Opinion
Oregon’s corporate income tax puts lottery to shame
If you want a glimpse of the shameful state of Oregon’s corporate income tax, look no further than your nearest bar or restaurant with a video lottery machine. Walk inside and you might see someone sitting alone, gambling for hours until the machine has vacuumed their wallet clean. Such players make up a small slice…
Director’s Desk: Time for change in fight against heroin
Last week, Street Roots, along with the NAACP of Oregon and the Mental Health Association of Portland, hosted a social justice mayoral forum on police accountability, mental health and homelessness. Street Roots asked mayoral candidates Jules Bailey, Ted Wheeler and Sarah Iannarone if they would be open to looking at a safe injection site for…
News
Streetopia: Art in the face of gentrification
In April 2011, when San Francisco risked losing one of its most valued residents, Twitter, to Silicon Valley, the city rolled out a new six-year payroll tax incentive to tech companies willing to make their homes in the Tenderloin or Mid-Market districts of the city. Twitter decided to stay, and soon companies such as Square,…
Brown is the new white in U.S. politics, progressive researcher says
If today’s political scene has left you feeling less than hopeful, consider the work of Steve Phillips. Phillips is a civil rights lawyer and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who has analyzed the body electorate and its major population growth among people of color. His book, “Brown is the New White: How…
Protest planned against Nike deal with human-rights violator Brunei
As the U.S. ambassador to Brunei speaks at a Nike-sponsored event in Portland, demonstrators will gather outside to protest Nike’s recent trade deal with the Southeast Asian nation. Brunei’s dictator, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, decreed death by stoning against LGBTQ individuals and unmarried women who become pregnant shortly after he imposed Sharia Law in his country in…
‘Spread the love’: The ethos of Timber Jim
Despite the occasionally pilfered vegetable, Jim Serrill refuses to build a fence around his community garden. The garden, he said, is there for anyone who needs it. Ask people who know him, and they’ll say the same is true of Serrill. Serrill is best known among soccer fans as Timber Jim, the Portland Timbers’ former…
Vendor Profiles
Street Roots vendor profile: Norm Chamberlin
Norm Chamberlin and his dog, Heidi, are goodwill ambassadors for their community and on the street. “Heidi provides good therapy for me and others,” Norm said. “When somebody (in the apartment building) comes downstairs in the morning and they’re looking kind of wrung through the mill, I’ll offer them a ‘Heidi fix.’ They’ll hold Heidi…
