6
street roots
Jan. 20, 2012
Midnight below the
St. Johns Bridge
By Jay Thiemeyer
Toward midnight I take a walk
down Baltimore from Lombard
inclining to the boat ramp
and the slow, coal black Willamette.
The day has gone quiet, no one
is out that I can see.
No raccoons, no cats even.
No cars pass except behind me
one or two
sssss-ing blocks back on Lombard. Nor
on the bridge as I approach
looking up and out, over the river,
finding the point I was told about
where they tend to collect themselves
shortly before the jump.
In tonight’s blur of fog
the lights on the bridge
are like soft glowing yellow balls,
stretched in an arching gaze;
and the ice as it crystallizes on everything
is magical,
like seeds sprinkled on the earth.
Staying positive
a rewarding
role for vendor
BY COLE MERKEL
S T A F F W R IT E R
rian Schmidt sells Street Roots like a
corner newsman at the turn of the
20th century. “Great articles in
today’s Street Roots, read all about it for a
couple quarters!” he yells, waving his bag of
papers high above his head. He calls out
headlines and lets readers know what the
newspaper is about: “Focus on vendors in
today’s Street Roots!”
“I believe more in excitement and
positivity than any kind of depth of reason,”
Schmidt says, laughing with a deep,
authentic trill. “I believe that excitement
reveals the truth.” Excitement: that one
word is the distillation of Brian’s life
philosophy. “When we really get excited and
we’re really engaged, we perform and
produce at our peak and we’re happier.”
B
VENDOR PROFILE
B rian Schmidt
coffee bean
IN T E R N A T IO
N A L*
We tip our mugs to Coffee
Bean International for
donating coffee to Street Roots
and keeping our vendors
warm in the morning!
Thank you!
coffee bean
IN T E R N A T IO N A L *
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For nine months, Schmidt has been
selling Street Roots between two locations:
Bijou Café on SW 3rd and Pine and at 23
Hoyt in the evenings, a tavern in Northwest
Portland. Although the neighborhoods are
vastly different — Chinatown and the
Alphabet District — Brian doesn’t notice
much of a difference at the heart of the
customers he serves in either location.
“The spirit that people have is always the
same,” he says. “You have different
backgrounds of people, but I think basically
people give because they want to give, they
want to help out, which is amazing.”
When he moved to his location at Bijou,
Brian took over the turf of a long-time,
retired Street Roots vendor named Colleen.
While transitioning into a location of a well-
established vendor can sometimes be a
difficult experience, Brian said it has been
very positive, and he still gets asked about
Colleen by her former clients who wish her
well.
Schmidt appreciates selling Street Roots
because, “It’s an opportunity for people to
be educated, and even if education isn’t
always positive, it doesn’t mean it’s not
helpful. Sometimes you have to know
VENDOR WORK ADS
Craig Preston: Labor work, $12 an hour,
please call the Street Roots office to inquire:
503-228-5657
Tibor S.: Available for any labor work
around a house. 1-201-539-1888.
P H O T O BY COLE M ERKEL
something you don’t really like to know in
order to improve your contribution in order
to help somebody out.”
When customers purchase a paper from
Schmidt, they may receive more than a
paper. If interested, they also get to talk
about being positive. “I’m striving to get
into motivational speaking, and I not only
sell Street Roots, I talk to people about
positivity every day because I think that
regardless of w hether it’s your spiritual life
or your economic situation or your personal
life or your social life, it’s always affected by
your level of excitement enthusiasm .”
Brian’s dream is to publish a book on
Vendor Wish List
Donations keep Street Roots and our vendors
working by keeping our operating costs low.
■
■
■
■
■
Socks
Lil Hotties
Paper cups
Hygiene items
Towels
■ First-aid supplies
■ TriM et bus
tickets/passes
■ Printer paper
■ Toilet paper
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
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positive thought and speaking. He has
written a rough draft, and now is thinking
about the finer points. He says that
simplicity and clarity are the avenues toward
real positivity.
As our interview draws to a close, Brian
goes back to selling papers in his positive
newsman fashion, with a smile on his face.
“I want to live what I tell people about,” he
says. “And if I don’t have a full grasp on
what I tell people and am actually doing it, I
don’t feel right about telling other people
what I do. I have to be living what I’m
saying in order to feel right about what I’m
saying.”
CENTRAL CITY
concern
Changing Lives
Building Communities
Creating Opportunities
CORRECTIONS
Street Roots strives for accuracy, but
we're human. So we also strive to correct
errors in our paper whenever possible.
Please report any errors to our managing
editor, Joanne Zuhl, at 503-228-5657, or
write to joanne@streetroots.org
www.streetroots.wordpress.com
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www.centrctlcityconcern.org
503-294-1681