Vendor Profiles
Vendor Profile: Paul Ortiz
On a cold, spitting December afternoon Paul Ortiz walks from the food carts at Southwest Third Avenue and Stark Street back to the Street Roots office to check his mail and pick up more papers. He moves with long strides but keeps his head up to scan Third Avenue, which is full of holiday shoppers,…
News
Home, sweet anarchist home
In the late 1800s, three families pooled their resources to create Home, an anarchist community on a peninsula in Puget Sound where they embraced radical views and free love. Historian Justin Wadland writes about the radical experiment that went awry. In Feb. 1896, three men constructed a small boat and floated from Tacoma out onto…
More shelter from the storm: SAFES prepares to expand housing opportunities for women
It’s the middle of December and the temperatures are dwindling dangerously close to freezing. It’s about midnight — the time the doors of the Roseland Theater open and the post-concert crowd emerges, wrapping scarves around their necks and shoving hats on their heads. Their excited chatter leaves steam in the air as they filter out…
Captive consumers: Corporations reap big profits on inmate finances, video visitations in Multnomah County
There’s big money to be made in our jails and prisons. Just ask Securus Technologies, Inc. In 2013, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) signed a four-year contract with the Texas-based prison-industry giant, allowing it and two other out-of-state corporations to begin profiting off Multnomah County inmates and their families — charging for services the…
Ivy, weed and murder: The story of Robert Peace
“The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace” by Jeff Hobbs tells the devastating story, to quote the subtitle, of “A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League.” But don’t expect a happily-ever-after ending. After graduating from Yale with distinction in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, Rob Peace returned to Newark, where he…
The new face of homeless veterans
Tina McDowell runs Sgt. McDowell’s Military Relief, a nonprofit started by her late brother-in-law that helps Portland-area veterans connect with social services and escape homelessness. Last fall she noticed an increase in the number of women seeking out her services. She used to get about one call a month from a female, but between August…
Opinion
Ozzy Osborne: A letter to my younger self
Ozzy Osborne — the infamous lead singer of heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath — penned a letter to his younger self as part of a series for Street Roots sister paper, the Big Issue UK. He shares it with readers, as told to Jane Graham. I was a rebellious kid. I didn’t like commitment, I…
Join the celebration of our new weekly publication
Some of the best memories of my life have been made with Street Roots. I could write a book about the many beautiful and tragic stories that I’ve witnessed on the streets. Honestly, there’s nothing more rewarding than watching people come together collectively to better themselves. Some of the most powerful things Street Roots offers…
A new year, a new paper and countless new opportunities
Welcome to the inaugural weekly edition of Street Roots! Many people have asked us how going weekly would change our editorial content. In a way, it won’t change at all. Our aspiration has always been to cover a wide variety of issues important to Oregonians — in depth — and to represent the voices of…
