News
Echoes of the Black Panthers post-Ferguson
Before “Black Lives Matter” and “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” were chanted by activists across the U.S. “Black is Beautiful” and “Power to the People” echoed through the same streets as activists of the mid-20th century fought against the same issues of police brutality and racial and housing injustice that we as a country face today.…
Officials boost efforts to prevent opiate abuse, overdoses in Oregon
It took Oregon practitioners only six months to write more than 1.4 million prescriptions for hydrocodone and oxycodone, according to Oregon Prescription Drug Monitoring Program’s report encompassing the first half of 2015. “Oregon and other states have realized they’re actually prescribing way more of these drugs than they did 10 years ago,” said Multnomah County…
Joan Armatrading: An ‘everyday girl’ living a life of unusual proportions
In a recording career spanning four decades, Joan Armatrading has released 18 studio albums, has been a three-time Grammy Award nominee and has toured the world extensively. She is in the final leg of her last major world tour, touring solo for the first time in her entire career. She was born in the Caribbean…
Sugar Shack deal a sweet opportunity for Portland’s Cully neighborhood
Search Google Maps for “Cully,” and the Sugar Shack is one of only a handful of businesses that appear in the northeast Portland neighborhood. The irony is not lost on anyone familiar with the profound evolution that Cully, just south of the airport, has experienced in the past few years. The changes — from advocating…
Opinion
Nick Fish: The state of our public utilities
In February 2014, Portland was hit with a severe winter storm – snow, ice and freezing rain. Most Portlanders hunkered down at home, waiting it out. The Portland Water Bureau worked around the clock to respond to more than 1,000 calls for service – four times the normal rate. We repaired nine water main breaks,…
Portland must choose to end displacement injustice
Portland’s African-American community knows well that the repeated displacement of our people from their homes and neighborhoods is not an accident. It is the result of explicit political decisions that have been made over the course of many decades. However, instead of continuing to cause and allow mass displacement, we can change course and rebuild…
Vendor Profiles
Street Roots vendor profile: Wallace Outwater
From Portland, catch the bus to Seattle, hop on a boat and head more than 2,000 miles northwest, and you will make it to Wallace Outwater’s hometown. Wallace proudly said, “I am an Inupiaq Eskimo from Kotzebue, Alaska. That’s 28 miles above the Arctic Circle.” As you might imagine, Wallace has stories that make…
