News
Street Roots pop quiz: Eric Zimmerman
After graduating from the University of Portland, Eric Zimmerman entered the Army and Oregon Army National Guard as a second lieutenant. In 2009, he was deployed to Iraq, serving as a platoon leader with distinction, earning the Bronze Star Medal and the Combat Action Badge. After serving overseas, Zimmerman returned to Multnomah County — first working…
Street Roots pop quiz: Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson is an active community leader and volunteer, and is a partner in a small multifamily housing and medical clinic development company. He is known for helping get the Sellwood Bridge project on track and leading a multiyear effort to secure stable and dedicated funding for the Multnomah County Library. He is active on…
Street Roots pop quiz: Mel Rader
Mel Rader is a strong progressive dedicated to social justice and defending the environment. He has a decade of experience as a political advocate championing public health and economic opportunity, and he runs Upstream Public Health, a nonprofit that researches and advocates best practices to address climate change, health equity and food access. Rader is running for…
Street Roots pop quiz: Sharon Meieran
Sharon Meieran is an emergency physician, a former lawyer, a community and public health advocate and a mother. She is also the medical director for the Oregon Foundation for Reproductive Health. She sits on the Community Oversight Advisory Board and is a board member of the Unity Behavioral Health Center. Meieran is running for Multnomah County…
Street Roots pop quiz: Marisha Childs
Marisha Childs grew up in Troutdale in the early 1980s and has lived in District 1 for the past 11 years. She attended Oregon Institute of Technology and graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law. She is a mom, a lawyer, a runner and a small-business owner. Childs is a four-year member of the…
Ian Brennan: Sounds of another world
I an Brennan has worked to bring music diversity to the ears of listeners around the globe since he began making field recordings in San Francisco in the early 1990s. His first journey to another culture was with his wife, documentarian Marilena Delli, when they went to Rwanda. Delli’s mother was visiting her native land…
The prosecutor: the most powerful person in the room
Prosecutors wield a tremendous amount of power in the courtroom, and in an effort to keep it that way, they systematically block attempts to make meaningful reforms to the criminal justice system, states an American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon report released Wednesday. Their commitment to the status quo contradicts widespread consensus across party lines…
Multnomah County Commission candidates take Street Roots’ pop quiz
Street Roots asked the 2016 Multnomah County commissioner candidates 13 questions — a mix of short answer, yes or no, and multiple choice. The following District 1 candidates participated in Street Roots’ pop quiz: Marisha ChildsSharon MeieranMel RaderBrian WilsonEric Zimmerman * District 1 candidates Wes Soderback and Ken Stokes did not respond. * District 3 candidate…
Opinion
A message from the director: We can’t stop! We won’t stop!
Wow! What a spring for Street Roots! Newspapers are flying. Our advocacy is in overdrive. The Rose City Resource Guide is saving lives. We know readers care about helping people. Street Roots believes in the power of community to combat trauma and homelessness. Street Roots vendors are making more money than ever selling the newspaper. That…
The job of protecting Oregonians’ health isn’t over
Take all the people who live in Eugene and Salem, Oregon’s second- and third-largest cities. Add to that the population of Corvallis, the state’s tenth-largest city. What do you get? You get about the same number of Oregonians — some 380,000 — who are at risk because they don’t have health insurance. Yes, the problem…
Director’s Desk: Lawsuit punctuates fight to sleep in peace
Call it irony, or possibly a simple twist of fate, that Jack Tafari, an iconic leader who helped co-found Dignity Village and fight against Portland’s camping ban, passed away on the same day that Portland Business Alliance and others filed suit against the city of Portland for camping policies that allow for tent camping. Besides…
Vendor Profiles
Street Roots vendor profile: ‘I wear my badge proudly’
It has been a long road, but Shayne Methvin is creating a better life for himself. He was born at Emanuel Hospital in Portland, began reading around 3 years old and attended Chapman Elementary School. “Grade school was easy for me,” Shayne said. “I loved to write, and I loved to read.” His mother was…
