Vendor Profiles
Street Roots vendor profile: Melissa Sayson
Melissa Sayson came to Oregon to pay it forward. “I was in the process of getting spinal surgery,” Melissa says. “They told me I had a 70 percent chance I wouldn’t speak or walk again.” At the same time, her relatives told her about their difficult jobs at a Tualatin home for people with disabilities.…
News
Forest For the Trees is painting Portland’s culture on city’s walls
Since 2013, summers in Portland have have experienced a public art renaissance. Each August, contemporary public murals pop up on once-blank walls throughout the city. The transformation of these spaces happens quickly and quietly but leaves a loud mark. Images such as “Keep Your Chin Up” on Northeast Alberta and 21st Avenue and the purple…
Dan Rather blasts power-hungry media, demands ‘voice to the voiceless’
After more than 60 years in journalism, former CBS News anchor Dan Rather still believes that a free and independent press is the “red beating heart of freedom and democracy.” But news organizations aren’t living up to that standard, he says. Nor are they working hard enough to “give voice to the voiceless.” Currently anchoring…
Johann Hari: ‘the biggest moral issue about the war on drugs’
After spending a hundred years and a trillion dollars fighting the war on drugs, there’s one thing we know for certain: Prohibition isn’t working. In his captivating new book, “Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs,” London-based journalist Johann Hari argues that the very problems the war on drugs…
Opinion
Bicycle Transportation Alliance: Transit partnerships can benefit all
Transportation, getting from point A to point B, is a simple part of people’s daily lives, yet it has a complex impact on our communities, physical health and family budget. The intersection of transportation and poverty can be even more complex. Finding the best mix of public investment, safe streets, affordable housing, economic opportunity and…
Indigenous protectors of a heating planet
When it comes to environmental destruction, Northwest tribes typically have the most to lose. It should come as no surprise, then, that Native Americans of the Northwest have delivered some of the strongest blows to plans that would turn the Northwest into a massive coal chute to Asia. The Columbia River Gorge was once a…
Director’s Desk: In loving memory of Old Portland
I had the pleasure of being asked to read a short eulogy, along with other longtime Portlanders, this past week at a funeral for Old Portland. The funeral was held to pay respects to a Portland that has been lost in the past 20-plus years. It was one of several events in August put together by…
