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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (May 24, 2013)
Street roots M ay 24, 2013 Street Roots’ journalism takes home top honors !W S We should all enjoy the fruits o f our cultural diversity id you know around one out of five Portlanders are foreign born, and that nearly 50 percent of school children in Portland Public Schools are ethnic minorities? You should. It’s estimated that nearly 100 new refugees and hundreds more immigrants arrive monthly to the City of Roses. They are future doctors, engineers, community leaders and elected officials. While white Portlanders rule the day in Portland’s urban core — something special is happening in neighborhoods around the city, especially in places such as North and East Portland. Depending on the neighborhood, up to 80 percent of the community could be made up of individuals and families from around the globe. It’s not uncommon to be on public transportation or at the neighborhood grocery store and hear a range of languages spoken. We must ensure that hard “If 8 percent of working immigrant Portlanders count communities have the themselves as bike same opportunities lor commuters, and they decent housing, jobs, can shape our city into education and health care a national model of that we all pursue. progressive urban planning, imagine what our unabashedly ambitious 18 percent can do to build a bigger and better Portland,” Ronault Catalani with the Office of Equity and Human Rights recently told Street Roots. “I can’t think of an urban problem we can’t solve if we blend settled Portland’s political, financial, and technological capital with new Portlanders’ vast accounts of social, cultural, and spiritual capital.” We couldn’t agree more. Cultural and immigrant communities have made great strides this year through legislative efforts in Salem, including tuition equity and restoring to ability to obtain driver’s licenses. Roughly 90,000 migrant and seasonal farmworkers help maintain Oregon’s food supply and work to beautify our state, but they are too often excluded from the bounty. We must ensure that hard working immigrant communities have the same opportunities for decent housing, jobs, education and health care that we all pursue. Federally, we’re hoping that legislatures will take the necessary steps that will give millions of people a pathway to citizenship. “This country still represents opportunity, even in face of the obstacles that immigrants far too often encounter,” says Roberto Jim enez with the Farmworker Housing Development Corporation (See the complete interview on page 7) “And that says something really positive about us as a country. And the other side is that we can’t live in isolation. It’s a global world and we should learn to embrace that. Immigrants bring a lot of commitment, energy, and enthusiasm to their futures and the future of the communities that they live in. Ultimately, it’s all local.” Both in Portland and around Oregon, our culture is growing richer and more complex with every passing year. We should celebrate this fact at every turn. We should work to embrace one another, regardless of where we come from or what language we speak. It’s these values that will help guide us to a better tomorrow. treet Roots received three first place, and one, second place award this weekend from Oregon/Southwest Washington Society of Professional Journalists. That’s amazing. Hard working managing editor Joanne Zuhl took home first place for investigative reporting, for her reporting on homeless deaths with, “Domicile By Israel Bayer Unknown.” Street Roots has help lead the conversation on homeless deaths in Multnomah County for more than four years through our reporting and advocacy. The coverage Street Roots has provided on homeless deaths and health care are something we’re proud of and we hope will lead to educating the broader public on the subject matter and will have some lasting change in our approach to housing people who are experiencing homelessness. Zuhl also took home first place for social issues reporting, for the story, “Holding the line: a day inside the 211Info’s call center.” The story looks at life for 211Info and gives a snapshot into some of the lives of the more than 120,000 people who call every year in crisis. D Israel Bayer is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach him at israel@streetroots. org or follow him on Twitter @israelbayer. Music reporter Sue Zalokar took first place for arts reporting for her interview with Grateful Dead member Mickey Hart. The interview explored Hart’s views on mental health, arts in the schools, the history of music and the mysteries of the universe. Reporter Alex Zielinski won second place for her reporting on sexual abuse among the homeless with the story, “Sex, lies and homelessness.” The story outlines sexual assault on the streets and what advocates are working to do about it. “Street Roots provides timely and insightful news on housing and other issues from a wider variety of voices than traditional media,” says Janet Byrd, Executive Director of Neighborhood Partnerships. “We rely on Street Roots for depth of coverage and unique perspectives. The newspaper is a huge asset to our community.” Winning these awards is no small feat for Street Roots, knowing that we are a small news organization in the same category with much larger newspapers around the region and state. In a changing media landscape, Street Roots is doing everything in its power to deliver news and commentary on issues that effect our entire community. We hope you enjoy. LETTER A few additional facts about those bed bug beds WHAT DO YOU THINK? Letters to the editor are welcome at the Street Roots office, 211 NW Davis St., Portland, OR 97209, or e-mailed to joanne@streetroots. org. ast week, Street Roots did a great story on the Central City Bed™. We are of this product and are working to increase its visibility. Three small points I’d like to add: The article quoted our communications manager saying that, “the beds are encased in blue medical-grade vinyl that is sealed internally.” This actually refers to the mattress, not the bed frame. A compelling feature of the Central City Bed™ is that it can be easily cleaned and put back into use if linens ever get infested. This represents huge cost savings, especially for organizations that purchase many bed frames. When a more traditional, wooden bed frame gets infested, one can never eradicate the bugs with 100 percent certainty and the frames must be discarded. Profits from our Central City Bed™ frames and mattresses go back into Central City Concern programs. This social enterprise will C entral C ity C oncern’s bed-bug- help us continue such programs as the resistent bed Community Volunteer Corps, mentored service projects in the community with 10-plus other non-profit organizations. ED BLACKBURN Executive Director Central City Concerns L Program Assistant Kara Dimitruk, Street Roots 211 NW Davis St. Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 Fax: 503-227-3117 wvyw.streetroots.org www.news.streetroots.org Volunteer AmeriCorps Member kara@streetroots.org Development Director Sarah Cloud Development Assistant Cynthia Kiehl Reporters Jake Thomas, Alex Zielinski, Nathan Gilles, Robert Britt, Sue Zalokar, Erin Fenner Photographers Leah Nash, Ken Hawkins, Kristina Wright, Christopher Onstott Stay connected with us online through Facebook and Twitter Street Roots Rose City Resource Street Roots publishes the Rose City Resource, a comprehensive booklet of services for people experiencing homelessness and poverty. To inquire about getting an order of the Rose City Resource for distribution, please write to pdxrosecityresource@gmail.com. Resources are also available online at www.rosecityresource.org. Vendor orientations are at 1 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the Street Roots office.
