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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 2009)
15 MB C E LE B R A T IN G A B EG Ä B E Street roots Education ♦ Dialogue ^ Independence editorial A challenging season lies ahead J T 'A h e rainy winter season is approaching helps break down stereotypes and helps I and Street Roots could use your help. create an economic avenue for people to improve'their quality of life. X . -Every whiter brings challenges for We have a responsibility to Portland to any nonprofit working with individuals surviving outside. The cover the issues of homelessness and poverty to the best of our ability. We also _ _ challenges of have a responsibility to be accountable to individuals living ’ treat everyone with respect The vast he world is a very daunting place. From war to DIRECTOR'S outside can be majority of our vendors pride themselves stretched to the , health care, the environment to the economy, DESK oil being able to build relationships and to limits. and the HINT flu - people are feeling the maintain locations in the community. If it To alleviate some By Israel Bayer squeeze. Locally, it’s no different From the front page weren’t for the determination of vendors to of the strain that story on this edition of Street Roots to unemployment work hard and the willingness of customers " comes this time of rates in Oregon to young Oregonians coming home in Israel Bayer is the executive and businesses to take on difficult problem - year, Street Roots is director o f Street Roots and solving, Street Roots wouldn’t be possible. asking for donations of first-aid kits (small body bags; like we said, it’s a daunting place. the chairman o f the North We thank you all for making that happen. and large) liquid bandages, 4 x 4 sterile Saying that, we also live in a beautiful city, among A m erican Street Newspaper Lastly, we are continuing to encourage pads, Ace bandages, cold medications, Association. You can reach amazing and innovative people, rich and poor, with a him a t streetroots@hotmail. readers to call their local representatives to aspirin, vitamin C, eold and heat pads, and will to make the world we live in a better place. support health care. On the back page you cough drops. We also need hand sanitizer Both big and small contributions are being made will find out more information and ways to and dispensers for the office, as well as get involved. c daily to make the city and region we live in a healthy individual sanitizing lotions and/or bleach sheets to help vendors stay clean and avoid 1 We also think it’s important to work to ________ and sustainable change the public perception around health the flu this season. Other items that go a environment From care. If you have a family member or friend long way to help vendors are raincoats, When President Barack Metro’s stand on urban that’s on the fence;— take them out to winter hats and new socks. Anyone of these Obama was elected sprawl to the Portland coffee and/or spend an extra half an hour items would be much appreciated; into the Oval Office in Trail Blazers’ “Make It on the phone talking about the importance Street Roots would also like to extend a November, Street of health care. Maybe your aunts and uncles Better” Campaign, from big thank you to the many businesses and Rooters, lik e many are just not getting it, but grandma could. their customers throughout Portland that the Reed College We all have a responsibility to not only hold other Portlanders, had students raising money have taken the time to build relationships with our vendors and the organization. Your our elected officials’ feet to the fire, but to a sense of renewed for sex trafficking victims hold ourselves accountable for pushing for continued support of thé vendor program optimism. It's time to to the vendor selling you the basic, rights of human beings. Please ahd the newspaper goes a long way in channel that energy. make that call. this newspaper, amazing supporting not just individuals and/or -families experiencing homelessness - it things happen. Opportunity awaits us a t every corner ■ Watching many of the newly elected officials in Portland navigate the recession while trying to improve the quality of life for Portlanders and Greshamites is assuring. You get the feeling that with the political intelligence and craftiness of many of the commissioners at the county - something special is on the horizon. Nick F is h is fin d in g h is way. I t ’s n o t easy b e in g th e ■"housing commissioner in Portland. He has taken shots from the left, including from Street Roots, while balancing a'frozen market, a housing bureau reorganization and an increase of homelessness. And still, it feels like he’s just getting his engines started and that we have yet to see what he has planned for affordable housing and people experiencing homelessness in the region. While City Hall does feel more strange than Street Roots has ever seen it (and we can’t quite put our finger on it), there’s still great things happening. Commissioner Randy Leonard can’t seem to get fc enough of creating more public restro° r“ ’ 6 d can’t get enough of cheering him on. Sam Adams and Amanda Fritz may pidl off the unthinkable on the sidewalks issues - and make both advocates and businesses happy. So, geez, it s not all ba . When President Barack Obama was elected into the Oval Office in November, Street Rooters, like many X a n d e r s , had a sense of renewed optmusim It’s time-to channel that energy. It s„tune to stand up. No sitting on the sidelines. (Sidewalks are OK.) There’s hundreds of non-profits and/campaigns working for, the greater good in the re&on. Environmental issues, poverty, agncuitura1 and immigrant movements, civil and human rights^ there s no shortage of great things to contribute to. No engine can ever pick up steam without a single spark to set it off. So be it pedal power or political engagement, there's an important place for you m i read after reading * by ja y th ie m e y e r i read after reading, willim carlos williams writing about what he saw and felt (to be redundant; how could he do one without the other, and both so well, for us, for U S,| not just himself alone. he knew the grand life of US) in 1933, a bum in a doorway, a working woman picking to fix the paper sole . and nail protruding in her shoe, she’s bent over stading in a crowd, i can see her, not leaning on anyone, making do, a scarf not so clean haloing her brow, i have to deal with Paris Hilton online aline of hers ‘will live in history’... : Joe Cocker admonishes me on my CD he gets by because of me and others like me who treat him (and ourselves) like friends, he admonishes me not to forget th a t I wonder would I treat Paris Hilton like that? Probably not, since she only exists in fantasy, online, and according to AOL spamworks. Reading william carlos williams or listening (and feeling) . - . Joe Cocker a's they both sing about freedom of self from self, to walk that fine line; can we live unencumbered by, with, small thoughts these days? In ‘a living coral’ williams writes about the martial wreath and all the martial monuments to heroes made of marble slab.being promoted by capital interests (the same ones pushing Paris on me) and the soldiers turning green in death the ordinary green of undiscovered death battles writ in history stand on and he bids us as we read to know ourselves (i can feel) don’t let the cheap and self-serving consume this town’s future. . Lastly treat yourself right I f s contagious. m S e that daunting world, will have to take a back S t to changing we are becoming. There’s no time like now. The chance won t come again. STREET ROOTS’ EDITORIAL BOARD The views expressed in Ihe editorialsin StreetRwte¥ * * consensus of members of the editorial board and contributing volunteers. _ _ _ _ _ Sam Adams Mayor 1221SW 4th Ave, Room 340,97204 (503)823-4120 Amanda Fritz 1221 SW 4th Ave, Room 220,97204 (503)823-3008 amanda® . ci.portland.or.us ■ DanSaltzman 1221 SW 4th Ave, Room 230,97204 (503)823-4151 dsaltzman® ci.portland.or.us 1221JW 4th Ave, Room 240,97204 (503)823-3589 nick® ci.portland.or.us 1221 SW 4th Ave, Room 210,97204 (503)823-4682 ci.portland.or.us
