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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (July 4, 2014)
street roots 2 July 4,2014 Summer has its challenges — and its rewards 3. Become a Street Roots ambassador and help spread the word. Buy an additional Street Roots and introduce the organization to at least one friend or coworker this Being homeless in the summertime summer. Tim ing on your peer network to isn’t any fun. Longer periods of daylight are Street Roots is one of the best ways you can a welcome sign for support the but organization and vendors. many Portlanders, 4. If you are traveling out of towm with for many people on the family or friends, buy an extra copy of Street streets it can mean Roots for the road. Reading Street Roots at going long stretches of By Israel Bayer time without adequate * the airport, train station, on a road trip or by the campfire is bound to spur some great sleep. Typical locations conversation. for people to sleep in 5. If friends or family are visiting from out the winter are often off of town. Let them know what Street Roots is limits due to summer and the concept behind it, and encourage events or simply a more vibrant city atmosphere. The dangers of heat stroke and them to buy a copy if they are visiting Powell’s or other locations where vendors dehydration are real on the Streets. regularly sell. Here are five ways to support vendors Lastly, don’t forget about our upcoming this summer. Street Rdots auction. The auction starts on 1. Water. Water. Water. If you remember it, don’t hesitate to share a bottle or glass of Friday, July 18. It’s the perfect way to support Street Roots and get something water with your favorite neighborhood great in return. Find out more at www. vendor. streetrootsauction.org. 2. Stop and talk to your neighborhood From all of us at Street Roots, we vendor. Introduce yourself, and let the appreciate your readership and support of vendor know what you like and don’t like vendors selling the newspaper. Giving a about the paper. Stay engaged and help us hand up and getting a great read in return is build community. Street Roots provides a otir goal. Thank you for making that safe place for individuals to engage with possible. Happy summer! people on thè streets in a positive atmosphere. treet Roots vendors work hard in the summer. It’s not easy. B Opportunity Initiative a good investment in tomorrow hat a weird and wonderful election system we have here in Oregon. Myriad initiatives and referendums spinning tens of thousands of signatures into ballot measures in a seemingly endless M cycle. This November, one of those initiatives comes from an unlikely place: The Oregon State Treasurer’s office. The Opportunity Initiative would establish an endowment funded by state investments from borrowed money. Debt payments would be made , out of the state’s general hind, but thè prospectus is that the returns on the investment will far Outpace those payments, with money to spare for ' • ■ • ' student aid for higher education and training. Education can be a The goal is that, over passport out oi poverty; time> as this endowment an economic equalizer. builds, more low-income students will have a shot at a higher education or specialized vocational training. And consequently fewer students will be left behind for lack of funds. This i$ critical, wide-angie thinking that we should be applying to many aspects of society. We’ve watched as the cost of housing, food and simply living have increased year after year, to both great profit of some and the detriment of many others. Meanwhile, wages have effectively declined, and middle-wage jobs have not returned to Oregon even six years after the Great Recession dug in its heels. In the absence of a meaningful housing trust fund, supported by our state legislature, safe, stable housing has slipped through the Israel Bayer is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach h im at israel@streetroots.org or follow him on Twitter @israelbayer. LETTERS Suggestions to City Hall for better streets, democracy “...all power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority... ” fingers of thousands of Oregonians. Poverty'is rising with <-o?in?yres59e^^ according to a new county report, and no am ount of patchwork to the safety net will prevent more from falling into the same trap. That’s the bad news, but the good news is we can fix it, and one example of what that might look like is the Opportunity Initiative. The Opportunity Initiative is an attempt to stem the tide on the education gap before it’s too far gone. Oregon ranks 47th in the nation in terms of our per capita contributions to education, according to the state treasurer’s office. Our statewide investment has declined while individual costs have skyrocketed. Such an imbalance can have a domino effect — inadequate education, stagnant employment opportunities, a declining labor market and on downward. The opportunity to be trained and educated well for a career and gainful employment shouldn’t be a luxury of the wealthy. It can be a passport out of poverty; an economic