Andrew Shuttleworth Fowler grew up in Portland. He now lives in Westbrook with his wife Bethie and two children.

When Gerald Talbot moved to Portland after his Army service in the 1950s, he couldn’t find a place to live. Landlords wouldn’t rent to him because he was Black. He took them to court — three times — and has spent his life fighting for fair housing in Maine. He was the first Black person elected to the legislature. He led the passage of the Maine Human Rights Act.

In 2020, Portland renamed Riverton Elementary in Talbot’s honor. That was my elementary school. I’ve spent 23 of my 40 years living within walking distance of its front door. My son is in preschool in the neighborhood now — although we live in Westbrook. We couldn’t afford to stay.

So I’ve been watching, first with confusion and then with anger, as a group of homeowners calling themselves the Friends of Belfort sues to block a 50-unit housing development on the vacant lot next to Talbot School.

The project, Belfort Landing, was approved by the city’s planning board last July. It meets Portland’s zoning. It meets the requirements of ReCode, which the city spent years developing through a public, democratic process. Thirteen of the units are designated workforce housing. It’s on a bus route, next to a school, on land that’s sitting empty. Portland’s elected officials say it’s exactly the kind of development the city needs, because it is.

The Friends of Belfort say they support housing — just not this housing, not here, not in this way. They call it irresponsible. Their signs say “YES responsible development.”

These are euphemisms from people who must realize they can’t say what they really mean: we have ours, and we don’t want to share.

One neighbor is claiming adverse possession of the land where the access road would go — legal ownership, just because he’s mowed it for 30 years. That’s not a traffic concern. It’s not about stormwater or school noise. It’s the most honest objection anyone on Belfort Street has made: this is mine.

I think about Moran’s Market, the Riverton institution since 1956, and now a sponsor of Friends of Belfort, which is more recently going by the name Friends of Riverton.

When Moran’s burned in 2016, the neighborhood showed up. People rallied and gave of themselves, and the store rebuilt with help from its neighbors. That’s what community looks like when you decide someone belongs. What does it look like when you don’t? Apparently, it looks like a lawsuit.

Gerald Talbot has spent his life fighting so that people in Portland could find a place to live. The city put his name on a school to honor that legacy. I can’t think of a better way to dishonor it than to stand next to that school and tell 50 families that they’re not welcome.