Bill Wessinger has lived in the Russell neighborhood of Northeast Portland for the past decade, well before he had two daughters, the older of whom attends the elementary school.
Yet since moving into his own fixer-upper, Wessinger says he’s often thought about the sprawling lawn at Russell Elementary. Until recently, about 6 acres of flat grass bordered the school’s blacktop, with a couple of trees scattered in between. According to parents, only about 2 acres were used for recreation, the rest being too expansive to supervise kids.
“I always kind of looked at it and thought, ‘Boy, it feels like there could be something more there,’” Wessinger says…