equalizer. But today, higher education is pulling out of teach from even middle-class families, ever widening the gap, with many graduating with a lifetime’s worth of crippling debt. This is not a perfect solution to the education funding mess, nor is it thè only key to correcting the economic imbalance we live with across this country. It’s one proposal with great potential for years to come. — Oregon C onstitution, Article I, Section Ì 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 8w mission Street Roots creates income opportunities for ' people experiencing homelessness and poverty by produdnganewspaperandothermediathatare catalysts for tndwkiial and social change ' Street Roots publishes every two weeks, bunching on Fridays, arid is available exclusively through our street vendors or by subscription. We are proud members of the International Network of Street o E -PATRICK KANE Portland Boari of Birectors V end« ' israe^streetrooKorg Managing Editor Joanne Zuhl Bruce Anderson (Chairman), Michael Anderson {Vice- chairman), Heather Stadick (Treas.), Eddy Barbosa (Sec.), Rich Rodgers, Brad Taylor, Leo Rhodes, Nora Coon, - ;. Darren Alexander, Amber Bielman ' eachandsellthem for$1,keepingthe75cenfcin Vendor Ceordinater Cole Merkel Volunteers Executive Director Israel Bayer cole®$treetroots,org Sarah Beecroft Operations Director Program Assistant Grace Ba di k, Jesuit Volunteer, grace@streetroots.org Development D irector Sarah Cloud Office Assistant Am ber Bielman Street Roots 211 NW Davis St. Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 Fax:503-227-3117 streetroots.org news.streetroots.org Bgortiand’s streets and sidewalks are crumbling. This indisputable fact has recently consumed our city’s political discourse, as pundits and policymakers debate how best to tax we the people to pay for critically-important infrastructure. As I’ve watched this debate unfold, I’ve become more convinced than ever that the debate in City Hall totally misses the mark,, Portland’s fundamental challenge is, as with Mayor Hales’ and Commissioner Novick’s “street fee” proposal, a top-down administration , that irresponsibly wastes taxpayer dollars, while ignoring the needs and the will of our communities. What follows are a few commonsense solutions to the challenges we face, which not only use public funding in a more responsible way, but also make our democracy stronger: 1. To ensure that the city is repairing our streets without breaking the bank, all street repair projects must be subject to an open bidding process, with the Portland Bureau of Transportation competing with any interested party to provide high-quality repairs at a low cost This will make PBOT a more accountable, more transparent institution, and will ensure that we do not waste a single cent of taxpayer money. 2. The city should perform preventative repairs on our streets before a given problem requires extensive repairs, which ,xaii^frfiiLtaksj^flsid££ahl£^xBe.and lead. Jo significant inconvenience for communities. Some jurisdictions have had great success at repairing cracks and other minor problems in roadways by pouring rubber or similar materials into pavement gaps, which can extend a road’s life span while cutting costs. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, our incredible network of neighborhood associations must be able to exert greater autonomy over their own communities. Specifically on streets with particularly low traffic, neighborhoods and their community representatives should be able to manage their own neighborhood watch programs outside of the city’s toxic public safety bureaucracy. Further, neighborhoods should have the power to decide how low-traffic streets are utilized and maintained based on their own community standards. It’s long past time to reinvest in our neighborhoods, and give our communities the space, resources, and - most importantly - the freedom to control their own destinies. Only by bringing power back to the people can we meet the needs of all Portlanders. Reporters Jake Thomas, Alex Zielinski, Nathan Gilles, Sue Zalokar, Ann-Derrick Gaillot Photographers Kristina W rig h t Christopher Onstott, Adrienne Burkett Jan Bayer, Elizabeth Tierney, Rob Shryock. Ann- Dec rick Gaillot, Stacey Heath, Vinnie Kinsella, Michelle Breslau, Paula Craces, John Barker, Mary Locke, Lucas Manfield, JessieCarver, Cherie Vedal, Sam Bouman, Isaac Hastings Hauss, Emily Green, Tom Ray, Sarah : Hansell, Alana Kansaku-Sarmiento, Kyle Craven, Audrey Benison, Crystal Elinksi Street Roots Rose City Resource Street Roots publishes the Rose City Resource, a comprehensive booklet o f services for people experiencing homelessness and poverty. To inquire about getting guides, call 503-228-5657. Resources are online at www.rosecityrèsource.org. Street Roots vendors buy the newspapers for 25 cents our vendors, we receive additional support from donations and in-kind contributions. 75 goes directly to the vendor who sold you the paper 2 § c goes toward printing costs Vendor orientations are at 1 p.m. every M onday Wednesday and Friday at the Street Roots o ffice ’
