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TELL CHANCELLOR CHRIST: HANDS OFF PEOPLE’S PARK! Rally and Speakout: Monday June 6 at 12 noon

TELL CHANCELLOR CHRIST:
HANDS OFF PEOPLE’S PARK!
Rally and Speakout
Monday June 6 @ 12noon
California Hall, UC Berkeley

The Regents of the are preparing to invade and destroy People’s Park by mid-June and we call on our community to RESIST! We call on all people who value Open Space, Free Speech, User Development and the right of our community to exist to tell Chancellor Christ that we will defend People’s Park against this corporate University takeover!

JOIN US! Now is the time to challenge the Regents for their part in creating the current housing crisis in Berkeley! Now is the time to fight for our history and our future!

Sponsored by the Peoples Park Council
www.peoplespark.org

ALL are welcome to speakout!
Speakers include activists, lawyers, students, community members and park residents.
We must unite to fight.

EMERGENCY ALERT:
TEXT “SAVETHEPARK” TO 74121

Download this as a printable 8.5 x 11 inch PDF flyer.

For Immediate Release  
June 1, 2022

Contact:
Joe Liesner 510-542-3112
Max Ventura 510-900-1160

*********ATTENTION NEWS EDITOR*********

RALLY AND SPEAKOUT
TELL CHANCELLOR CHRIST: HANDS OFF PEOPLE’S PARK!

People’s Park Council is hosting a rally and speakout for groups and individuals who oppose UCB’s plan to destroy People’s Park. DEMAND OPEN SPACE!

The situation is increasingly urgent as UC administration and the City of Berkeley make plans to suppress community opposition to the impending invasion of People’s Park. Tensions are rising as deadlines and rumors of deadlines circulate through the park. The placement of large dumpsters in the park; the opening of the new Rodeway Inn specifically for the residents of People’s Park and anecdotal accounts of police warning campers that it is “illegal” to trespass, all indicate that the UC will attempt to take the park soon. Despite the fact that just this week the park was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, decades after it was named a City of Berkeley Landmark, UC is amassing its forces to attempt take People’s Park once and for all.

Our opposition is to the construction of ANY housing on People’s Park no matter who it is for. While the pandemic emergency required that we use public places to respond to an emergency, People’s Park is meant to be a place for all people. We all need open space and a place to be.

For the sake of the climate, for our health which depends on green spaces and trees for good air quality, for the sake of our mental health, and for the sake of our children who by nature need to have open space to explore and grow. For the sake of our history and the movement that not only built People’s Park, but also made Berkeley known internationally. We must prevent needless desecration of that sacred space. The University community and administration need to honor our rich tradition of resistance and let People’s Park remain as a community park.

Our history AND our future depend on People’s Park.

WHO: People’s Park Council
WHAT: Rally and Speakout
WHERE: California Hall, UC Berkeley
WHY: To protest UC occupation of the park
WHEN: Monday, June, 6, 2022 at 12pm

More information: www.peoplespark.org

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The Future of Southside Berkeley’s Parks?

Trees • Oxygen • Gardens

Now is the time to maintain nature’s gifts!

  • We need MORE, not less, open, green space in Southside!
  • According to Alameda County records, UC has acres of land all over Berkeley and the Bay Area, including south of campus

Come and share your visions for how to make these essential parks open and usable by everyone. Join us! Please attend an important community meeting to discuss these issues!

March 30, 2022 at 7 p.m.
Seventh Day Adventist Church, 2236 Parker St., Berkeley

&&&&

Author coming to speak at UC Berkeley in April:
Davarian Baldwin, author of In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are Plundering Our Cities, will be speaking at a public event

April 18, 2022 from 5-7 p.m.
Social Sciences Matrix, 820 Social Sciences Building, UCB

peoplespark.org & peoplesparkhxdist.org

**** And come celebrate with us for our People’s Park 53rd Anniversary Weekend April 23 and 24th. Concerts noon, on each day, and celebrate the Berkeley Student Co-ops also under threats from UC. Music, food, speakers, festivities, and workshops the 24th (check out peoplespark.org for more details closer to the time)

Download PDF flyer for these events.

