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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 2014)
street roots 6 Feb. 14, 2014 A Culinary Fundraiser for Transition Projects Vendor Tony Boone is on the beat BY S A M BO UM AN C O N T R IB U T IN G W R ITER Thursday, February 20 6:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Urban S tu d io . 335 NW Davis Street , Transition^ Projects * Tickets avafâ&^fet- 7 soupfottiiesoulpdx.com CENTRAL CITY s r z ir jT itr ~t t i -Ending homelessness and achieving self-sufficiency - now roasting and distributing craft coffee. Available fo r purchase at: New Seasons Market Green Zebra Grocery Food Front Cooperative Grocery Chuck's Produce C all us. for office coffee ácccuq¿$ 1 > êOS-784-9263 z CENTRAL CITY CO FFEE w ww.œntialçltycpnœLn.org , ■ fŒeCpofcœm/C^trcaOty Coffee n the chilly afternoon when we spoke, Tony Boone was about to go to Canby for three days where he has a job making clothes at an old friend’s house. He doesn’t think of it as work though. “It’s a vacation,” he tells me. Over the next few days, as Portland freezes to the ? boneand the. snow piles up, I wonder if Tony knew something I don’t He talks again and again about the mix of luck, vigilance a Tony Boone and positivity that has enabled him to survive on the streets. “I’ve been hom eless before, and I’ve gotten off the streets before,” Boone says. “So I try to keep a positive attitude every day and just keep pluggin’ along.” He had just found out earlier in the d a y ! th at one of his daughters will be soon moving to Portland from Wisconsin. “I’ve | got good things on the horizon.” Tony was born ill Albany, Oregon, but followed his father’s M arine postings all over the country — Oregon to Virginia to California to Tennessee — before his parents divorced and he settled with his m other in ^pp^ton^W isc^H e h a d t h r e e d a u g h t e r s ^ tn e re a n ^ w a sm a n a o u to T p riso r^ y n is ^ 20s. | | X -; “I decided Something’s gotta change, I gotta get outta here. I promised my daughter I wouldn’t go back to prison, so I can’t go back to prison.” He caught a bus to Los Angeles and spent a few years hitchhiking up and down the c o ast He estim ates that he made the. round trip between Eugene and San Diego more than 50 times. Eventually, in the P H O T O BY C O LE M ER K EL w inter of 1995, he ended up in Portland and it became his hometown. For the m ost part he m aintains a positive outlook despite the stress and loneliness that can be a large part of hom eless life in <the_city. He began selling Street Roots last summer, after he b ro k em sleg an cn o sth iis job and home. He was flying signs when another vendor told him he should try selling the paper. He feels lucky to have stumbled on his current turf — Zupan’s M arket at Southeast 34th Avenue and Belmont Street — and was able to establish himself there. “I got my bike, the trailer, this jacket, all from custom ers,” he tells me, pointing out his gear in front of the Street Roots office. He credits his easy approach for his ; success. “I try to talk to people, say, ‘Hey, how yà doin’, but without actually asking thein if they want a paper. It seem s to work out fine.” When I ask him if he has anything he’d like to add, Tony says “1 need a drum. T hat’s the thing I m iss the most. I’ve been playing the drum s since my earliest memory. I can play any kind of drum .” His last drum, a Remo Signature Series djembe, was stolen while he slept. He laughs at the nerve of the thief who crept up and cut the strap attaching the drum to his backpack, and then shrugs it off. “But, you know, I’m a heavy sleeper.” VENDOR WORK ADS Kristina Wright | Real Estate Agent SellmooreRealty 503/479,5764 Kristina^PortlandHomeGalxom Bicycle delivery by Farmer Shaun Small packages $2/mile Large packages $5/mile Extreme feats and Impossible tasks on a case-by-case basis. Bicycle detailing $25/blke. 971-222-9938. Tike" on Facebook @ Portland Home Gal * a kncwtedgeabte matketer • with a designer's eye a professional photographer □3 À and a responsive agent Need a worker? Can do almost anything, light or heavy. References supplied. $10 an hour, 4-hour min. Ask for Cassidy Morse, 503-228-5657 (SR office); or 503-875-6504 (cell). AO wrapped into one p e r s il 1 ^ Ä |r T 6 7 4 - 2 6 4 2 ) m ffa c e e p te d |y Farmers’ Market, peoples.coop £ Answers to puzzles on page 15 2 9 3 4 1 6 7 8 5 6 7 4 9 5‘ 8 1 1 8 5 2 7 3 9 5 8 1 6 9 7 2 7 4 9 8 3 2 6 3 2 6 5 4 1 8 2 3 4 6 3 4 5 1 7 9 9 3 8 7 6 4 5 1 2 1 5 2 3 8 9 4 6 7 4 6 7 1 2 5 3 9 8 i Vendors are regular contributors to Street Roots’content, as columnists, poets and artists. for your favorite vendor’s writings in ■ , T • edition o f the paper.
