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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 3, 2014)
2 street roots Jan 3, 2014 EDITORIAL Friendship and generosity abound Salem needs to deliver small, but critical bump for housing The latest Street Roots reports that “when legislators convene in Salem for the Legislature’s month-long session, scheduled to begin Feb, 3, they are likely to focus on economic development, job growth, continuing to fund and reform education, and pass legislation that didn’t quite make it during the 2013 session.” (See, “Poverty issues to mostly take a back seat in Salem,” page 3). Street Roots is excited to know that many people experiencing homelessness and poverty will now have the opportunity to access health care. It’s our belief that if health care reform maintains its course, homelessness could be curbed dramatically in the \ years to come. Time "Housing Is fundamental will tell. It’s also true that to accomplishing so prioritizing economic many of the goals the development and job state has set — health growth is a step in care reform, education, the right direction. jobs growth, etc." ________________________ Access to living-wage jobs would have a dramatic effect on individuals and families experiencing poverty, including homelessness. It’s yet to be seen if a focus on job growth and a projected economic recovery actually offers relief for low-income people, or if it’s smoke and mirrors. The reality is we need more living wage jobs to bring people out of poverty. Without strategically engaging blue-collar workers and people experiencing poverty — we will fall short in Oregon if the only job growth we see is service industry jobs and jobs that people without an education can’t . obtain. On the housing front, advocates are hoping for small gains. Elected officials have the opportunity to offer a measly $2 million increase for the second half of the biennium into the Emergency Housing Account and State Homeless Assistance Program to prevent and end homelessness ($4 million over the biennium). We know that isn’t enough to solve the local problems plaguing many communities. We’re cautiously optimistic that elected officials can put politics aside and give working individuals and families a small bump in the up-«and-coming budget. It’s the least the legislature can do. Oregonians around the state continue to struggle to maintain a safe place to call home. Street Roots knows housing is fundamental to accomplishing so many of the goals the state has Set - health care reform, education, job growth, etc. Without housing for Oregonians with low incomes, none of that can happen successfully. Legislators have a real opportunity to deliver on the emergency housing account — signaling to Oregonians that Salem does care for its most vulnerable citizens and are willing to go to bat for those less fortunate. Israel Bayer is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach him a t israel@streetroots. org or follow him on Twitter @israelbayer. George has been a Street Roots vendor for more than a year. He sells papers in front of a local coffee shop in Northeast Portland. George is well known and respected by the businesses DIRECTOR'S owners and shoppers in the neighborhood. DESK Last week, one of B y Israel Bayer George’s regular —— customers gifted him a $500 gift certificate to a local grocery store. This kind of generosity is not uncommon for Street Roots vendors around this time of year. Vendors come in and tell us story after story of readers kindness. It’s these outstanding acts of friendship and generosity that give vendors and Street Roots hope. These stories lift us up and inspire us, and remind us of the incredible community we call home. This coming year, there áre a few things readers can do to help Street Roots grow. The first thing is simple: keep purchasing and reading the newspaper. In January and February sales drop for vendors, but the winter continues. Your support will go a long way in giving people on the streets selling the newspaper a hand up. You can also help spread the word. For die hard Street Roots fans don’t underestimate the power of getting a newspaper and leaving it in a break room, or at your local coffee shop and/or bank. Introduce Street Roots to your peers. Street Roots has grown over the years through word of mouth and by having people simply stumble upon the newspaper. Introducing new readers to Street Roots means introducing your peer network to helping vendors improve their quality of life. It’s a win-win. From all of us at Street Roots, we thank you for the love this holiday season. We were blown away by the amount of support we received and continue to receive. We thank the many individuals and families that gave to us over the holidays. We thank