Daniel Whitehouse has an adventurous spirit. With his fourth year of living in Portland behind him, he said he still has much to discover. Originally drawn here by the lure of a reunion with his son, who lives in the area, the father of four has made Portland his home.
“When I first came to Portland, there was a lot of work here. And there were a lot of parades — some pretty unique ones,” Daniel said. “It is a happening city. I come from a small town outside of Manchester, N.H.”
Daniel recently discovered the St. Johns neighborhood and Jantzen Beach.
“I’m an explorer. I love walking around and exploring museums, especially the Oregon Maritime Museum. It’s a good piece of history,” he said. “TriMet has been an awesome gateway. I discovered Oregon City to Willamette Falls. That was beautiful! I loved visiting Cathedral Park and the St. Johns Bridge. I went for a music festival and everyone was happy and enjoying music and getting along.”
Daniel connected with Street Roots through another vendor, Marty. Pre-pandemic, they both sold the paper in front of the Fred Meyer on West Burnside, along with longtime vendors Mark and Karen. After Street Roots’ five-month hiatus from printing, Daniel was eager get back to selling papers to his customers and with his fellow vendors and the employees at Fred Meyer, whom he considers part of his family. He usually takes a shift in the afternoon, around 3 p.m., although sometimes he can be found selling Street Roots outside the Trader Joe’s grocery store on Northwest Glisan Street in the Alphabet District as well.
“A lot of my customers were really hoping that we could sell our print edition sooner. I’m looking forward to selling our weekly papers again,” he said before Street Roots resumed its print edition on Aug. 26. “Our customers like our weekly paper — it’s a connection to us. But I’ve been sending the digital version to family in New Hampshire, California and Florida to give updates about what I’m doing. Everyone loves getting updates about Danny.”
He plans to stay in Portland.
“The hospitality and generosity of Portlanders has been awesome. My hope for all of Portland is that we start getting along. We are all in this together. United we stand, divided we fall,” he said.
As for that reunion with his son that brought him to Portland in the first place, they video chat or message, although Daniel recently lost his phone, which makes that more challenging. The pride in his voice is evident when he talks about his four children and marvels at how three of them are what he describes as “computer geeks.”
“I hope my son reads this,” he said. “The last time I talked to my son was about a month ago. I told him I loved him very much.”
