, but thats what dozens of Bates College students did just the same. They squirmed into sleeping bags inside small tents to illustrate what it means to be homeless and without a place to sleep.

Folks will be homeless, said Eddie Greyfox, and homeless people cant pick the weather.

Roughly 100 Bates students were sleeping in the quad Thursday night to protest the city plan to replace rundown tenement buildings with new housing, parks and roads.

The students are hoping to raise awareness and money to fight the Heritage Initiative, a proposal aimed at cleaning up the downtowns poorest, most crowded neighborhoods.

Its not bad at all inside the tents, said Bates sophomore Maria Jeness. We hope this will help visualize whats happening while raising money. Money is the big thing. People are going to need help.

City officials have emphasized that the plan is conceptual and they wont do anything without gathering feedback from those who would be affected. The students believe the plan and the citys handling of it so far have blatantly disregarded Lewistons poorest residents.

The poor ought to be the first ones who are helped by economic development, not the last, the students announced in a press release about their protest. This is an affront to the entire city.

Unveiled this past June, the Heritage Initiative is a 10-year conceptual plan that will begin with the citys purchase of several properties on both sides of Maple Street to make room for a new central office building for Community Concepts Inc.

The other parts of the plan new housing projects, more parks and a $4.5-million boulevard that would cut across several downtown streets are long-term projects that may change or never happen, city officials have said.

Two of the overall goals of the Heritage Initiative are to decrease the housing density by 25 percent and to lower the crime rate. But opponents believe the plan will result in skyrocketing numbers of homeless and a whole new set of problems.

At least 850 stand to lose their homes for no good reason, said Bates student Ben Chin. Im worried that people havent been included in the process to decide this.

City Administrator Jim Bennett said he was glad to hear that Bates students want to get involved in city matters. But he believes they have misinterpreted the citys objective, and hes worried they will cause more problems by instilling unnecessary fear in people.

The purpose of the Heritage Initiative is not to drive poor people out of the neighborhood, he said. It is to lower the crime rate and improve the housing for those people who live downtown and want to stay there.

We just think that poor people shouldnt live in more dangerous situations than anyone else, Bennett said Thursday afternoon, as Bates kids started setting up nearly two dozen tents on campus.

Bennett pointed out that the city has invested nearly $20 million in the downtown over the past four years.

It is much easier to just walk away and neglect people. That is what most of the communities in the country do. They dont roll up their sleeves and really try to do things, he said. Not only do we care, but were also willing to commit financial resources over a long period of time to make a difference. Somewhere, people have forgotten that.

Still, some Bates students insist that replacing existing apartment buildings with nicer housing eventually would make it impossible for poor people to afford to live there.

The students have started a local organization called The Visible Community that will work to make sure every person in the city has access to adequate and affordable housing.

They are asking friends, family and professors to donate money for every night they sleep outside. Some plan to do it for a night or two. Others are going to try to brave the cold all month.

Ive been here since Nov. 1st, said junior John Duchette. Ill be here until the last day. Its a little hard to get up in the morning, but thats OK.

Some of the money will go toward the production of a documentary about downtown and the people who live there. Students started making the documentary earlier this year. They want to use it to show people that not everyone who lives downtown is a drug dealer or transient who doesnt care about the area.

A lot of people have felt the city has a lot of negative things to say about the people downtown and nothing positive, said Chin.

Sleeping outdoors is only one way the students will make their point. They plan to skip dinner on Nov. 18 and donate their food to help the downtowns hungry and homeless people. They also are organizing a benefit concert and a panel discussion on the Heritage Initiative.

Bennett acknowledged that city officials may not have always involved residents when making planning decisions. But he stressed that this time would be different.

In the end, the most important people we want to hear from are the residents who live there and who want to be there, he said.

Akers, the Knox Street woman who thanked the Bates students Thursday night, doesnt know if she will lose her home if the Heritage Initiative goes forward. But she believes many will and that the quality of life will be greatly diminished for those who stay behind.

Instead of smelling fresh bread, Ill be smelling car exhaust, she said. I feel really sad. I thought I found something special here in Lewiston.