Opinion
Street Roots editorial: Bold actions needed on housing emergency
Street Roots was glad to hear that Mayor Charlie Hales declared a state of emergency on housing and homelessness in our community this week. The question now becomes: Does the mayor and other elected officials have the capacity and political will to seize the moment? The declaration is a valuable and important statement. It provides…
Groundswell pushes housing issues to the forefront in Portland
It may be the first time in recent memory that affordable housing and homelessness will play a leading role in the 2016 election cycle. On one side of this issue is a business community fed up with homelessness. On the other side is a community filled with anxiety and fear over housing instability. With rising…
News
Planet Portland: Rebel heart
With her labret, tongue and eyebrow piercings and jet-black, turquoise-streaked hair, Delaram Moradpour, known as “Dela,” might have blended seamlessly into Portland’s 1980s punk scene or Seattle’s ensuing grunge era. But she wasn’t an American teenager. Moradpour was stomping around the capital of religiously conservative Iran in her U.S. Army boots and modesty-law-breaking ensembles. Sometimes…
Dismaland
Britain’s newest theme park, “Dismaland,” is now open, with a decrepit castle, a merry-go-round horse set to be cooked and model boats on a pool full of refugees, all courtesy of British street artist Banksy. The “Bemusement Park” in Weston-super-Mare, an English seaside town near Banksy’s home city of Bristol, is tagged as “The UK’s…
Ellen Rogers: A voice in the dark
Ellen Rogers, a tall woman with straight, shoulder length red hair and clear green eyes, greets me at the door of her snug home on a quiet residential street. We sit at the dining room table that doubles as her work space and she calmly tells stories that are at once horrific and hopeful. A…
How I became Johnny Rotten
John Lydon is King of the Outsiders. Squadron leader of the awkward squad. A punk ploughman with a taste for lonesome furrows. “From birth onwards” he has felt that way: a shy boy too nervous to speak much, growing up in north London poverty — and now, a legend self-exiled to Los Angeles, where he…
Vendor Profiles
Vendor Harry Richards moves inside
Vendor Harry Richards got his apartment keys this past week and has moved inside. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, Street Roots!” Harry said. “Through my own hard work, I’m back inside! Street Roots supported me and kept me in papers when I had hard times. You supported me all the way. You gave me…
