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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 2011)
2 street roots Dec. 9, 2011 Looking forward to an even greater year EDITORIAL with joy and apprehension T pday. Leo Rhodes moves into his own apartment. If you’ve been a regular reader of Street Roots, you know Leo well. He is a columnist, a vendor and a member of our board of directors. He is a poet, an advocate and a regular at City Hall. He also has been homeless for the past 10 years. Leo is not alone. This past year, Street Roots, with the help of partners from multiple organizations, has helped house dozens of individuals who were homeless. If you’re a regular reader of Street Roots you may know your own vendor’s story just as well, and hopefully it has a happy ending too. But we know that isn’t always the many case. to We’ve lost too Knowing that many of our groups will also be holding forums with treet Roots is proud partners with the anyone left standing. Look for on-going Oregon Opportunity Network, JOIN coverage from Street Roots on how poverty and 211info to sponsor the city candidate forums on homelessness and issues and politics collide in the City of Roses. It’s true, we do want roses, but we housing. Last week, the first of a series of want house keys for thousands of people candidate forums took place with mayoral too. You can’t create jobs without housing candidates offering a and you can’t have housing without jobs. It’s range of perspectives just that simple. on affordable housing Streets Roots is hoping that during the and homeless issues.. holiday season you can find it in your heart We expect the next DESK to give us a push. The organization mayor to follow suit . continues to grow and gain influence. We with Mayor Sam B y Israel Bayer believe that this next year will be Street Adams and be a Roots’ breakthrough year. We continue to strong advocate for plan for the future and want to one day go housing and weekly and build a broader advocacy homelessness. Which reminds me, Mayor Sam Adams and his team have their plate network. We can’t get there without you. Please check out this edition’s editorial to full right now, knowing that the city is facing hard times concerning projected see what we have been up to this year and revenue streams. Do yoU know who else is. the many reasons you should consider a facing hard times? The Portland Housing donation to Street Roots. Bureau and people experiencing poverty in You can give several different ways this our fair city. We hope that in his last year as year. In this edition of the newspaper we Mayor, Sam Adams will do the rightthing have attached an envelope. All you have to and make sure that he does everything he do is drop a check in the mail. I t would can to make sure that Portland maintains its mean the wórld to us. You can also give ait the Willamette Week Civé!Guide (see back commitment to people on the streets. That means making sure that housing and page for details) or on-line at streetroots. homeless service are at the top of the org. Every little bit helps and we can’t do priority list when it comes to making hard what we do without you. We love your choices. support and hope you love the newspaper In January, look for the next candidates’ and having a relationship with a forum with candidates for city neighborhood vendor near you. Thanks for commissioners. After the primary in May, the love, and have a happy holiday. S Looking past and forw ard, Ö lM C Ä Ä 'S Israel B ayer is the executive director o f Street Roots. You Can reach h im a t israel@ streetroots.org the dangerous limbo of the streets, As 2011 winds to a close, Street Roots reflects on the year S r® eclual measures of joy and apprehension. We are proud of our advocacy, our commitment to educating people through the Rose City Resource, our coverage of important stories, and our vendors who daily change the attitudes of Portland residents about their neighbors experiencing homelessness and poverty. We have seen great strides forward, including the opening of the Bud Clark Commons and a renewed commitment by the city to preserve funding for affordable housing through urban renewal. We are invigorated by the Occupy movement and Right 2 Dream Too for spotlighting homelessness so intensely onr readers have the same commitment, together we w ill dig in and pnt onr shoulders to the wheel. th a t it could no longer be sw ept under th e rug. We now have City Hall ana its contenaers^talking about " ' loosening restraints on camping for people on the streets. While it shows how far we have come, it also shows how far we have to go. Many of you know firsthand how a battered economy and sustained unemployment weighs on the lives of Portlanders and others around the country. Regardless of where one falls on the economic ladder, we have all felt the desperation. 2012, like others of recent memory, is going to be a hard year. The City of Portland, Multnomah County and the State of Oregon are facing monumental budget cuts that will affect middle class Oregonians and people living on the fringe. Poverty will continue to grow. Street Roots is committed to working for both individual and social change to create a more just society. We are committed to working with a range of partners across political and philosophical lines to connect people with housing. We are committed to covering in-depth and complex issues in order to keep poverty in the public eye. Knowing that many of our readers have the same commitment, together we will dig in and put our shoulders to the wheél. Together, we will work on a range of opportunities that should be given to all — jobs and a safe place to call home. 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 joanne® streetroots.org. Monster By Jason Wolf Sometimes I can’t believe the things that go through my head I hear my own thoughts and can’t believe what was said Wherever I go this monster will follow He is shallow, evil, and ultimately hollow At times he is in control and won’t go away Other times I fight him and keep him at bay He feeds off of darkness, left wanting more With tricks up his sleeve, I don’t want to see what he has in store He wants me to fail, that being his goal There is no success, but it takes a toll He tries to catch me when I am weak and down Wouldn’t he love to ju st see me drown So it’s me versus you, give me your best You will never win and you can put that to the test! shosoxsa@gmail.com Our mission S ta ff Board o f Directors Vendors Street Roots creates income opportunities for people experiencing homelessness and poverty by producing a newspaper and other media that are catalysts for individual and social change. Executive Director Israel gayer Bruce Anderson (Chairman), Michael Anderson (Vice- chairman}, Heather Stadick (Treasurer), Eddy Barbosa (Secretary), Rich Rodgers, Brad Taylor, Leo Rhodes, Ken Hawkins ■ Street Roots vendors buy the newspapers fo r 25 cents each and sell them fo r $1, keeping the 75 cents if p rofit fo r themselves. In order to keep the cost low to our vendors, we receive additional support from donations and in-kind contributions. Street Roots publishes every tw o weeks, launching on Fridays, and is available exclusively through our street vendors or by subscription, We are proud members o f the North American Street Newspaper Association and the International Network o f Street Papers. Street Roots 211 NW Davis S t Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 Fax:503-227-3117 www.streetroots.org www.streetroots.wordpress.com israei@streetroots.org Managing Editor Joanne Zuhl joanne@streetroots.org Vendor Coordinator Becky Mullins becky@streetroots.org Operations Director Sarah Beecroft Program Assistant Cole M erkel coie@streetroots.org Grant Writer Sarah Cloud Accountant Heather Stadick Reporters Amanda W aldroupe, Stacy Brownhill, Jake Thomas Photographers Leah Nash, Ken Hawkins, Jennifer Jansons, John Ryan Brubaker Intern Liz Fosteer Volunteers Christine Gadeholt, Mary Patios, Leo Rhodes, Jan Bayer, Eliese Baker, Sue Zaiokar, Tave Drake, Michael M oore S treet Roots Rose City Resource Street Roots publishes the Rose City Resource, a comprehensive booklet o f services fo r people experiencing homelessness and poverty. To inquire about getting an order o f the Rose City Resource fo r distribution, please write to pdxrosecityresource@gmail.com. Resources are also available online at www.rosecityresource.org. 7SC goes directly to the vendor w ho sold you the paper 25c ’ goes toward printing costs Vendor orientations are at 1 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the Street Roots office.
