Deal on Grant Bowl Appears Delayed by Conflict Over Smaller Upper Field

After early signs that a speedy deal was in the offing, the tussle over Grant High School’s football field persists because of a related, perhaps thornier variable: the fate of a smaller upper field used for baseball and softball.

Hopes for an agreement rose last week, when a team led by City Commissioner Dan Ryan sent a draft agreement to Portland Public Schools, offering the school district a long-term lease on the property, which is owned by Portland Parks & Recreation. Grant parents have been pressing the city to turn the field over to PPS since August, when the parks bureau closed it with little notice, saying that the artificial turf had become compacted, putting athletes at risk for concussions.

PPS would be a better custodian for the field, parents said, because the parks bureau had failed to replace the turf before the end of its 10-year lifespan. The closure, announced just days before the fall sports season was to start, sent Grant’s soccer and football teams scrambling to Delta Park and other far-flung venues for practices and games, angering parents. As of last week, a deal looked within reach.

Now, PPS and PP&R are at loggerheads over a smaller field to the east of the Grant Bowl that they co-own and co-manage. Local residents, led by the Grant Park Neighborhood Association, have complained that PPS locks the field, keeping them out even when it isn’t in use by Grant teams. Ryan wants to include the upper field in the new lease to set clear rules for when the community can use it, says T.J. McHugh, an adviser to Ryan.

“We’ve heard feedback from the community that they want more access,” McHugh says. “It’s time to put some teeth into the agreement.”

PPS and PP&R have been trading versions of the lease. An appendix that PPS sent to the parks bureau this week specifies that the area under consideration for lease should not include the upper field. There is a separate agreement in place for the upper field already that is sufficient, a PPS spokeswoman said.

Neon Brooks, land use chair for the Grant Park Neighborhood Association, disagrees. The gates to the field have been locked since Grant installed a new softball diamond on the upper field in the summer of 2022, she says. On weekends, people must use a ladder to get over the fence onto property that should be open to the public—when not in use by PPS—because of the co-ownership by the city.

“The loss of access to this field has played a large role in increasing community concerns about losing access to the bowl,” Brooks said in an email. “As one neighbor told us at our community meeting about the Grant Bowl, the upper field ‘might as well be on Mars.’”

PPS and PP&R are scheduled to meet again tomorrow, McHugh said. In a bit of good news for Grant athletes and their parents, PPS will start work to replace the turf in the bowl soon, regardless of how the negotiations go in coming days, the schools spokeswoman said.

Grant parents and neighborhood residents said they are aligned in their desire for resolution.

“Members of the Grant Bowl Community Coalition and the Grant Park Neighborhood Association have been in constant contact throughout this entire process,” they said in a joint statement. “We all agree that a compromise needs to be reached on the Upper Field. Because of its proximity to school buildings, we understand that public access during school hours is problematic. However, public access after school and on weekends when not in use by students or permitted community groups is completely reasonable. We’re all neighbors and want what’s best for all kids in our neighborhood.”