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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 2011)
2 Street roots S ept 16, 2011 Change is in the air - thanks to you 1 Street Roots is playing a leading role ip elcome to the new page two of building relationships across issues and class Street Roots. We have moved the lines in our community. We believe that to editorial and my column, along with letters to the editor, to the front of the mobilize community members and to stay newspaper. Street engaged hi issues facing poverty, not to mention giving people hope and immediate Roots editorials have income to people who have little or none, we DIRECTOR'S received a lot of play must do the best job we can to offer readers H 'P C I F over past two years, and it 0Iijy a wide variety of content. makes sense to bring By highlighting different voices in the B y Israel Bayer the opinions of the community through the opinion pages, and organization and providing road-map journalism that readers to the front of highlights a problem and gives readers a way the newspaper. to stay engaged in solutions, we are making The newspaper continues to grow and a difference. become part of the fabric of this community. We will never be able to create lasting On street comers throughout the city, change in a vacuum. It takes all of us, with vendors, readers and businesses, continue to different interests, experiences and have healthy and inspiring relationships that perspectives to create a healthy community. develop into a real change in the lives of We are so grateful for your loyalty and people on the streets. readership. One vendor and one newspaper “The newspaper helps me keep a positive at a time, we are making buzzwords such as outlook, knowing that regular readers and “hope,” and “change” a reality. We couldn’t others in the neighborhood are friendly and begin to do this without you. not judgmental of me,” says vendor Mitch We hope readers like the new DeSousa, who sells at the Starbucks on 28th arrangement, and we encourage individuals and East Burnside. “It helps keep my self to write to the newspaper and sound off on esteem alive out here, and that can’t be issues that matter to you. underestimated.” H Times are tough - and ripe with opportunity ccording to the U.S. Census figures, the nation’s poverty rolls increased last year by 2.5 million people. That’s on top of millions more who have fallen into poverty in what the New York Times is now calling the “lost decade.” Tlie numbers show that poverty has increased in the U.S. to the highest rate since 1993. As Chuck Sheketoff with the Oregon Center for Public Policy rightly points out, “Our safety net for poor families with children was better in the early 1990s. We had a more robust program for families with dependent children, a more robust jobs program. We are serving a smaller percentage of the poor than we used to and we re giving them less.” The results aré more It's during times of crisis people ending up in that many people come extreme crisis situations. together, and sacrifice for The 211Info and Referral the betterment of their line, along with mental neighbors and friends. It's health groups and also a time when some of services such as Human the best ideas and plans are Solutions, which works put into place to help with women and families, maintain a healthy society. are being overwhelmed. Street Roots and Others organizations áre seeing more and more people from middle-class backgrounds entering homelessness each week. Resources continue to ’ decline, and the need continues to skyrocket For too many of our neighbors, these figures mean survival in its most raw form, and survival often means doing anything necessary. That’s not a good place to be. The 2Q13 Oregon Legislative session needs to be ready to make human and basic Services its top priority. Legislators let them fall to the wayside in 2011, and the results are devastating. The city and county must stop merely talking about a strategic plan to build more revenue for housing and services, and show actual leadership, even if that means taking calculated risks. People are dying in the streets, literally, and beginning to turn in masses* to the black market and other, less healthy means to make ends m eet Saying that, it’s time for all of us in the region and around the state to build a coalition of the willing. Often times, especially during election cycles we look to candidates, office holders and government bureaus to have the answers to all of our woes. The reality is, it’s the people Who will move these agendas forward. It’s during times of crisis that many people come together and sacrifice for the betterment of their neighbors and friends. It’s also a time when some of the best ideas and plans are put into place to help maintain a healthy society. Organizations around the region and state need to be working together to push the poverty agenda forward. That means working together to create a community mobilization across issues, and thinking about how our own self-interests may or may not move these agendas forward. The environment today is ripe for organizing, be it affordable housing and homeless groups, immigrants and refugees, people of color and private partners, transportation and equity groups, unions and neighborhood groups. It’s time to seize the moment and support one