The city didn’t even bring in porta potties until I believe it was July and their handwashing stations, not only at People’s Park, but at Civic Center Park, most often have no water or soap, or paper towels. The city never brought in Sharps containers, and in their recent propaganda, UC refers back to there being a Sharps slot at the bathrooms, but during 2020 the bathrooms often were not opened until later in the day, and sometimes not at all, and no one was in the office so there was no way for the container to be checked or replaced. The Berkeley Free Clinic provided Sharps containers that were placed in the porta potties loose in spite of our calls for the city to strap them onto the outsides to increase the probability that more people would use them.
Months ago, the porta potties were moved to Dwight Way so now users, if they don’t see Sharps containers in the porta potties will 1) throw on the floor of the porta potties; 2) throw needles into the toilet making it hard for upkeep; 3) throw them on the ground outside. Do we think a user is going to walk across the park to place needles into the slot at the bathrooms? I don’t.
So the city and UC have had plenty of information shared by me on behalf of the group, and Sheila who spread information widely.
In this video, I went into detail about how the sinks, certainly, are inaccessible, but the lack of any reasonable upkeep of the bathrooms over the years makes using the bathrooms actually not truly accessible for people in wheelchairs or using walkers. Most often there is no toilet paper and there certainly are no seat covers. It’s disgusting. Soap? Not for years except when volunteers provide it, and their soap dispensers are too high for accessibility anyway. The hand blow dryer is too high but in reality often is broken down for long periods anyway. Locks on the bathroom stall doors are not able to be used by many with disabilities affecting hand and finger use while there are perfectly well-known options that allow for flipping a handle over.
UC and the city have failed the most vulnerable in the Berkeley, and UC has taken a park which was created for everyone’s benefit and made sure the bathrooms are not accessible to those who may have the most challenging needs in a bathroom setting. This in a city which was central to the beginnings of the Independent Living Movement and the creation of the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act. Shameful.
Max, Ingrid, People’s Park bathroom mural – April 13, 2019
Leading up to the 50th anniversary of People’s Park, in 2019, Max Ventura wrote to Leon Rosselson to let him know that in spite of UC’s continual threats for half a century, we’re still here holding down The Commons. Max had sung his song, The World Turned Upside Down, aka The Diggers Song, on the Free Speech Stage since 1986. What follows is the interchange between them in 2019. While the one quote from him was so inspiring, Greg suggested that we share the whole interchange about the history of the making of the mural bearing the words to his song, The World Turned Upside Down. It is based on The Diggers in England in 1649, and some of Gerrard Winstanley’s words. The Diggers’ history and Leon’s song is such an important part of People’s Park History.
We now are celebrating our 50 year anniversary of People’s Park in Berkeley, California. We met at Down Home Music some years ago and I brought you a copy of our book in which the mural is featured. I continue to sing the Diggers Song as I have sung out there since 1986. It became our instant anthem all those decades ago and people begged meto paint up the lyrics. So one anniversary I did so on the sides of the concrete bricks leading to the men’s bathroom entrance. It took over 7 hours (I don’t recommend painting on concrete without proper brushes, at very least, unless in an emergency which it seemed this was!
Some years later as it had faded, people asked me to repaint them so I spent another anniversary concert day repainting. Sore arms. It was no easier the second time, and once again it was with perhaps the worst possible brushes since I had not planned ahead to redo that day. Emergency! though… so I made do.
Then some years after that when there had been just a bit too much chaotic graffiti on that big wall between the bathroom entrances, we decided a new mural would be a good idea and some of the park dwellers said it was getting too hard to read the tiny and faded lyrics and they wanted them big and bold so a local park supporter and artist did some initial sketching to lay out my ideas and a park dweller who’s an artist, and I, further planned the mural. He started painting the background and hills, and I painted the banners and spent (ouch!) another long day painting lyrics onto the banners during another anniversary concert and then holding the ladder while Terri Compost painted up the park history above. It’s been I don’t know how many years and there has been little graffiti and some of what’s been added is interactive right on the banners. Living art.
People’s Park is 50 years of User-development and I just wanted to share, once again, how important your song has been to the people living in, and visiting the park, and that is obvious as this has been one of the longest-lasting mural up there.
So thanks for being part of People’s Park, a model for our world. Messy sometimes, but a vision we have helped nurture and which lives on in spite of the University aggressively attacking the park and the people of the park many times over the half century.