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House the People, Liberate the Land! Rally and street fair

Event poster

Rally and Street Fair

We demand RCD (Resources for Community Development) drop out of UC’s plan to destroy People’s Park!

We demand tenant-controlled public housing and open public space!

Join us outside real estate developer RCD’s offices to demand life-giving solutions to the housing, economic, and environmental crises facing us.

RCD is a non-profit landlord complicit in UC’s war on People’s Park. Their biggest donors are banks, police, and developers.

Wednesday November 10 @ Noon

2220 Oxford St Berkeley
RCD Offices
Oxford at Allston (1 block east of Berkeley BART)

View event | IndyBay.org

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Presentation by People’s Park Historic District Friday, August 27, 2021, 6–9 pm, Canessa Gallery, San Francisco

Last Friday two lawsuits were filed in Alameda County Superior Court against UC Berkeley and the UC Regents. Two community groups and AFSCME Local 3299 are challenging the impact of growth plans of the university. Previously another filing was done on the Berkeley City Council’s violations of the Brown Act, in formulating and adopting the City’s recent secret “settlement agreement” with the University of California.

The evening’s panel will discuss both legal and community organizing actions to stop implementation of UCB’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP), a plan that seeks to destroy People’s Park and other irreplaceable neighborhood and community assets in Berkeley.

Panelists include historians, preservationists and activists – Charles Wollenberg, Lesley Emmington, Carol Denney, Joe Liesner and Harvey Smith.

The exhibit includes photographs, art work, posters and memorabilia from over 50 years of spirited community involvement in preserving the irreplaceable open space of the park.

People’s Park is at the center of sixteen other officially recognized city landmarks, which collectively are a de facto historic district. They represent the heritage of the 1960s and the larger theme of a century of town/gown relationships. Berkeley became a major target of the New Right conservative backlash with Ronald Reagan promising to “clean up the mess in Berkeley.”

UC’s plans also threaten three historic buildings, including a rent-controlled apartment building, in another project funded by an anti-rent control developer.

The university has exceeded its agreed enrollment limits, creating enormous housing displacement throughout the city. The university has responded to years of state budget austerity by monetizing its public assets in a corporate-like growth that has also become a drain on city resources.

UCB proposes to cover People’s Park with a 17-story concrete monolith, probably to be erected by a private housing firm that will profit from student occupants. This would destroy both a historical and cultural legacy and much needed open space when reasonable alternatives are available.

If Berkeley all but invented the sixties, surely the city and its university should be able to commemorate that decade by preserving People’s Park as the heart and soul of a vital historic district.

Presentation by People’s Park Historic District
Friday, August 27, 2021, 6–9 pm
Canessa Gallery
708 Montgomery Street, San Francisco

Masks and Covid vaccination required.

For more information, contact Harvey Smith at 510-684-0414.

Sponsored by the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group.

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Presentation by David Axelrod, Attorney and Founder of People’s Park Native Plant Garden – Canessa Gallery – Saturday, August 21, 2021

Saturday, August 21, 2021, 6–9 pm
Canessa Gallery
708 Montgomery Street, San Francisco

Presentation by David Axelrod, Attorney and Founder of People’s Park Native Plant Garden

David L. Axelrod has filed a Writ of Mandate in Alameda County Superior Court on the Berkeley City Council’s violations of the Brown Act, in formulating and adopting the City’s recent secret “settlement agreement” with the University of California. In the secret agreement, the Berkeley Mayor and City Council surrendered a lawsuit it had already won that had challenged the University’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP), a plan that seeks to destroy People’s Park and other irreplaceable neighborhood and community assets in Berkeley.

David was involved in the 1970s and 1980s as founder and Field Coordinator of the People’s Park Project/Native Plant Forum (PPP/NPF), a student and community group that executed creative user development of People’s Park, establishing organic gardens and native plant communities in the Park commencing in 1974, and built the People’s Stage in 1979, under leadership of the People’s Park Council (PPC).

