News
Growing up undocumented: These Oregon ‘Dreamers’ beat the odds
They knew their families were different, and they knew that difference meant they had fewer rights than most Americans. They watched as their parents swallowed their pride and went to work for long hours at menial and labor-intensive jobs, never seeming to get ahead and always seeming to miss birthdays. While “the land of opportunity”…
Upzoned and disowned: Author Peter Moskowitz on gentrification
Insufficient income taxes on the rich, cash-starved local governments and opportunistic developers constitute the ingredients for a particularly bitter pill for low-income people: higher rents. So says Peter Moskowitz, who has written a new book exploring gentrification and its impacts on American cities. But what particularly worries him is the fact that young white people…
Victims, survivors can teach us justice, in all its diversity
A few years ago, I worked with kids from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. I was invited to a summer training to lead activities designed to inspire youths’ creative expression around sharing what is beautiful and what is difficult in a way that honors their culture. They were shy, playful, energized – much like most…
Culture
Robert Hoge writes of a beautiful life lived ugly
He was born ugly. How ugly was he? Maybe that sounds like the setup to a joke, but the punch line isn’t funny. He was so ugly his mother wanted to abandon him in the hospital. She said to his father, “Perhaps he’ll die.” In his 2015 book for young readers, "Ugly: My Memoir," Robert…
Opinion
This society cares about safety: A plea for better gun laws
We are at the Lloyd Athletic Club, and the conversation turns to new gun legislation introduced in the Oregon Senate, when one of the people in our group speaks up: “Four of my own cousins were shot to death.” That gets our attention. This turns out to be a story that unfolded over two decades,…
Editorial cartoon: April 28, 2017
Elizabeth Considine — the creator of Street Roots' editorial cartoon, Sheeptoast — was born in Portland and has been drawing since she could hold a pen. She loves theater, poetry, chickens, growing food, and walking her three dogs in the park. “I find inspiration in the strangeness of life and the character of human nature.…
Victims, survivors can teach us justice, in all its diversity
A few years ago, I worked with kids from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. I was invited to a summer training to lead activities designed to inspire youths’ creative expression around sharing what is beautiful and what is difficult in a way that honors their culture. They were shy, playful, energized – much like most…
SR editorial: Yes on Measure 26-194 to level lodging-tax playing field
In 1971, when the city of Portland amended its charter to establish a transient lodging tax, you could hardly blame our policymakers for not anticipating the internet. Obviously, times have changed. As written, the tax applies to lodging in hotels and other short-term rentals, collected through the operators. But today, we can rent rooms and…
Vendor Profiles
Street Roots vendor profile: A worldly view on homelessness, compassion
Drew is a Portland native and, in many ways, a man of the world. “I grew up in Portland and Albuquerque,” Drew said. “I lived here until I was 18, and then I socialized in New Mexico a little bit. I saved up my money ’cause grunge at the time was big and Portland was…
Housing
Upzoned and disowned: Author Peter Moskowitz on gentrification
Insufficient income taxes on the rich, cash-starved local governments and opportunistic developers constitute the ingredients for a particularly bitter pill for low-income people: higher rents. So says Peter Moskowitz, who has written a new book exploring gentrification and its impacts on American cities. But what particularly worries him is the fact that young white people…