you for joining the Street Roots team and making this year a special year for Portland and for grassroots media. We thank you for giving back. Have a great new year and we look forward to building towards our goal of going weekly over the next year. Your lasting support means the world to all of us at Street Roots. Cheers. LECTER 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 Your lengthy interview with Audubon Society Conservation Director Bob Sallinger contained One major error and many odd assumptions. The interview is about the proposed “Portland Public Water District” ballot initiative, but it is instead labeled with the title of the OTHER ballot initiative running later in 2014 — the “Portland People’s Watèr Trust”. This is a major reporting error. From reading Bob’s words, you would never know that this ballot initiative would do most of thé things that environmental groups like his would normally support! This initiative would ban the corporate takeover of our public water supply and transmission system. This initiative would ban the co-mingling of our currently pure Bull Run watershed water supply with not- so-pure Willamette and Tualatin River waters, which is a plan that has been on the table now for a long time among regional planners. This initiative is being co-directed by Floy Jones, a neighborhood activist who has been fighting incompetent and illegal city government decision-making about our water for many years.-Though you wouldn’t learn any of this from Bob Sallinger. Finally, the new water utility board would be elected by zone. Seven seats, each representing l/7th of the city’s population. To win, you would residents of your zone to elect you, which means that lower income folks who don’t have access to rich people’s money would have a greater chance of whining these seats. This is more democratic than the way the city council gets elected. Public water utility boards have existed in Seattle, Los Angeles, and elsewhere for many years, and serve the public well.. All Bob Sallinger seems to be able to focus on is the fact that the initiative is being funded by large companies. Is it possible that they’re doing so simply because they, like most residents, are sick and tired of unethical and stupid decisions being made by the current city government structure, which has driven water rates through the roof? I believe we should follow the money, but sometimes large companies want the same thing the public wants, but for different reasons. I am not yet certain that I will vote for this ordinance, but I do know for certain that Bob Sallinger is barking up the wrong tree, acting as if this ordinance is evil. I urge everyone to read the ordinance, and z then decide. — Paul Cienfuegos Our mission Staff Board of Directors Vendors Street Roots creates income opportunities for people experiencing homelessness and poverty by produting a newspaper and other media that are catalysts for individual and soda! change. Executive Director Israel Bayer Bruce Anderson O a irn ia n ), Michael Anderson (Vice- diairman), Heather-StadiekfTieas.), Eddy Barbosa (Sec.), Rich Rodgers, Brad Taylor, Leo Rhodes, Nora Coon, • Darten Alexander, AmberBielman StreetRoots vendors' buy the newspapers for 25 cents each and sell them, for $1, keeping th e 75 cents in , profit for themselves. Io order to keep the cost low to our vendors, we receive adcOftonalsupport from donations and ro-kind oontributions. Street Roots publishes every two weeks, launching on Fridays, and is available exclusively through our street vendors or by subscription. We are proud members of the North American Street ' Newspaper Association and the International Network of Street Papers. Street Roots 211 NW Davis S t Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 Fax:503-227-3117 streetroots.org news.streetroots.org c Id israel@streetroofc.org Managing Editor Joanne Zuhi panne@streetroots.org Vendor Coordinator Cote Merkel cole@streetroofc.org Operations Director S a ra h B e e c ro ft Program Assistant Grace Badik, Jesuit Volunteer, grace@streetroots.org Development Director Sarah Cloud Office Assistant Amber Bielman Reporters Jake Thomas, Alex Zielinski, Nathan Gilles, Sue Zalokar, Ann-Derrick Gaillot Photographers Kristina W right, Christopher Onstott Volunteers Mary Patios, Jan Bayer, Ann Ereline, Vinnie Kinsella, Ann-Derrick Gaillot, Joe Thick, Stacey Heath, Taurin ' Skinner-Macginnis, Bethany Hague, Michelle Holbert, John Lisifka, Raven Canoles, Michelle Breslau, Paula Cracas, Sharron Thompson, John Barker, Mary Locke 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 guides, call 503-228-5657. Resources are also available online at : www.rosecityresource.org. 75c goes directly to the vendor who 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.
