Current Issue :: May 6, 2008 :: Contents
Cover Story
Alien Boy
On Sept. 17, 2006, in a tony Pearl District neighborhood, in the sights of police officers who saw something they viewed as “odd,” James P. Chasse Jr. stepped out of time. He was no longer in the Portland of his youth, and he wouldn’t live to see the city that might someday come to understand him. In that moment, he was chased, tackled, Tasered, hogtied, taken to jail, and placed in a holding cell. Less than half an hour later he was dead.
Editorial
Will the captain please step forward?
Column
Lessons accumulate with each nation we pass through
There are times when it gets overwhelming and you have to reach down and pull up something stronger than you to keep going. Keep walking, keep listening, keep praying. “Your strength will come from others,” we are told time and time again, and that much is true.
Book Review
Shot... strangled... unknown
My favorite part in Street Roots, or any other homeless paper, so-called, is the poetry section. Poetry by homeless and formerly homeless, amounting to a record of experience. You get the unvarnished truth there. Not great literature, but a record from the heart. Honest to a fault, almost.
News
The woman behind Portland’s 10-year plan to end homelessness takes a new position
After more than seven years of working at the city’s Bureau of Housing and Community Development, and being the lead staffer for Portland and Multnomah County’s 10-year plan to end homelessness, Heather Lyons is moving on.
Fish: Don’t let Section 8 housing slip away
Nick Fish is seeking public office for a third time as Commissioner No. 2 , the seat vacated last month by Erik Sten. For the past 20 years, Fish's day job has been as an attorney, and he is currently a partner at Meyer & Wyse law firm in Portland. Fish also serves as a commissioner and vice-chairman of the Housing Authority of Portland.
Tighter identification requirements pose more obstacles
A day at the Department of Motor Vehicles isn’t a picnic for anyone, but it can be especially trying for people like Keith Butler, who has been homeless for about 25 years. Butler says he went a decade without a state-issued identification card. “I kept running into the same wall,” he said.
