Opinion
Call to action: Tell TriMet to honor our citizens!
We have less than 24-hours! Let's make it count. TriMet is proposing raising the fares for Honored Citizen passes from $1 to $1.25. Honored Citizens are people who are 65 or older or on Medicaid, as well as those experiencing mental or physical disabilities. Sixty-three percent of Honored Citizens live in poverty. TriMet estimates it…
Commentary: She’s the head of the household, and she’s only 17
Susan is an attractive, well-spoken young woman who works as a receptionist at a small trucking company. She is the sole support of a family of three and is a full-time student with solid plans for the future. Her two dependents have medical issues and do not work; as a result, Susan’s paycheck is…
Director’s Desk: Everything we do is for the vendors.
Everything Street Roots does is with the idea of looking at the world through a lens of love. Regardless of where you come from, or where you’re going — Street Roots strives to give people a sense of belonging. The mission of Street Roots is to create income opportunities for people experiencing homelessness and poverty…
Editorial: Kudos and expectations for recent budget proposals on housing
Mayor Charlie Hales and the rest of City Council continue to send a message that housing matters. In his 2015-16 proposed budget, the mayor has allocated an additional $5.9 million on housing. This comes out of a nearly $50 million surplus the city has this year. It includes funding for year-round women’s shelter, homeless veterans,…
News
Kay Reid: A neighbor and a storyteller
“Stories From Our Village” reads the banner on the front of the 43-page booklet. Inside, speakers named Pacheco and Gazai, Chavez and McIntosh, Ananouko, Prokhorov, and Mitchell tell first-person stories from the diverse North Portland community that is New Columbia. Some tell of coming from the other side of the world: I was expecting life…
Lifting Barriers: Basic Rights Oregon
Advocacy group Basic Rights Oregon sees this as a “transformational moment” in the fight for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. Gay marriage is legal in Oregon and 36 other states, and the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on a case in June that could bring marriage equality to the entire union…
Portland, the DOJ and the slow moving gears of mental health services
Local hospitals are going full steam ahead with a plan to merge psychiatric care services into a single emergency treatment center – which the city is touting as the answer to a neglected requirement in Portland’s agreement with the Department of Justice, even as stakeholders say it doesn’t actually meet that requirement. And police reform…
Planet Portland: New beginning
Geovani Rodriguez was 21 when he sailed away from Cuba on a homemade raft. He wasn’t afraid of the voyage, he says, even though his younger brother, Herminio, died when he left the island nation on a similar vessel just four months earlier. Rodriguez grew up in what was once the beautiful city of Havana,…