During those times, members of PPP/NPF and PPC developed a generally more peaceful and cooperative relationship with the University campus administration on behalf of Park users, gardeners, students and neighbors, concluding several written agreements. David will bring alive the park history of past years, as well as the reality of legal actions of today.

People’s Park is at the center of sixteen other officially recognized city landmarks, which collectively are a de facto historic district. They represent the heritage of the 1960s and the context of the larger theme of a century of town/gown relationships. Berkeley became a major target of the New Right conservative backlash with Ronald Reagan promising to “clean up the mess in Berkeley.” Now preservation of this community-built park is threatened once again by UC Berkeley expansion.

The university has exceeded its agreed enrollment limits, which has created enormous housing displacement throughout the city. The university has responded to years of state budget austerity by monetizing its public assets in a corporate-like overreach that has also become a drain on city resources.

UCB proposes to cover People’s Park with a 17-story concrete monolith, probably to be erected by a private housing firm that will profit from student occupants. This would destroy both a historical and cultural legacy and much needed open space when reasonable alternatives are available.

If Berkeley all but invented the sixties, surely the city and its university should be able to commemorate that decade by preserving People’s Park as the heart and soul of a vital historic district.

The exhibit includes photographs, art work, posters and memorabilia from over 50 years of spirited community involvement in preserving the irreplaceable open space of the park.

Masks and Covid vaccination required.

For more information, contact Harvey Smith at 510-684-0414.

Sponsored by the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group.

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Email action for People’s Park: Contact Berkeley City Council

Hey all,
The folks at 1921 Walnut are urging everyone to bombard the Mayor and City Council with emails regarding the possible settlement of the City’s lawsuit against UC. Please share widely.

BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL NEEDS TO ACT NOW

UC Berkeley wants to demolish the rent-controlled building at 1921 Walnut St./displace the long standing community there and destroy our public space at People’s Park. If this is allowed to happen, UC will be able to DEMOLISH ANY RENT CONTROLLED BUILDING or PARK IN BERKELEY. This would raise rents for everyone and destroy historic spaces that we all enjoy.

Berkeley Mayor Arreguín and City Council can stop them!

How? City of Berkeley is in a settlement negotiation with UC. City of Berkeley needs to withhold any settlement unless UC agrees to SAVE 1921 WALNUT and DEFEND PEOPLE’S PARK

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

CALL TO ACTION: EMAIL, CALL and TWEET at Mayor Arreguín and your City Councilmember AND SUPPORTERS OF PEOPLE’S PARK

More information

University of California released its new 2021 Long Range Development Plan. This plan includes:

  • demolishing 1921 Walnut St and evicting tenants
  • destroying People’s Park
  • building 8.1 million sq. ft. of new campus facilities (equivalent to 6 Salesforce towers)
  • adding 14,750 new students (44% above the current 2005 plan)
  • adding 3,500 new employees and 3,000 new parking spaces
  • adding 800,000 sq. ft. of new facilities in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone-California’s most dangerous fire zone

WE HAVE TO CONTROL THIS EXPANSION, SAVE 1921 WALNUT and DEFEND PEOPLE’S PARK. TELL THE CITY COUNCIL and MAYOR!

Contact them now prior to their settlement decision with UC. Make sure the City of Berkeley stands up for Berkeley tenants and our historic open spaces!

(district, name, Twitter handle, phone number)

Mayor: Jesse Arreguín @JesseArreguin (510) 981-7100

District 1: Rashi Kesarwani @RashiKesarwani (510) 981-7110

District 2: Terry Taplin @TaplinTerry (510) 981-7120

District 3: Ben Bartlett @benbartlettberk (510) 981-7130

District 4: Kate Harrison @KateHarrisonD4 (510) 981-7140

District 5: Sophie Hahn @SophieHahnBerk (510) 981-7150

District 6: Susan Wengraf (510) 981-7160

District 7: Rigel Robinson @RigelRobinson (510) 981-7170

District 8: Lori Droste @loridroste (510) 981-7180

Write to council@cityofberkeley.info to send an email to the Mayor and all Council members.