Karl Dorling has been selling Street Roots off and on for the last 20 years. He remembers many changes in the organization, but one thing has remained constant through the decades: Street Roots has always served as a sanctuary for him.
“I’m grateful for Street Roots. If all else fails, I know Street Roots won’t,” he said. “Every time I come to town, I come to Street Roots. It’s a safe place to have coffee, communicate with other vendors and see what’s going on. I know I can count on it as a place to get back on my feet.”
Karl was born in Tucson, Ariz., and raised in Vancouver, Wash. His father was a gourmet chef at Pellegrino’s Italian Kitchen in Olympia. He also worked at a seafood restaurant on Portland’s waterfront.
Karl has two sisters who married two brothers, and they live in Vancouver with their husbands. Each sister has a son, and Karl thinks the world of his two nephews. “They are young, smart kids. They are keeping the family together,” he said. Karl loves animals. He likes to feed and pet the geese down by the waterfront, and he once worked as a horse wrangler on a ranch in Arizona, leading people on horse rides.
At the time of this interview, Karl was about to turn 40, on Oct. 21, and he felt the significance of his upcoming birthday milestone deeply.
“I want to settle down and make the rest of my life matter. It’s time for me to do better. I feel very motivated to have a better life,” Karl said.
His usual pattern has been to pick up and move, drawn always to “big adventures with no endings and no responsibilities,” he said.
He spent many years traveling the country. “You put your family together in each new city,” he said. “It takes a lot of work, a year to get to trust people. Then it’s dependent on you, if you do what you say you are going to do, people will trust you.”
That’s all about to change, though. Karl is starting out his fourth decade with a big step toward living a more settled and responsible life. This week he will be moving into housing for the first time in many years.
“I’ve been going to counseling and treatment, and I got offered a place to stay. I have to go to group to stay there, but I’m moving in Monday. It took me a long time to want to have a place. I never wanted to stay long in any one place. I never saw the point of renting a place.”
One priority Karl lives by these days is to keep positive people around him who have the same motivation to live a better life.
“It’s working,” he said. I’ve come this far, and I don’t want to lose it.”
Karl dreams of having his own little piece of land some day. He said he would like to build a simple, small house and grow an organic garden.
“I’ve saved money for a long time,” he said.
As he approached his 40th birthday, Karl felt his work selling the paper was more important than ever.
“I’m trying to train through Street Roots. It gives me work skills and the discipline to succeed.”
Karl sells at the downtown Target at 939 SW Morrison St. and at Pioneer Square most weekdays.