Culture
Relaunching his Portland police novel, Kent Anderson laments worsened social climate
The scene is Portland, Ore. A largely African-American community has been laid-off, bulldozed and forgotten, its neighborhoods awash in poverty and drugs. The police, even according to one of its own officers, are “an army of occupation.” In the bigger picture, both cops and citizens are powerless, political pawns in the rigged game of capitalism. …
Short film shows how Eastmoreland neighborhood saved its giant trees
In 2015, the fate of three towering sequoias in Portland’s Eastmoreland neighborhood encapsulated the city’s push-pull between development and nature. These enormous trees, dating back to the mid-19th century, were doomed to the chainsaw of developer Vic Remmer to make way for a luxury home. But the neighborhood pushed back, building a momentum that ultimately…
News
Relaunching his Portland police novel, Kent Anderson laments worsened social climate
The scene is Portland, Ore. A largely African-American community has been laid-off, bulldozed and forgotten, its neighborhoods awash in poverty and drugs. The police, even according to one of its own officers, are “an army of occupation.” In the bigger picture, both cops and citizens are powerless, political pawns in the rigged game of capitalism. …
Life on the Streets: The proliferation of private guards
Private security guards are ubiquitous these days. They silently survey the public in stores, on sidewalks, in schools, on campuses, in malls, at apartments and in hotel lobbies. For 20 years, Street Roots vendors have watched the proliferation of private security forces on our streets, and they have strong opinions about their actions in the…
Solitary confinement suit against Oregon DOC dismissed in federal court
A lawsuit filed in April 2018 on behalf of two Oregon prisoners alleging unconstitutional use of solitary confinement by Oregon Department of Corrections was dismissed in federal court last week, but it’s not over yet, according to the plaintiffs’ attorney. Juan Chavez, a civil rights lawyer with the Oregon Justice Resource Center, told Street Roots…
Portlanders at risk of displacement need a seat at the table, Cat Goughnour says
What if black Oregonians at risk of displacement by gentrification had a say in how their neighborhoods were designed? That’s the question at the heart of Right 2 Root, a community-health-centered, urban planning campaign created by equity policy advocate Cat Goughnour. In 2015, the same year Governing Magazine named Portland the most gentrified city in…
Report: Oregon children worse off in the wake of poverty, suicides
A new report shows Oregon children rank in the bottom half of the country for economic well-being, and their death rate is rising. According to the just-released, 30th edition of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count National Data Book, Oregon children rank 29th in the country for economic well-being, falling one spot from 28th…
Opinion
My story of self-harm: Not just a cry for help
In late 2015, I sat in the front seat of my car after dropping my children off at daycare. As I had done many times before, I opened a small pouch in my handbag and took out a packet of replacement blades for a craft knife. I looked at them, opened and closed the packet,…
SR editorial: Oregon youths pay the price of GOP walkout
Years ago – among a collage of street art and other images – Street Roots had a poster on its wall quoting a Swahili proverb. It said, “When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.” In less poetic words, in conflicts between the powerful, it is the weak who get hurt. It resonates so…
Environment
Short film shows how Eastmoreland neighborhood saved its giant trees
In 2015, the fate of three towering sequoias in Portland’s Eastmoreland neighborhood encapsulated the city’s push-pull between development and nature. These enormous trees, dating back to the mid-19th century, were doomed to the chainsaw of developer Vic Remmer to make way for a luxury home. But the neighborhood pushed back, building a momentum that ultimately…
Vendor Profiles
Street Roots vendor profile: Part of the community
Dan Newth has been a Street Roots vendor for 17 years, the past seven as a member of the community around the Concordia New Seasons. Dan’s poetry and frank, searing essays on attempting suicide and living on the streets with a cognitive brain impairment have been published periodically. “I didn’t know how to write before…
