Moon Dog: Producer, postmate, provocateur
By Julia Irwin on As I approach the Here/There encampment on Adeline Street, two men lounge under the communal canopy tent while a third
Street Spirits
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Street Spirits is a monthly feature in which someone who lives on the street tells us their story.
Tim Nishibori on addiction and optimism
By Julia Irwin on Tim Nishibori disappears into the depths of his cramped but cavernous shack, which sits near the end of a strip of trailers and tents in West Oakland. His gray pit bull, Lady, plays hostess, entertaining me with enthusiastic kisses by the makeshift gate as Nishibori rummages around. Eventually, he emerges with two chairs, and invites me into his home. “Sorry about the mess,” he says
Marion Morris: Street Sheet vendor, role model
By Sylvia Sawislak on Marion Morris, also known as “Red,” sells Street Sheet in Downtown Berkeley, just outside the BART station. He wears bright
Street Spirits Rosalind Smith
By Lulu Orozco on She walks to Sweet Adeline Bakery four times a week on an injured leg and waits. With a stack of
Geno the barber: look good to do good
By Julia Irwin on The first thing I notice about Geno is his impeccable sense of style: standing by the tent encampment under I-580 at Magnolia and 35th, he’s wearing khakis and a fitted olive-green sweater, boot-laced sneakers as clean as they come, and a spiffy straw fedora. He sports a large stud in one ear, and his beard is pristinely groomed. He looks like a suave sentinel, a GQ model moonlighting as—in his words—“the tent city’s point person.”
Scooter: sailor, musician, dog person
By Alastair Boone on In 2008, Scooter was working as a veterinary technician in Connecticut when a friend offered to fly him out to
Douglas Freitag: singer, gardner, bookworm
By Kate Wolffe on By Kate Wolffe Douglas Freitag, known by his friends as Double Digging Doug, has been sprucing up gardens around Berkeley