Just this Jan. they came in 5 am one morning and decimated over 40 healthy trees. They say they plan to build housing for students but that was what was there 50 years ago, before they razed the beautiful old houses and apartments on that block. So our response? We’ve been planting other trees and they keep threatening to down those, also. And so it goes, and we remind “the public” that, it’s never been about providing housing, but about silencing free speech and sanitizing the area to please wealthy parents sending their children from the suburbs.
So we are on to our next 50 years. We had our first of two anniversary concerts yesterday and the second is the 28th. In between we have nearly daily events. I’m attaching a flyer for one I’ve coordinated, and at which I shall speak. If you go to www.peoplespark.org you can see the schedule of events. Lots of inspiration.
Sincerely, Max Ventura
Subject: Re: photos in front of people’s park bathroom mural Date: 2019-04-21 03:26 From: leon rosselson To: Max Ventura beneficialbug@sonic.net
Dear Max,
Thank you so much for your email, the photos and all the information about the happenings in People’s Park. I’m touched and feel honoured that you have given so much of your time and worked so hard to give the lyrics of my song a new life on this beautiful mural. This is my 60th year of singing and writing and one of my most treasured moments in all that time was to visit People’s Park and see the mural when I was in Berkeley in 2011. I am unlikely to visit again but I have the book, so thank you.
Good luck for the next 50 years. What you are all doing is a bright spot of hope in these bleak times.
We’ve had such a great almost 2 weeks of celebrations already, have a few more workshops and other events, and have our second concert all day Sunday.
At our People’s Park Committee meeting Sunday, people wanted me to ask you whether we could put this onto our website (we’d say, of course, that this is from you, writer of The World Turned Upside Down). The website is www.peoplespark.org:
Re: May we put this quote from you on the People’s Park website?
“This is my 60th year of singing and writing and one of my most treasured moments in all that time was to visit People’s Park and see the mural when I was in Berkeley in 2011. I am unlikely to visit again but I have the book, so thank you.
Good luck for the next 50 years. What you are all doing is a bright spot of hope in these bleak times.”
Added in 2021 as we are about to celebrate 52 years, enjoying the student and community uprising end of January where UC’s fences once again were torn down, and then were marched down Telegraph Avenue to be deposited on the steps of Sproul Hall:
While I was painting the lyrics on the mural so many years ago, my three children painted over the faded tiny lyrics on the edges of the concrete block wall at the bathroom entrance. They painted veggies and this kid art also has been left alone for everyone to enjoy. Even their names survive on the bottom painting of the bunch. Attached is a photo of Ingrid by those veggies paintings from so long ago, and there is one of Ingrid and me in front of the mural in 2019.
— Max Ventura
Ingrid, People’s Park bathroom tiles – April 13, 2019
People’s Park Committee’s submitted comments are here:
PEOPLE’S PARK COMMITTEE SCOPING COMMENTS REGARDING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT FOR UC BERKELEY LONG RANGE DEVELOPMENT PLAN UPDATE AND HOUSING PROJECTS AT PEOPLE’S PARK AND HILL CAMPUS 4/27/20
1. LRDP Update must not be a programmatic EIR that automatically gives the green light to future projects not explicitly listed in the EIR. All future projects must continue to be subject to public input under CEQA.
2. The NOP claims 200 meetings and events with stakeholder groups and the public, but not all stakeholders were contacted. Houseless residents of the park weren’t included. There was a 1/24/20 invitation-only meeting, at the Christian Science church by the park. Little effort was made to invite community groups like the People’s Park Committee, Food Not Bombs, Suitcase Clinic, or others who provide resources at the park so few of the park community were able to participate. Except one town hall on the LRDP in April 2019, no public meetings about this process were held. Two public meetings in February and March 2020, were limited to Project #2 at People’s Park, and didn’t include other plans to be discussed in this EIR. Which stakeholders were invited to the other 196 meetings, and what parts of the LRDP Update did they cover?
3. The NOP insists on necessity of expansion of facilities and university population, even though Berkeley has sued UC for exceeding the agreed-upon number of students to be admitted. The number of beds planned for students and non-university affiliated people are vague, talking about construction ‘up to’ a certain number, without any minimum commitment. No mention of students who are homeless now, in need of housing, let alone non-university park residents. And no specifics about nonprofits who are supposed to develop and manage the housing projects proposed at People’s Park. Who are these nonprofits, what is their proposed role, and what financial and other benefits would they derive from this project?
