After more than 18 years with Street Roots, I’m leaving my role as executive editor with the newspaper that accepted me as a volunteer so many years ago.
My departure has been in the planning stages for months, which has allowed us to thoughtfully chart a course forward with new staff, create Street Root’s first fellowship, and look at how we can build on our newsroom in the future.
I am thankful that I was part of this team, a remarkable band of people — including all of you, readers — who took Street Roots from hardscrabble roots to a respected and influential newspaper. And we haven’t stopped moving forward.
Each year with Street Roots has charted major changes. We rapidly evolved from an all-volunteer monthly newspaper to paid staff in editorial, administration and vendor oversight.
When we did it in 2015, we were only the second street paper to transition from twice monthly to a weekly newspaper. Within a short time, the number of vendors selling the paper doubled, to approximately 800 each year. Pre-pandemic sales levels reach 10,000 papers a week, and we anticipate being back at those levels soon as the city continues to open up.
Up to that time, I was the only editorial staffer. When we went weekly, we hired Emily Green as our first full-time staff reporter, and Monica Kwasnik started volunteering with the paper, soon expanding to layout and website work. Only six years ago, Street Roots got its first, staffed editorial team. Prior to that, the newsroom was a single editor, freelancers and volunteers, and how far we’ve come is a testament to their hard work and belief in the importance of what we do. Volunteers have always been, and continue to be, the engine within this small organization.
The same holds true for our vendors, tenfold even, who rely on the newspaper as both a voice and income. It’s a direct relationship: When we create a more appealing newspaper, vendors make more money in sales, and at our peak pre-pandemic, that meant a half-million dollars in the hands of vendors each year.
I have changed as well. I’ve worked in other newsrooms, in local and regional newspapers, but none of them has had the impact of Street Roots. You might think it’s the gravity of the issue at hand, the extremes of inequality in our systems that drive homelessness and abject crisis. And there’s no question that is a powerful current.
But it is the people that leave the strongest impression and impart lasting change. It’s in their optimism, humor and humanity. You see it almost immediately if you volunteer at our front desk, providing services to our vendors — selling papers, checking mail and messages, handing out clean socks or hand warmers. It’s a busy space from the moment we open to the moment the front door is locked for the day, and sometimes a few knocks on the door after that.
That’s where you see people with very little of their own, donate a couple of dollars for any next vendor who is short on money for papers. It’s where people talk about a great day at their sales post, and conversations with customers about stories in the paper. It’s where people ask for a little help, and it sinks in further each day how simple and yet vitally important a little help can be.
It’s where people proudly, but discreetly, display their sobriety coins. I’ll never forget Ted, who asked for help at the photocopy machine to make copies of his one-year sobriety coin. He sent them home as Christmas cards for his family. It’s where the vendor George Myron Mayes displayed one of the custom birdhouses he made. It’s where a lot of people laughed and many cried. The front desk is a brutally honest place.
In my time at Street Roots, the paper itself has changed dramatically. We have sought to define what is a Street Roots story, finding that social, environmental and economic justice is an endless field of study. This year we received first place honors from the Society of Professional Journalists for Green’s comprehensive story, The Life and Death of Billy Baggett, and my series, Finding Home. Writer B. Toastie also took home top honors for their story on the Yale Union transfer.
But it’s the impact these stories have that means more. The impact on sales for our vendors, the impact among readers who think critically about an issue they might not have before. We’re one player in Portland’s media landscape, and all of it, I believe, is at its best when it compels readers to think and act toward a greater good. It’s what we aspire to.
Honor Joanne Zuhl’s legacy at Street Roots by contributing to the Zuhl Fund, which supports the newly launched annual Zuhl Editing Fellowship.
I’m humbled by the naming of the Zuhl Fellowship, and excited for recipient K. Rambo, who is taking the reins of the paper as the new fellow for the summer. It is my hope that this fellowship will become an opportunity for young journalists to gain on-the-job experience with social justice reporting and nonprofit media.
We also are excited to bring on investigative reporter Chris May as our staff reporter. Together, they will guide the newsroom while Street Roots conducts a nationwide search for its next top editor.
Yes, there are changes in names and faces, but Street Roots will remain this city’s cornerstone for social, environmental and economic justice reporting. We are more than 20 years strong, with many more ahead to continue our work, for our vendors and the entire community. Thank you.