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
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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!