News
The legacy of Old Town Portland: An illustrated history
THE BINDLE STIFFS The early years of the 20th century were the golden years of the hobo. The railroad was still expanding westward, and the demand for unskilled labor was at its peak. Transient men arrived in great numbers to the booming new metropolis of Portland. Men were needed to load and unload railcars and…
Lillian and Lena: Two black women from early-1900s Portland
A CENTURY AGO, Lena Smith and Lillian Allen were fixtures in Portland’s North End, an area that enveloped what is today’s Old Town neighborhood. While the setting of their existence may be well-known in folklore for its saloons, flophouses and tales of Shanghaied sailors, what’s lesser understood is that the North End was also the…
The Oshu Nippo: Translating Portland’s Japanese newspaper into English
JAPANESE IMMIGRANTS who came to Oregon in the early 1900s stayed connected with one another and the rest of the world by reading the local Oshu Nippo newspaper. The all-Japanese daily was published out of its headquarters at Northwest Second Avenue and Davis Street in the old Merchant Hotel building, which was the heart of Northwest…
What became of Portland’s queer hub
PORTLAND, 1964 and 1965: Mayor Terry Schrunk declared war on bars frequented by gays and lesbians following a period where the city and police allowed these establishments to operate without attempts to close them. This allowance, however, was only in order to surveil and contain them, said Peter Boag, an author, historian and Washington State…
Remembering Tia Plympton, a mentor for homeless youths
Tia Plympton, a lifelong advocate for homeless youths in Portland, passed away Tuesday, Jan. 6, at the age of 74. She was a revolutionary spirit who stood for and with homeless youths for decades. She joined Outside In in 1995, after being a project coordinator at Cascade AIDS Project and head of Portland’s chapter of…
Camp sweep comes as city takes over on ODOT land
On Wednesday, Jan. 10, David Samson called the Street Roots office for his fiancé, Bettyjo Griffiths. His message: Come quickly, their camp was being swept. Before Bettyjo left, I asked if she would like me to come witness. “Yes,” she said, and I soon followed. There are camps all around the city about which I…
County steps in to help tenants facing eviction at Lincoln Hotel
The 31 low-income tenants facing eviction from the Lincoln Hotel in downtown Portland have found an ally in Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury. Before a Jan. 10 press conference announcing the development of a single resident occupancy-style apartment complex, Kafoury met with Marc Jolin, the director of the Joint Office of Homeless Services, and Shannon Callahan, the interim…
When Portland’s Old Town was the North End
“There it was that sailors rested from drunkenness, or held carousal, and slouching men of the woods played greasy cards on a greasy table. Only the ghost of laughter walks where once the nickelodeons blared their tunes into the night. It is the summary and long-delayed reformation of Burnside street. It is the finish of…
Vendor Profiles
Street Roots vendor profile: A champion for diabetes awareness
In March 2013, Sparky Reese started going blind. “My right eye was going crazy, like those glarey mirrors at carnivals,” he said. It, perhaps, wasn’t a surprise. Sparky had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 1991. Then, for more than 20 years, he’d mostly ignored doctors’ recommendations, drinking lots of soda and not getting…
Housing
Oregon renters bring lobbying power to 2019 legislative session
Oregon Democratic lawmakers are crafting one of the most ambitious legislative packages concerning affordable housing and tenants’ rights in the country – with intentions to propose a statewide cap on rent increases, the elimination of single-family zoning in favor of denser development and a prohibition on no-cause evictions. And in the House, they have the…
County steps in to help tenants facing eviction at Lincoln Hotel
The 31 low-income tenants facing eviction from the Lincoln Hotel in downtown Portland have found an ally in Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury. Before a Jan. 10 press conference announcing the development of a single resident occupancy-style apartment complex, Kafoury met with Marc Jolin, the director of the Joint Office of Homeless Services, and Shannon Callahan, the interim…
Culture
What became of Portland’s queer hub
PORTLAND, 1964 and 1965: Mayor Terry Schrunk declared war on bars frequented by gays and lesbians following a period where the city and police allowed these establishments to operate without attempts to close them. This allowance, however, was only in order to surveil and contain them, said Peter Boag, an author, historian and Washington State…
Opinion
Camp sweep comes as city takes over on ODOT land
On Wednesday, Jan. 10, David Samson called the Street Roots office for his fiancé, Bettyjo Griffiths. His message: Come quickly, their camp was being swept. Before Bettyjo left, I asked if she would like me to come witness. “Yes,” she said, and I soon followed. There are camps all around the city about which I…
