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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (July 8, 2011)
6 Street roots July 8, 2011 Addict By Jason Your not the same person How much have we fought Your not the person you sold Not the same one that I bought You were fine at first Then you turned sour You gave your soul to the devil Your soul he will devour Your personality has changed You steal from friends and family You used to be funny You are your own worst enemy Dreams have turned to nightmares Your destiny awaits But be prepared to suffer A most undesirable fate But I’m here to tell you There still is a chance To set yourself free With the devil you don’t have to dance It’s your time to flourish But don’t be latfe You have the key Now go open the gate gft CENTRAL CITY concern Changing Lives Building Communities Creating Opportunities www.centralci1yconcern.org 503-294-1681 Dancing on Belmont with the hottest news in town BY KAISA MCCROW C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R he Walgreen’s on Southeast Belmont sits on the east side of 39th. The busy road becomes a heavily car- trafficked cut-off from the bars, shops, and foot traffic west of there. It’s quiet in the warm morning sun, and Street Roots vendor Jeffrey McCall steps in and out of the sun, . taking shade under the covered area of the store entrance. After six months of working this spot, he has built a comfortable relationship with Walgreen’s, so standing on the property is permitted in his case, a nice relief for summer days. He shifts his weight back and forth, foot-to-foot, bouncing in and out of the Shade in a slow, repetitive rhythm. One of his regulars dubbed him “the dancer,” because of this constant motion, an unconscious habit formed to alleviate the strain of £ lifespent working on his feet. On this hot sumhier morning, he seems to be swaying to the pace of the July day. He says that he doesn’t feel all that removed from the crowds on Belmont and Hawthorne on this Side of 39th. In fact, he has pretty steady business, a slew of regular With his Street Roots baseball cap and tan from standing in thesun, Jeffrey has the ' look of a baseball coach or some other easily approachable community figure. He is happy to share his story to those that ask. He enjoys the constant interaction with people that this work affords him, and clientele, and a great relationship with the says that he would still come Out on the, staff and management at Walgreen’s. He has weekends to sell Street Roots were he to friends in this part of southeast, and the find a full time job; he likes the people that area has grown into something of a niche for much. him and others. In the course of our Bom and raised in Canby, Jeffrey made conversation, two Street Roots vendors stop his way toPortland through his time playing by, (one of them is the vendor who first college baseball at Clackamas Community connected Jeffrey to Street Roots) and College. He played shortstop and center invites him to a 4th of July barbecue. We field. Eventually he began working in ship also chat at length with Steve, a regular repair yards, and spent 20 years with a from the neighborhood, who regaled us with sandblasting and painting company. It was jokes and stories of his military days. jobto-job style work, but consistent, and a Regulars have routinely approached good living. In 2008, like so many other jobs Jeffrey to ask what his story is. Many are in the nation, work began to dry up. Jeffrey simply curious, but others are looking for eventually joined one of the common someone with whom to share their own narratives of the recession and found experiences, for someone to relate to them. himself jobless. Nearing 50, he found it hard It seems that folks everywhere have fallen to get new work when most companies were on hard times, and Jeffrey looks like just the hiring younger workers in their early 20s to kind ofguy to approach to chat about it. . do the jobs that were still available. For á S Jeffrey McCaU X«xss^ :::L LOOKING FOR AN AFFORDABLE PLACE TO RENT? Your online housing search just got easier. Want to know a little more about your vendor? Check out www.streetroots. wordpress.com for past articles about the m en and women selling Street Roots! P H O T O B Y B E C K Y M U L L IN S while he lived back in Canby, then Gresham, eventually moving back to Portland and starting his Street Roots gig. He says it was Street Roots that began to pull him out of the “stupor” that he lived in for the first years immediately following his job loss. It isn’t hard to observe the years of hard work that are worn on Jeffrey’s body. His foot-to-foot shuffle, the tan from hours in the sun, the fact that he’s still out w ork in g everyday. “Everybody’s gotta hustle,” he declares. He seems to respect the hustle, the will to do whatever it takes. “I’ve got friends that are doing cans and bottles every night. They are doing it 7 days a week. That’s their gig.” Reflecting on the last six months, he challenges th e idea that falling on hard times necessarily equals doom. “I may h e homeless,” he argues, “but I’m still surviving.” For now, he’s found himself in a routine that works. Recently he took a few weeks off from selling the paper for a landscaping job, and was surprised by the response: People missed him. They worried he wasn’t coming back and they didn’t like it. It was a positive affirmation of his place in the c o m m u n ity, VENDOR WORK ADS Cassidy Morse: Looking for work. Will do most anything light and heavy. $10 an hour, four hour minimum. References supplied. Please call 503-224-5398 or Street Roots at 503-228-5657. at 971-255-0440 to speak with Chelsea Benedict. Two-person team also available for hire for general labor (moving, house cleaning, yardwork, small home repairs). Ready to work immediately. Chelsea Benedict: Painting service, interior/ exterior house painting. Also specializing in custom mural artwork. Please e-mail at crbenedictmurals@gmail.com or by phone Laura Owens: Dog walker, $5 per half-hour walk. Downtown and Northeast area. Olease call Street Roots, 503-228-5657 and leave a message for Laura. Office C a t Rooty sends a big thank you to a ll the folks who made special donations toward gear fo r the vendors. Look fo r the bright red jackets a n d hats throughout Portland!
