Opinion
Broken windows policing in Portland must end
Trump’s new zero-tolerance policy for immigrants is based on the idea that if a law exists it must be enforced 100 percent. In contrast, Mayor Ted Wheeler announced that he did not want Portland Police engaged in suppressing the #OccupyICEPDX protest – demonstrating there is discretion in how police can enforce the laws. A stunning…
Director’s Desk: Portland has criminalized poverty and mental illness
Now we know: More than half of the people arrested in Portland last year were homeless. Rebecca Woolington and Melissa Lewis reported in The Oregonian on June 27 that unhoused people comprised 52 percent of arrests last year. Kaia Sand is the executive director of Street Roots. You can reach her at kaia@streetroots.org. Follow her…
Vendor Profiles
Street Roots vendor profile: Exceptional work ethic helps C.W. handle anything
C.W. has deep roots with Street Roots. He was one of the earliest vendors in the 1990s when it was a fledgling paper called Burnside Cadillac. “I sold it on the move. It supplied my needs,” he said. C.W. ended up in the Pacific Northwest thanks to the infamous Columbus Day Storm of 1962. He…
Culture
Celebrating a place for healing
Along one edge of Northeast Portland’s Thomas Cully Park, prairie grasses sway and softly crackle in the breeze. Shaved tree trunks, tall and straight, border a graveled circular open space where the local Native American community will have a place to gather for celebrations and ceremony. Thomas Cully Park, more commonly known as Cully Park,…
News
What would it take to Abolish ICE?
“Abolish ICE.” It’s the rallying cry and end goal emanating from Occupy ICE demonstrations in Portland, San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York, San Diego, Los Angeles and Detroit, as well as protests and rallies against Trump administration immigration policies across the country. Oregon lawmakers have joined the burgeoning movement, also calling for an end to U.S.…
Vendor Norm’s miracle dog
I’ve owned a dog of some kind since I was 10 years old. All my dogs were special to me. I loved them all with what I had to give. They were all unique. They all died a natural death. Ten years ago, for the first time ever, I adopted a 7-year-old rescue dog from…
Roe v. Wade is at risk: what that means for Oregon
After a recent string of right-wing rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court was followed by swing-voter Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement announcement, the stability of Roe v. Wade and the future of women’s reproductive freedom in America has been called into question. Laws restricting women’s access to reproductive health care have been passed in numerous states,…
Housing
Director’s Desk: Portland has criminalized poverty and mental illness
Now we know: More than half of the people arrested in Portland last year were homeless. Rebecca Woolington and Melissa Lewis reported in The Oregonian on June 27 that unhoused people comprised 52 percent of arrests last year. Kaia Sand is the executive director of Street Roots. You can reach her at kaia@streetroots.org. Follow her…
