News
Hot for pot
It’s going to happen. Marijuana’s legalization is inevitable. But inevitable does not have a time line, as Oregon voters demonstrated in 2012 when they turned down Measure 80, a ballot initiative that would have legalized weed. In the same election, voters in Colorado and Washington made history by approving measures that ended prohibition on marijuana.…
Kids these days
I don’t know exactly what happened to drive that young man in Aurora to shoot those people, but I do know that many people like him suffer while undiagnosed and untreated,” said Jess Shatkin, an associate professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at New York University. July 20, marked one year since James Eagan Holmes…
Surviving homelessness in the mountains of Austria
The following column won top honors among vendor essays at the International Network of Street Paper Awards 2013 in July. It is written by a vendor with Street Roots’ sister paper Apropos in Austria. I’m going my way. What is this day going to bring? Somebody buys a street paper from me. I also get…
On holiday
Politically conscious Americans have an ambivalent relationship to tourism. On the one hand, many of us love to travel to foreign countries — if we can afford it. We deplore the fear of strangers that keeps some Americans at home. On the other hand, many of us seek out places that have been unspoiled —…
Conference of street papers digs into challenges, opportunities
Greece’s economy is still in shambles as the country faces record unemployment amidst austerity cuts. But in Athens, one street paper is serving as a life raft of employment for more than 140 men and women, some who have been unemployed for four years or more. Shedia was founded less than a year ago and…
Poetry & Art
Soup Can Sam: July 19-Aug 1, 2013
Leo (July 23-Aug. 22) You can either cut back on the amount of sh*t that’s around you or lower the speed of the fan. The rest is out of your control. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) If you find yourself embroiled and exposed with a local yet high profile politician don’t resign just so that his…
Opinion
Nick Fish: A Preservation Story
For the past five years, I had the privilege of leading the Portland Housing Bureau. In June, Mayor Hales gave me a new set of bureau assignments, and I passed the baton to Dan Saltzman. Last year in this newspaper, I reported that our house is bigger, the foundation is stronger, and the front door…
City Hall plays the wrong hand with street sweeps
Running the City of Portland is hard work. But being able to work in a collaborative effort toward a common goal shouldn’t be. Mayor Charlie Hales boldly declared last week that enforcing sidewalk laws against people experiencing homelessness — and we assume the mentally ill — wasn’t about homelessness at all. “This is about lawlessness,”…
