got more juice than Picasso got paint

I love my new beat at the Oregonian. Here is a story I wrote this week

Two hours before soccer practice, Jordan Soto, 8, laced up his cleats and waited. And waited. A few apartments over, the Salcido boys — Damien, Victor and Isaac — sat outside, sucking down popsicles and waiting, too.

Twice a week, about 70 kids — ages five through 12 — from the Tamarack and the adjacent New Columbia public housing communities practice and play scrimmage games on Tamarack’s new soccer field. The kids, Jordan included, helped write a grant last year to bring the soccer field, with professional-size goals, to the Portsmouth complex. Since the league opened this summer, they wait anxiously for the late-afternoon scrimmages to start.

“Hey,” Damien, 10, called to Tamarack apartment property manager Dennis Mitchell. “Do you know what time it is?”

Because nearby city parks are always booked with leagues, the kids used to dribble balls in the spaces between their apartments. When Home Forward, the agency that runs public housing in Multnomah County, announced last year it would offer grants to residents whose project ideas would help neighbors improve communities together, the Tamarack kids saw a chance to improve their play area.

Read the rest here on Oregonlive.com.