NAFTA made things worse on both sides of border, Mexican dignitary told.

Jobs, Journalism, Justice

Real Change Intern & Contributing Writer

Articles by JP Gritton

Vendor of the Week

By JP Gritton | May 17, 2009

On July 23, 1933, James Garrett was born in Douglass, Arizona, a little town on the Mexican border. He was the son of a Mexican immigrant and a Dublin-born and New York-raised policeman. In his youth, he spoke both Irish English and Mexican Spanish; and to this day, almost three quarters of a century later, his accent is still some mix of the two. Bagpipes in a mariachi band.

Did he miss Arizona, I wondered?

"I miss the rattlesnakes," said Garrett, "and the scorpions."

I just kind of looked at him -- had I heard right? ...

Vendor of the Week : Charles Moore

By JP Gritton | May 14, 2009

Charles Moore, Vendor of the Week. Photo by J.P. Gritton Charles Moore pounds the fist of just about everybody he comes across in a friendly salute.

But first and foremost Moore, this week's vendor of the week, is a businessman. A few months ago, Moore was averaging about 200 papers a month.

"Next month, 250," he said. Sure enough.

Last month, he sold 300.

"Next month, 350," he said. Now he averages between 350 and 400 papers a month. Like every capitalist, this week's Vendor of the Week has his eye on growth and the bottom line. ...

Storing up Trouble

By JP Gritton | May 14, 2009

In the event of an arrest in King County, smaller personal belongings (wallets, purses, jewelry, etc.) are kept with the accused at jail and returned on release. There are few complaints about this system.

But anything larger than a purse (say, a backpack) is placed in "The Evidence Warehouse" south of downtown: it is a nondescript building on an off-street in the nebulous mass of SoDo, lined by a column of idling semi trucks on one side and train tracks on the other. In the distance is the unsmiling steeple of the Starbucks headquarters. ...

Storing up Trouble

By JP Gritton | May 14, 2009

Just the Ticket

By JP Gritton | May 14, 2009

The narrator of "Flying to America," the short story in Donald Barthelme's new collection of the same name, has two main objectives between March 18th and May 1st -- namely, 1) to make his film, and 2) to "have a drink" with Perpetua, the film's star. ...

Vendor of the Week: Morrie

By JP Gritton | March 18, 2009

Back when the Smith Tower was the highest building in what was then a backwater port, Real Change's first (and maybe only) indoor vendor, Morrie, was living and working in his native Seattle.

His has been a life of work. He has done his share of odd jobs -- at the University of Washington, a brief stint at a cab company, another as a hay bailer in Eastern Washington -- but Morrie is first and foremost a salesman. ...

How the Media Treated the Black Panther Party

By JP Gritton | March 18, 2009

A young, bereted Panther stares authoritatively from a throne, a rifle in one hand, a spear in the other; behind him, a Zulu shield looks on sightlessly. The image has been emblazoned across t-shirts and TV screens, posters, magazines, and newspapers. And, says Jane Rhodes, dean of the study of Race and Ethnicity at Macalester College, it reflects as much about media as it does about the Black Panther Party. Her Framing the Black Panthers examines the turbulent and complex relationship between the Panthers and American media. ...

Vendor of the Week: Claude Shumpert

By JP Gritton | March 18, 2009

Claude Shumpert, Vendor of the Week. Photo by J.P. Gritton If you'll forgive the sentimentality: getting to know most people is like peeling a piece of fruit: layer by layer, they reveal themselves. But some -- a few -- are like a sliced orange: seeds, meat, and skin laid bare. That is to say, what you see is what you get. Sappy metaphors aside, this week's Vendor of the Week is the genuine article.

Claude Shumpert was born in East St. Louis, but has lived in Seattle since the age of two, when his mom scored a job at Boeing. ...

Vendor of the Week: Jack Makovsky

By JP Gritton | March 17, 2009

Around the time the czar's armies were falling en masse to German machine guns, Jack Makovsky's grandfather was taking the first steps toward America. Makovsky's grandfather, a conscript in the Russian army, had escaped from the czar's doomed ranks and began a 10-year journey to the United States. That is, right after he braved the trip home to pick up Makovsky's grandmother. ...