Street Roots • an. 26-Feb. 1,2018
O p in io n
Looking back, as a milestone approaches
pening a box packed and sealed for 20
described the exhaustion of moving on while
years, I lifted out issues of Burnside
coping with disabilities - a familiar description
V - X Cadillac foxed with age, my byline on
two decades along. And in yet another
the front pages. The mastheads included a
interview, a Burnside Cadillac vendor told me
sketch of a shopping cart containing a bedroll,
she was. selling papers outside Powell’s to
homage to what was colloquially referred to as purchase a new tent after losing everything in
a “Burnside Cadillac.”
a sweep. Criminalizing homelessness has long
I dug out cassette tapes of interviews, a fax
exhausted and traumatized people on the *
(yes faxes!) to a city
streets.
commissioner, city
Late in 1998 I moved to the East Coast to
documents and phone
study poetry with a mentor, Carolyn Forche,
messages from
who connected my loves of poetry and
Burnside Cadillac
investigative journalism. She had written a
editor Sharon Pearson
collection of poetry, “The Country Between
By Raid Sand
sending me off on
Us,” that, through lyric poetry, bore witness
H M nH
assignments.
to the civil war in El Salvador. Most of the
I am in my second
subsequent two decades, I have lived out my
month as executive
aspirations as a poet, always with an
director of Street Roots, but my tenure with
investigative bent, which has looped me back
the newspaper arcs back 20 years earlier
to topics of homelessness and economic
when I was a staff reporter for the Burnside
injustice through my poetry, art and
Cadillac, the street newspaper run by Sharon
community organizing.
Pearson that transformed into Street Roots in
In 1999, Street Roots continued the work of
1999.
the Burnside Cadillac in the same office at
In my mid-20s, while I worked a mix of jobs
12th and Morrison. And in the poetic history
- waiting tables, serving coffee - 1 was always
that comprises Street
writing. I had
Roots, one of Israel
been raised by
Bayer’s earliest roles
two journalists:
was that of “resident
my mom, a
poet.”
Salem
Now, after Israel’s
correspondent
long tenure as
for the
director of Street
Oregonian; my
| Roots, !, come back.Jp
fit - s till a s t r e e t
dad, Salem
newspaper, but now a
bureau chief for
robust weekly sold by
United Press
170 people, and firmly
International. I
lodged in the civic
joke now that
imagination of our
journalism was
city.
my babysitter.
, Executive Editor
After school,-1
Original copies o f The Burnside Cadillac from 1998.
Joanne
Zuhl has
watched news
The newspaper was the precursor to Street Roots.
guided Street Roots
crawl over the
into an award-winning
wire in the state
newspaper committed to intrepid social justice
capitol basement where my father filed his
reporting and connected to the international
stories. I tagged along while my mom
street newspaper movement
conducted interviews. I sat next to courtroom
But still, as in the early days as Burnside
artists and sketched witnesses while my mom
Cadillac, Street Roots takes the old model of
covered trials.
the print newspaper and makes it new and
News was something that was always
urgent.
happening, made all over the world. It was up
Why? Our city sidewalks are still a place
to us to tell i t Who do we listen to? How do
where news is exchanged. Street Roots makes
we know how to listen? How do we tell the
democratic claims on our public spaces. Who
stories of our times?
The Burnside Cadillac introduced me to the do we listen to? How do we know how to
listen? How do we tell the stories of our
news of the streets. I remember Sharon
times? The news is ours to write and read.
Pearson as warm and tough. She absorbed me
And through our vendor program, Street
quickly into the Burnside Cadillac masthead
Roots insists on the value of human
as “staff reporter,” and sent me off on
interaction. Poverty may separate some of us
assignments - police oversight, illegal
from others, but at Street Roots, we produce a
camping, criminalization of homelessness,
newspaper to bring us all together.
affordable housing, a union contract for
Do you have memories of the Burnside
farmworkers. I remember the office on
Cadillac? Were you involved with Street Roots
Southwest 12th Avenue and Morrison Street
as smoke-filled, but I’m not sure if pressrooms during its early days? Did you know Sharon
Pearson? I’d love tp learn your memories.
from movies cloud m y memory.
