Is the hive at work? These bees keep popping up around Portland. (2024)

There is a swarm taking over downtown Portland. Fat, smiling bumblebees gaze down from rooftops, hover in alleyways and peek around corners.

Alice Greene spotted one above Empire Chinese Kitchen as she walked down Congress Street with her mother Monday afternoon. The 13-year-old Portlander said that she can’t help noticing them lately.

“There’s probably a new one every time I come down here, which is like probably once a month,” she said.

The graffitied bee is a relatively simple design: a circle creates the plump body, a pair of lines mark its stripes, and it’s all adorned with an almost heart-shaped set of wings and, usually, a smiley face.

“I get that it’s graffiti, but it could be so much worse. And I think they’re kind of cute,” Greene said.

Jessica Muise, interim executive director at the public art nonprofit TEMPOart, which focuses on temporary installations, said the bee helps break up the monotony and add some whimsy to her walks through downtown.

She said it tends to land in places people pass absent-mindedly – spots that could otherwise feel “blank or cold.”

“It just shows up with this smile, this really playful, and unassuming and very inviting smile … and invites you into a conversation,” Muise said. “And then you have an experience and a memory walking there.”

She said the bee can inspiredialogue between “total strangers” on the street and on social media like Reddit, where commenters buzzinseveral times a week with new sightings and debate whether the tag is a boon or a blemish on the city’s skyline. There have been around 30 posts and more than 650 comments about the bee posted to the Portland subreddit since late June.

“I have to imagine many a conversation being sparked by just seeing that bee,” Muise said. “It’s just a point of conversation and connection.”

But not everyone finds the bee so charming. There have been at least nine bee sightings reported to Portland 311 this year, according to city data, including three instances of the bee popping up on or around 570 Congress St.

Perhaps the first report of a painted bee came on May 27, near 481 Congress St., at the Time & Temperature building. They’ve continued to pour in, sometimes several a week, through the summer.

“Bumble Bee Bandit is tagging the area under the Casco Bay Bridge,” reads one report made Aug. 15. “Currently 3 Piling are tagged near the road.”

Those three bees were still up – one to the east, two to the west – this week, along with at least half a dozen others around downtown. By Friday afternoon, a fourth bee had appeared under the bridge.

COST OF CLEANUP

Cary Tyson, executive director of Portland Downtown, doesn’t see the bumblebee as particularly artistic, though he acknowledged that its design is a departure from the typical tag.

“Regardless, it has to be removed,” Tyson said. “Anytime I see graffiti, it just reminds me how costly it is.”

Portland Downtown budgets nearly $35,000 each year for graffiti removal, outsourcing the work to Audet Enterprises via a contract shared with the city, Tyson said. Businesses can request a cleanup if they spot the tag, but some owners choose to clean it themselves, he said.

He said the majority of businesses downtown are locally owned and operate on tight margins, so removing tags like the bee can be a significant expense.

“Also, if you’re dealing with maybe a historic building with brick or the like, it can be damaging,” Tyson said.

He recommended that business owners improve outdoor lighting and invest in a security system with cameras to deter would-be taggers.

In at least one case, though, the tag has become something of a beacon.

Coals Bayside pizzeria was tagged in mid-July, and co-owner Ozzy Morales said a couple of dozen customers – some from Biddeford and elsewhere outside city limits – have told him they heard about the restaurant because of the bee painted on its outer wall.

“It’s actually benefited my business, which is crazy,” Morales said, sitting at the bar Monday night.

Choosing whether to keep or clean the tag is up to his landlord, Morales said, but “I really told her there’s no rush.”

Tyson, of Downtown Portland, said he was glad the bee has been a boon for Coals, but Morales’ experience clashes with what he typically hears from local property owners.

“That’s not the businesses that are talking to me. They’re talking to me about the damage, and the time and the expense involved in getting these things remediated,” Tyson said.

CONTAGIOUS SMILE OR SMUG GRIN?

Carmen Hamilton, 33, said she first noticed one of the bees earlier this summer near the Gateway Garage, where she would park for a summer intensive at the Maine College of Art and Design.

After one sighting, “you just start noticing them,” Hamilton said standing under Back Bay Tower, where one of the bees recently appeared above a wall of scaffolding.

“I feel like everyone gets a little spark of joy when they see the bee. It makes you smile,” she said. “I’ve never seen someone react negatively to it. Now, I’m not one of the owners of any of the property that the bee is on.”

Back Bay Tower administration did not respond to multiple messages asking about the bee’s impact on the facade or whether they plan to remove it.

Stepping out of the lobby Tuesday afternoon, tower resident Nick Pino said he had no strong feelings about the tag itself, but he worries that the graffiti could lead to higher rents. Pino said his rent already increased by around $70 this upcoming season to help pay for the building’s resurfacing which wasthe reason the scaffolding was put up in the first place.

“It’s harmless, but also, I’m ultimately paying those pennies when they go to fix it, so I don’t know,” he said. “In terms of graffiti, it’s probably one of the less intrusive things.”

Asked about the bee’s artistic merit, Pino shrugged.

“I just see a circle and some lines,” he said. “Other people see a comical bee, like happy-go-lucky type thing. Art is what you make of it, right?”

COMMUNITY EXPRESSION

City spokesperson Jessica Grondin said that “as much as Portland loves art and artistic expression when it comes to this form of it, our first concern is for the condition of public and private properties.”

Grondin said Audet, which has a $75,000 contract with the city, removed more than 560 instances of graffiti in 2023. She said it usually takes less than a week for tags to be cleaned after an owner authorizes their removal.

Graffiti suspects can be charged and made to pay $500, plus 25 hours of community service for each instance, Grondin said. If property damage exceeds $2,000, the penalty can ratchet up to a felony-level aggravated criminal mischief charge by the district attorney’s office.

Grondin added that the city established a “free wall” near the Portland Water District’s wastewater treatment plant, on which “public art, including graffiti, is authorized.”

Muise, TEMPOart director, said spaces like the treatment plant wall, where public art is invited, can help foster expression and define space within the community.

But she said tagging is a distinctive type of street art that often reflects innately “precarious moments” when the artist has just a few seconds to leave a mark. And she said repeated motifs like the bee can contribute to the city’s identity and sense of place.

It’s not clear who is painting the bees if it’s one person or many, or what their motivations are.

Months in, Muise also said she’s started noticing slight differences – the angle of the strokes, the shape of the wings – which might indicate that more than one person is at work.

“It has, I think, become a community expression,” Muise said. “I think this is like a hive response, you know? Bees work as hives.”