The Street Newspaper is One of the Many Legacies of Long Time NEOCH Director
By Michael McGraw
One of Brian Davis’ major contributions while heading up NEOCH was bringing the street newspaper movement to Cleveland in the form first of the Homeless Grapevine and then its successor the current Street Chronicle.
The basic model of street newspapers is that they are generally to give voice to those without houses. Most papers have volunteers assist with writing articles. The other purpose for the street papers is to provide income to people struggling with their housing. They are typically sold on the sidewalks and the vendors get to keep all profits. There are street newspapers in 30 U.S. Cities as well as in Mexico City, and many Canadian and European cities.
Most accounts of the history of the street newspaper movement credit its genesis to Wendy Oxenhorn, who helped launch New York City’s Street News around 1989. The Street News experienced a wave of public interest in the first few years after its launch, but folded after what sounds like some clashes between Oxenhorn and others over its precise direction. Though NYC does not have a street paper right now, the Street News clearly helped inspire a wave of founding street papers during the 1990s, including our Homeless Grapevine.
[Editor’s Note: San Francisco probably had the first newspaper in the United States, but New York City received the most publicity. Angelo Anderson, who worked with others in Cleveland to start the paper has stated that he was inspired by the paper in NYC. ]
Eric Falquero, editor-in-chief of the excellent Street Sense of Washington, D.C., told me that street papers stayed strong and even growing in some of the years that print daily papers were experiencing startling declines in circulation as digital media was growing most rapidly. Falquero and others, such as Jori Epstein who wrote a senior project on street papers for the University of Texas at Austin, indicate that this may well be explained by street papers’ dual role as both journalism and as a social-service project, giving people an altruistic reason to buy the street paper that other publications cannot claim from most consumers.
The Street Chronicle gives a voice to people with homelessness experience who contribute to it; it gives a meaningful and dignified employment opportunity to its vendors; and its helps inform the perspective of its thousands of readers who come from all walks of life, economic statuses and political leanings. The Board of NEOCH has included continuing the publication of the paper as a prominent part of its strategic plan going forward, and several of us have been in contact regarding filling Brian’s sizable shoes with respect to roles with the publication process. We will keep on top of changing trends; for example, Eric Falquero from the D.C. paper has offered to keep us advised of a cashless payment method that the Vancouver street paper is willing to make available to street publications in other cities. It’s a legacy of Brian’s leadership that we plan to keep moving forward in Northeast Ohio.