Apr 14, 2009 10:33 pm US/Central
'StreetWise' Magazine May Fold In Tough Economy
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Dropping donations may force "StreetWise" weekly magazine off the streets of Chicago.
CBS
Some call it the pulse of Chicago. But dropping donations may force the "StreetWise" weekly magazine off the streets. The magazine says it needs at least $75,000 in donations to keep running. Many of the people who sell the magazine can't find other work. And as CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports they're calling on some generous Chicagoans to step up and save StreetWise.
You wouldn't know it from StreetWise vendor Roark Moody's sales pitch, but he's a published poet.
"Buy StreetWise, read StreetWise, become StreetWise, and don't be surprised," Moody said.
He's been selling StreetWise for just over eight years.
"I lost my job in December of 2000," Moody said. "So I'm an early victim of the recession."
A recession now threatening to silence Moody's voice.
Vendors say the economy is making it tougher for them to sell the magazine with some customers just unable to give over the $2 to pay for it. Vendors are selling about 1,500 fewer issues a week now than they did before the economic downturn.
"Prices have gone up," said StreetWise reader Valencia Becton.
The switch in November from newsprint to a full-color magazine makes StreetWise pricier to produce, too. That plus other factors could shut it down, and quickly.
"In a worst case scenario, if everything were to go south at once, 45 days," said StreetWise executive director Bruce Crane.
It's scary for kids like 10-year-old Joshua and his brother Joseph. Their mom's been selling StreetWise for 12 years and says it brought her out of life on the streets.
But now, Patricia Tillman is teaching her kids the value of working hard and running a business so they'll never have to know her fight to survive.
"I have a house to stay in now, a vehicle. It helps me to pay for their music classes," Tillman said.
Ald. Manny Flores is leading an effort to raise money to help StreetWise turn the page on its finances and move forward.
"They're bailing out the automobile industry. Well, what happened to the bailout to that man and woman who struggled every day, day in and day out for their children?" Ald. Flores said.
Ald. Flores has introduced a resolution before the city's commission on human relations to help save StreetWise. They'll have a public hearing Wednesday to try to tug at the heartstrings of some generous Chicagoans.
It seems to be a place where people with few dreams create them. Tillman met her husband selling StreetWise. He's a vendor, too.
For a link to StreetWise,
click here.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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