Street Spirit

The Movement to Stop the Militarization of Police

Features   Uncategorized
At Urban Shield’s vendor expo, a hundred companies sell military grade weapons and surveillance equipment to local police departments. As much as organizers claim Urban Shield is about saving lives, the focus on guns and death is overwhelming. City agencies should not participate in an exercise that militarizes the police.

Los Angeles and Portland Declare Housing Emergencies

Opinion
When countless people are living on the street, when there’s no state in the union where workers making minimum wage can afford market-rate housing, and when hundreds of thousands of school children are living in cars and trying to do homework in the dark, we have an emergency.

Youth Spirit Artworks: More Than a Paintbrush

Arts and Culture
It’s hard to quantify the values of hope and beauty. How do you measure what happens to someone creating art for the first time? YSA’s mission is to use art and jobs training to transform the lives of low-income and homeless youth to ensure that they meet their full potential.

The Persecution of the Peacemakers

Features   In Dialogue
There was just a sense that Archbishop Hunthausen was a holy person. He really stood for what he believed and he took a lot of flak for it. He stood for people who were disenfranchised, and he stood for people who were poor. He stood for an end to the arms race.

Feminist Icons of Resistance

Features
“We are reclaiming our history—remembering all those founding mothers, all those women who kept the movement going without credit for so long, all the contributions we women have made and undervalued.” — Shelley Douglass

Humanize Not Militarize: Resistance to Militarism

Opinion
FROM FERGUSON TO GAZA, militarism directly impacts all of our lives. The American Friends Service Committee’s new poster art exhibit examines the effects of militarism in both foreign and domestic policy, and highlights alternatives and positive nonviolent solutions.

This Is How Homelessness Happens: Luxury Hotels in Berkeley

Features   Uncategorized
Nobody buys the hype about insanely tall buildings somehow saving the whales or solving the housing crisis. Insanely tall buildings full of luxury housing fill up with insanely wealthy people who rarely wonder why a town which once had a thriving black community now looks like a white country club.

Santa Cruz Police Violate First Amendment Rights

Features   Uncategorized
The Freedom Sleepers are determined to rouse the conscience of the city against the Sleeping Ban. They plan to return to the park every week in increased numbers to press the community to support restoration of civil rights for homeless people. And they intend to force police to withdraw or arrest them.

Support Grows for Freedom Sleepouts in Santa Cruz

Features   Uncategorized
“In our view, the situation in Santa Cruz is legally indistinguishable from the situation in Boise. We believe that the Freedom Sleepers are working effectively to bring attention to these important issues and to protect significant constitutional rights.” — Peter Gelblum, American Civil Liberties Union

One Dollar, One Vote: Big Business Subverts Democracy

Features   Uncategorized
Grossman offers a frank opinion of why BIDs aim to move homeless people out of business districts. “It’s a customer service district. They don’t see the homeless people as customers... If they don’t see you as a customer you are in trouble... You are either a customer or a contagion.”

Many Barriers to Healthcare for the Homeless Community

Features
Time and time again, we hear stories of people on the streets needing medical services being turned away from emergency departments; being “dumped” onto county hospitals by private entities; or being forced to use emergency rooms as their only source of medical care for significant or routine medical needs.