4. UC used the excuse of ‘deferred maintenance’, a concept mentioned in the NOP, to destroy the forested area of People’s Park as well as trees all over campus, and the excuse of ‘wildfire management’ to deforest other areas in the East Bay hills, and use pesticides, long targeting the Hill Campus area. Even mature, tall redwoods are planned for demolition by UC in the Hill Campus. UC repeatedly has been taken to court by community members seeking to defend the Hill Campus forest. UC insists that since these forested areas are not state or federal forest, it’s not necessary to discuss the impact of converting that forest to non-forest use, and because there may not be a formal habitat conservation plan, no habitat conservation activities are necessary in the project areas covered in the EIR, even though many animals, including falcons and hawks, utilize them as habitat.
5. The EIR is supposed to cover historic resources, and preserve historic legacy, and as such People’s Park, a City of Berkeley Historic Landmark, must be preserved as a park, not replaced with buildings. The NOP refers to creating multi-purpose spaces, but People’s Park already has multiple purposes and uses for humans and wildlife, which these plans would eliminate.
** THESE COMMENTS ARE SUBMITTED BY THE PEOPLE’S PARK COMMITTEE,
including Russell Bates, Lisa Teague, Jessie Mcginley, Michael Delacour, Max Ventura, Erick Morales, Andrea Prichett, Aidan Hill, Paul Prosseda, Ivar Diehl, Siobhan Lettow, Dawn Goldwasser, Tom Luce, Hali Hammer, Sheila Mitra-Sarkar, Charles Gary
Last winter, the University mowed down over 40 healthy trees harming the ecological balence of Peoples Park. The trees play a vital role in sequestering carbon and provide essentail habitate and shade for the many varieties of life that thrive here. Please get in volved with our community to help reforest People’s Park. Additionally, the park has many gardening and horticulture activies to plug into.
We are calling for submissions of your intimate stories about people who enjoy the park and who contribute energy toward its so that People’s Park is a more safe place for everyone . We want to publish stories with the world that reveals the many different way that folks engage with the park. To publish your stories to the People’s Park.org website, please email media submissions to Dickie Haskell at dickiehaskell@gmail.com.
LEGACY OF PAST AND PRESENT
ANTI-WAR ACTIONS:
STRATEGIES TO CONSIDER FOR THE FUTURE
Wednesday, December 4, 2019 7-9 pm
UC Berkeley, Barrows Hall 126
David Miller In October, 1965, David Miller, a Catholic pacifist affiliated with the Catholic Worker movement, was the first publicly to burn his draft card after the new law against this action went into effect. He spent 2 years in prison as a result, which ignited a storm of draft card burnings in response
Edward Hasbrouck (Resisters.info) One of millions of young men who refused to register with the Selective Service System in the 1980s, and one of only nine people imprisoned for organizing resistance to the registration law before enforcement was abandoned. Massive noncooperation succeeded in blocking efforts to bring back the draft. He’ll update us on the upcoming Congressional debate on whether to end draft registration or expand it to women
Maxina Ventura From Anti-nuke activism at UCLA, to D.C. lobbying, involvement in Plowshares Disarmament actions, blocking munitions trains and trucks at the Concord NWS, Nevada Test Site actions using decentralized organizing with affinity groups and spokescouncils, to the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Labs 1993 Shadow Painting action (with 2-months and solitary confinement for refusing to accept any restrictions to full freedom)
Liam Curry 6 year Navy submarine veteran, volunteered with Food Not Bombs after first Gulf War, became active with People’s Park movement during UC’s attempt to develop the park. Joined Veterans For Peace at the start of the second Gulf War. Worked on counter recruitment and various anti-war programs with Veterans For Peace
Soul (Susan B. Rodriguez) At 14 founded first homeless project, Hayward. At 15 was President of Brown Berets, Hayward. Co Founded Free Lunch, Hayward, and Berkeley Liberation Radio 104.1fm. 1990 Anti Nuclear Dove of Peace Disarmament Action. People’s Park Activist 1990-present. Founded Murals of Life N Hope, W. Oakland, G.I. Suicide Awareness Campaign, Co Founded Occupy Oakland, Marine Recruitment Action, Berkeley, and works with Restorative Justice, Oakland
Niusha Hajikhodaverdikhan is a 20-year old artist, and UC Peace and Conflict studies student. From Nezamabad, Tehran, Iran, her family, deeply affected by the U.S. sponsored Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), she investigates war crimes using open-source investigation at UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center. Her work in academia, art, and community focuses on mutual aid, decolonization, and 3rd world liberation with an anti-capitalist, anti-fascist approach.
Co-Sponsored by The People’s Park Committee (www.peoplespark.org)
and The Suitcase Clinic (www.suitcaseclinic.org)
Info: 510-900-1160 (Landline. No texts received)
Wheelchair Accessible ** Fragrance-free, please