another from the ground up. Because the top down approach has gotten us nowhere. a Israel B a yer is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach h im at streetroots@ hotm ail.com . LETTERS Office of Equity and Human righto — the proper pairing he Office of Equity and Human Rights is must evolve with the times. It has come a what the title should be (Re: Street Roots, long way since the White Male Land Sept. 2). The Office of Equity is paramount in Conqueror days, but there is still so much including the Portland Human Rights historical restitution to do. I applaud the ______________ Commission start, and look to the day when the money Furthermore, it is going into equity matches or exceeds the imperative that the money going into supposedly “green” Human Rights sustainable issues. Social justice is a first Commission is not order of business in my way of looking at m a rg in a liz e d n o r .things. We go n o t have a s tr o n g s u s tq jp a ftle ostracized in the move to peace in our city w hen close to one-third of create this new office. the children in this state are experiencing ■111 The mayor and City food insecurity. Who can think green under Commissioner Fritz were these conditions? at the last Human Rights PTERYLIEGHT Portland Commission meeting on ■ in Wednesday, inviting the cooperation of the Human Taxpayer money should help Rights Commission. The commission seemed the poor, not privileged receptive in spite of the very cold shoulder and left out of the discussion, feelings that lease publish the full story “Never say never.” (Sept 2, Street Roots) It’s an they all have. S - J O E ANYBODY awesome piece of journalism. Portland is Portland really a city of apartheid. The rich people live in the core and get PDC money. That es, the city needs to start showing some taxpayer money should rebuild services for commitment to equity and human rights. I ’the people who need it most in the outer think the level of change needed will involve edges of Portland and Gresham. We are much, much more for it to really work. As building lavish German beer pubs for hipsters long as there is “majority” rules type voting, in Mississippi rather than get basic food and there will bé majority ownership of solutions heath for people outside the 205 and 405 to those whose votes add up to minority freeways. Portland is a model for apartheid counts. Thus, the burden of proof will lay with sold as a green city. It’s the height of those who experience oppression, while the I hypocrisy. The only socialist thing about burden of doing something about it through Portland is our great wall of power for those policy lies with those who are majority. This inside 205 and 405. does not work. The majority should not make BARBARA R. these decisions. Portland Democracy is not majority rule. Democracy E i 11“ fc WHAT DO YOU THINK? Send letters to the editor to the Street Roots office, 211 NW Davis St., Portland, OR 97209, or e-mail to streetrootsnews® gmail.comr P B Our mission S taff Soard of Directors Street Roots creates income opportunities for E x e c u tiv e D i r e c t o r Israel Bayer Bruce Anderson (chairm an! Michael An derson (Vice* Street Roots vendors b u y th e newspapers fo r 25 cents streetroots@hotmail.com chairman), Heather Stadick (Treasurer), Eddy Barbosa each, and sell th e m fo r $ 1, ke eping th e 75 cents in people experiencing homelessness and poverty by producing a newspaper and other media th a t are catalysts fo r individual and social change. Street Roots publishes every tw o weeks, launching on Fridays, and is available exclusively through our street vendors or t y subscription. W e are proud members o f the North American Street Newspaper Association and th e International N etw ork o f Street Papers. Street Roots 211 N W Davis St. Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 1 Joanne Zuhi com. V e n d o r C o o r d i n a t o r Becky M ullins pdxrosecityresource@gmail.com.. {Secretary), Rich Rodgers, Brad Taylor, Leo Rhodes, Ken Hawkins > - p ro fit fo r themselves. In o rd e r to keep th e cost lo w to o u r vendors, w e receive a d d itio n a l s u p p o rt fro m d on a tio n s a nd in -k in d co n trib u tio n s. Volunteers O p e r a t io n s D i r e c t o r Sarah Beecroft Christine G adeholt, M a ry Pacios, Leo Rhodes, Jan P r o g r a m A s s i s t a n t Cole M erkel Bayer, Eliese Baker, Liz Fosteer, S ueZ alokar, Tave streetrootspoetry@gmail.com Vendors • «uaat»2gA:a-.w 12 D rakew I $ 8 2 828$# i. G r a n t W r i t e r Sarah Cloud A c c o u n t a n t H eather Stadick ‘ D e p o r t e r s A m anda W aldrou pe, Stacy Brownhill; Jake Thomas P h o t o g r a p h e r s Leah Nash, Ken Hawkins, Jennifer Jansons, John Ryan Brubaker Street Roots Rose City Resource Street Roots publishes th e Rose City Resource, a 75 25 c comprehensive booklet o f services for people goes d ire ctly to th e ve n d o r goes to w a rd experiencing homelessness and poverty. w h o sold you th e paper p rin tin g costs To inquire about getting an order, o f th e Rose City Fax: 503-227-3117 Resource fo r distribution, please w rite to www.streetroots.org pdxrosecityresource@gmail.com. Resources are also www.streetroots.wordpress.com available online at www.rosecityresource.org. V e n d o r o rie n ta tio n s a re a t 1 p .m . e ve ry M o n d a y W e dn e sd ay a n d Friday a t th e S tre e t Roots o ffic e .
