My bus drove north when a street car passed, heading south. I glimpsed a Street Roots vendor across the way just as he glimpsed me, and we waved, the windows sliding by each other.
I got off the bus and started to walk down a path when I came upon another Street Roots vendor biking by. We greeted each other.
This is my Portland, and maybe your Portland too — many relations weaving together a feeling of wholeness. I love Street Roots for this — the quick greetings, all the people who surprise me with quips and lively ideas, all the dogs that stay near their heels.
Street Roots artist Phoenix Oaks — formerly a vendor — recently completed a painting depicting the cityscape of Portland, as viewed from the east side of the Willamette River, or maybe standing on the Steel Bridge. There’s the White Stag lit up and Big Pink in the distance. There’s the MAX train pulling up to the Old Town/Chinatown stop, and if you look closely, you’ll see the little Street Roots sign at 211 NW Davis St., where it’s been since 2004. Before that, Street Roots was on Northwest 12th Avenue and Morrison Street.
It’s a painting that is, as any cityscape is, a time capsule of our moment. People are gathered outside Street Roots in the street, as we’ve done since the pandemic began. Next year, the Street Roots sign will be two blocks south and one block west at the corner of Northwest 3rd Avenue and Burnside Street, lit up in the neighborhood’s classic neon sign style.
This painting captures our city in flux. It’s always in flux, of course, our buses and street cars sliding by each other, all of us encountering each other on paths and street corners.
But the flux has felt more dramatic in the last several years.
Phoenix’s paintings are our moments of being alive together. He completed this painting, as he completes a painting for Street Roots every year, as a gift for us to share with all of you and give to one of you. We will raffle it off between everyone who RSVPs for our Morning Broadcast, so please visit streetroots.org/broadcast or scan the QR code on the back page of the Sept. 27 paper.
Our Morning Broadcast fundraiser is a little like a morning show you might tune into over breakfast, with host DeVon Pouncey carrying the energy. If you haven’t tuned in to see him in the past, you are in for a treat.
You’ll learn about Street Roots journalism, including a recap of Melanie Henshaw’s Indigenous affairs reporting. We will also have a feature story about vendor Vern Hardison. His is a story that includes finding a home through loyalty to one block. And once he found a home, plants galore.
This year, we will emphasize the relationships weaving the city together — Street Roots vendors and readers. Yes, the city is changing. It always does, although more dramatically recently. But we still meet on street corners, we still form relationships across differences.
That’s Street Roots, steadily humane despite it all.
Please join us Oct. 5 by streaming our Morning Broadcast. The pre-show begins at 7:30 a.m., and then the broadcast runs 8-9 a.m. RSVP now to reserve the link and to enter a chance to receive Phoenix Oak’s painting that captures our city right now.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
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