Cover Story
Celebrating Paul Knauls Sr. at 95
When Paul Knauls Sr. walked into the Spare Room for his 95th birthday celebration (technically, the after-party), the packed Northeast Portland institution exploded. “The mayor is in the house,” people yelled, and showered him with affection. Known colloquially as the “mayor of Albina” or the “honorary mayor of Northeast Portland,” Knauls’ reputation has long preceded…
Portland shelters continue to have a racism problem
City and county shelters underserve homeless Portlanders of color, a Multnomah County report shows. Last month’s Homeless Services Division Adult Shelter Review surveyed 31 shelters and found 59% of all shelter residents were white, despite making up 49% of the local homeless population as captured in the county’s “By-Name List.” Black and Latine Portlanders experiencing…
News
Problems remain after prison officials pledged to overhaul health services
A year after Oregon prison officials pledged to overhaul health services, an inspection by a national accrediting group found the women’s correctional facility still isn’t meeting standards. During a September visit, inspectors found administrators weren’t ensuring prisoners are healthy enough to work, nurses’ competencies weren’t reviewed annually and that staff lacked training needed to respond to…
Street Roots unveils new website
I started at Street Roots as an editorial producer in 2021. I’ve often described my job as meeting our readers where they are. After the newspaper comes out in print, and is handed off to our Street Roots’ vendors to be sold to readers like you, I find other ways to get our reporting into…
Remembering Oregon’s first Black woman state senator
Avel Louise Gordly served three terms in the Oregon House of Representatives, became the first Black woman to be elected to State Senator in 1997, taught as a professor of Black Studies at Portland State University, and was a lifelong community activist in Portland. Gordly, who died Feb. 16 — three days after her 79th…
Opinion
Remembering Jesse Jackson in Portland
On January 29, 2010, a Portland Police Bureau sniper named Ron Frashour shot and killed Aaron Campbell. The day before Campbell was murdered, his brother, Timothy Douglass, died of renal failure in a Portland hospital. Overwhelmed by grief, Aaron Campbell began drinking. By the next day, he’d frightened his family with talk of harming himself…
