Past Issues :: 2006 November 1 :: Contents
Cover Story
The People's Defense
Alejandro Queral, executive director for the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center, patrols the front lines of Portland's battles for human rights.
Editorial
Portland's progressive legacy dies at "sit/lie"
Letters to the Editor
Hypocrisy toward homelessness wrapped up in fear
City's harassment leaves street musician queazy
Buy red to keep homeless from turning blue
Street Poetry
Poems
Columns
Director's Desk
November 1 marks the beginning of Street Roots' winter fund drive. Our goal is to raise $20,000 for two important aspects of the organization: the vendor program and the newspaper.
Hungry in Portland
Journey begins among a familiar but far away community
An affluent suburb in Chicago is a strange place to begin my project, "Hungry Neighbors." But next week I visit Street Wise, Chicago's street paper. And I plan to visit at least 10 cities this year where street newspapers are sold by homeless and/or needy vendors.
Michael Hopcroft
A personal response to the death of James Chasse
Jr.
The Devil take the hindmost. A vital, unspoken creed of American society — that those who achieve great things are the ones who do not notice those who fall behind. This is James Chasse's story, and mine.
Monica Goracke
SAFE workgroup's proposals reflect collective compromise
For the past five months, I have been participating in a workgroup convened by Mayor Tom Potter to address liveability and public safety in Portland. The workgroup is getting ready to present its recommendations to the City Council in mid-December.
Street Culture
Street Roots launches new Advisory Panel
Street Roots wants to be a real force in the community surrounding poverty. And to be honest, we can't do it alone. So we've asked people to come on board and share their expertise with us.
Out Key Road, Part X
It was not easy sleeping in that slave galley of a [prison] dorm. Cleanup in the middle of the night. And of course the sounds universal to any such dorm: snoring, coughing, moaning, shouting — though there wasn't a whole lot of screaming nightmares. Most of the screaming was inside by then.
News
Wages not keeping up with hunger, basic living needs
The area's strong economy is producing jobs, but many of them don't pay enough to cover basic living costs. That's a major finding of the 2006 Hunger Factors Assessment, a biennial survey of emergency food box recipients in Oregon and Clark County, Wash.
Sidebar: Results of the 2006 Oregon Food Bank Hunger Survey
Sample statistics:
- Seventy-eight percent of recipient households reported income of less than 100 percent of the Federal Poverty Line.
- Nearly two-thirds of the new jobs created in Oregon in the past three years pay less than $30,000 a year.
- The annual cost of full-time care for a toddler in Oregon is now $4,000 more than tuition and fees for an undergraduate at the University of Oregon.
Street News Service
New Orleans' efforts to rebound heartening, but unfulfilled
The United Nations has blasted the poor U.S. response to Katrina. A U.N. Human Rights Committee report concluded: "The Committee ... remains concerned about information that poor people, and in particular African-Americans, were disadvantaged by the rescue ... and continue to be disadvantaged under the reconstruction plans."
Boston's new can compactors leave "canners" feeling dumped
Canners [people who collect cans and bottles for a living] working in downtown Boston are concerned about the recently installed solar-powered trash compactors in the Hub.