Next year marks the 20th anniversary of
I look back over some of the stories I wrote
Street Roots (and add a few years before that
interviewing folks Who were homeless, which
for its life as the Burnside Cadillac). We want
frequently involved their experiences of
sweeps. One man accounted for items a fellow to tell the big story of our newspaper and its
vendors. Please email me at kaia@streetroots.
camper lost: “He had bicycles, he had a bunch
org if you have a story to share. We want to
of antique coins, just everything he had
know what you remember.
accumulated for years.” Another man
I 1
DIRECTOR^
- DESS
K aia Sand is the
executive director o f
Street Roots. You can
reach her at
kaia@streetroots. org.
Follow her on
Twitter @mkaiasand
Page 3
. ••••. ■ ■
VMteb
If you would like
M jw ? ' j j
something
contact Executive Editor Joanne Zuhl at
503-228-5657, joanne@streetroots.org.
We ask that alt submissions include the
author’s name and contact information,
if available. ■
■
1 I 11 I ■
Street Roots
1
;
211 NW Davis St. :
Portland, OR 97209 £ £ 1 9 1
H
J
503-228-5657
Fax:503-227-3117
www.streetroots.org
www.news.streetroots.org .
Hours: 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Mon.-Fri, 7:30
a.ro.~2 p,m. Sat. and 7:30-1 p.m. Sun.
Advertising
Interested in advertising in Street Roots? Email
Andrew Hogan at andrew@streetroots.org
Staff
Executive Director Kaia Sand
Executive Editor Joanne Zuhl
joanne@streetroots.org
V e n d o r P r o g r a m d ir e c t o r
Cóle Merkel
cole@streetroots.org
D evelepm eitt'W m ^A nd rérR^àm ""'
andrew@streetroots.org
Senior Staff Reporter Emily Green
Operations Director Sarah Beecroft
Program Assistant Caelin Miltko, Jesuit
Volunteer
Vendor Assistant Scott Jackson, Alex
Gillow-Wiles
Development Assistant Rosemary Wilson
Editorial Producer Monica Kwasnik
Reporters Sarah Hansell, Leonora Ko, Emilly
Prado, Jared Paben, Amanda Waldroupe,
Stephen Quirke, Helen Hill
, Diego Diaz, Arkady Brown
Desmond Hardison
Board of Directors
Chairman Brad Taylor
Vice-Chairman Rachel Langford
Treasurer Heather Stadick
Secretary Dan Jones
Directors Michael Anderson, Sandra Hahn,
John Brown, Nets Johnson and Alison Hallett
Volunteers
Jan Bayer, John Barker, Stacey Heath, Anjali Rathore,
Zoe Klingmann, Dan Jones, Dennis Hogan, Monica
McKune, Susan Wolfe, Lucas Hawthorne, Thomas
Buell Jr., Jason Cohen, Doug Spangle, Susannah
Kamala, Jon Raymond, Diana Richardson, Paul and
Madeline Gefroh, Mary Anne Joyce, Brooke
Anderson, Gillian Floren, Mark Oldani, Bianca Butler,
Alex Cherin, Jenny Farres, Evan Firsick, Camber
Hansen-Karr, Miranda Woods, Henry Brannan,
Megan Smith, Helen Hill, Mary Emerson, Brooke
Anderson, Kathleen McFall, Robb Hengerer, Bronwyn
Miles, Maile Yeats-Rowe, Erin Parsons, Bridget
Brown, Faye Powell, Jon Raymond and Megan
Pickerel-Winer. If you're interested in volunteering
with Street Roots, please submit a volunteer
application at streetroots.org/volunteer. Or you can
call for more information at 503-228-5657.
‘