Posted on

Press Release: Wicks legislation may kill Berkeley low income housing project

Press Release: Wicks legislation may kill Berkeley low income housing project
Date: August 23, 2023

For Immediate Release

Contact: Harvey Smith, People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group, 510-684-0414, peoplesparkhxdist@gmail.com

State Assembly Member Buffy Wicks (D, East Bay), a vocal backer of housing for the poor and unhoused, has introduced a bill that may likely kill a supportive housing project for the homeless proposed by UC Berkeley on People’s Park, a federally recognized historic site listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Federal law generally bans the use of Federal funds on housing projects proposed on National Historic sites unless the developer submits to an extensive Federal review, including consideration of alternative sites. UC Berkeley has declined to participate in this process, so HUD has determined at this time that federal funds would not be available for the project

Harvey Smith, president of the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group, said
“We have urged UC to use an alternative site, just one block away, that would accommodate both the student housing and the supportive housing, and which would be eligible for Federal funding with no need for a Federal review. This would be a win-win solution for the university and the community.”

The university’s Project #2 plans to construct about 1000 units of student housing and more than 100 units of supportive housing for low income people in Berkeley’s People’s Park, site of one of the major social, political, and cultural conflicts of the 1960s. The park, owned by the university, has remained public open space since 1972.

Construction is currently blocked by a California State Appeals Court decision in a lawsuit brought by plaintiffs who favor building the project on a more appropriate university owned site. The court required the university to seriously consider more than a dozen alternative properties, and the university has appealed the decision to the State Supreme Court. The non-profit chosen by the university to build the supportive housing has dropped out of the project and no replacement developer has been named. Generally, long term supportive housing projects require a significant level of Federal funding

Wicks’ bill, AB1307, attempts to allow the university to build the project in People’s Park without considering alternatives. The park is an official historical landmark, recognized by both the Berkeley City and California State governments. It is also on the National Register of Historic Places, a list established by federal law to designate sites of such national historical importance that they deserve preservation.

Supporters of Peoples Park have urged UC to move the project to the decrepit Channing parking structure, a 1.7 acre university property located just one block west of the park. It’s now occupied by a sixty-year-old parking structure that must be taken down for seismic reasons. The university has designated the site for eventual student housing but has no specific project or designated funding for that purpose.

Harvey Smith said, “We urge Wicks to drop her amendment and urge the university to build the project in an appropriate alternative location. This would assure the construction of both much-needed student and supportive housing. And it would preserve an invaluable historic resource, consistent with federal preservation policy. Finally it would also preserve the only public open space in Berkeley’s most densely populated neighborhood.”

Posted on

The Future of People’s Park: panel discussion, February 26, 2021

The Future of People’s Park panel discussion was presented online by the People’s Park Historic Advocacy Group with Berkeley community members on February 26, 2021. Here’s a video of the discussion, archived on the People’s Park YouTube channel.

Presenters:

  • Harvey Smith – author of “Berkeley and the New Deal”, People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group (event host)
  • Tom Dalzell – author of “The Battle for People’s Park Berkeley 1969”, “Quirky Berkeley” series, union leader, lawyer
  • Steve Wasserman – Participant and Activist during 1969, publisher of Heyday Books, career in publishing, editing and writing
  • Maxina Ventura – member of People’s Park Council (formerly Committee), Homeopath, environmental activist
  • Aidan Hill – Former Berkeley Mayoral Candidate, UCB Student/Graduate, candidate for District 7
  • Joe Liesner – long-time People’s Park activist, Food Not Bombs volunteer

Participants:

  • Joseph Copeland – raised near People’s Park, son of “People‘s Park” author Alan Copeland
  • Chuck Wollenberg – People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group, Berkeley historian
  • David L. Axelrod – attorney at law, Sierra Law Office

UC Berkeley plans to build a high rise on People’s Park, which would destroy the historic and cultural legacy and an irreplaceable natural environment, has brought together writers, historians, students and park activists to oppose this ill-considered project.

Presenters share the historic background of the park, give details on the effort to recognize its national landmark status (**formally received this status May 2022), and share plans for revitalizing this invaluable public green, open space.

Event Transcript (text format)
https://www.peoplespark.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Future-of-Peoples-Park-February-26-2021-Event-Transcript.txt

Event Chat (text format)
https://www.peoplespark.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Future-of-Peoples-Park-February-26-2021-Event-Chat.txt

People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group
https://peoplesparkhxdist.org

People’s Park website
https://peoplespark.org

Posted on

Appeal Filed to Preserve People’s Park!

Make UC A Good Neighbor and the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group (PPHDAG) filed their joint opening brief to the appellate court this week against UC Berkeley under the California Environmental Quality Act challenging UC’s Long Range Development Plan and construction of housing on People’s Park.

We’ve said it before, but this excellent legal work needs to be supported. Please refer any and all to our DONATE NOW! page at http://www.peoplesparkhxdist.org/donate-now/

The appeal focuses on UC’s failure to analyze in its Environmental Impact Report (EIR) a lower-enrollment alternative or any alternative locations for the housing proposed at People’s Park. The lower-enrollment issue is similar to that at UC Santa Barbara, where the City of Goleta and Santa Barbara County have both sued the university for not complying with an agreement to build enough housing to keep up with its expanding student population. With the alternative location issue, UC is required to adequately assess alternative sites for student housing, which it has not done.

UC has twenty days to reply to our appeal brief. However, be assured UC Berkeley will continue its cynical and misleading public relations campaign on Housing Project #2 (People’s Park) belied by UC’s own planning documents. The goal is building 8,000 new student beds. However, UCB’s own Draft EIR includes a chart listing sixteen possible construction sites and proposed new beds provided by them. They total 13,566. The 1,100 hundred beds at the People’s Park site could easily be accommodated at these other sites.

The prime alternative site is just over a block away at the UC-owned Ellsworth Parking Structure, which UC says can provide up to 2,980 beds. Preserve a parking lot over a park’s much-needed urban recreational space? Why in the midst of extreme climate change must the trees and birds be part of a sacrifice zone? Urban planners agree that overcrowded urban areas like the Southside require more urban parks, not less, to promote human health and wellness and are needed in a time of drought, wildfires, pandemics and pending earthquakes.

Despite UCB’s claims of support, its student survey has been negatively critiqued in the Daily Cal, which has also written many well-researched articles and editorials denouncing the destruction of the park. Students were the primary participants in the recent effort to stop the fencing off the park. The Berkeley Faculty Association is also a critic of the plan to build on People’s Park.

UCB has described the housing crisis as “dire” and “acute.” We all realize that more affordable housing is needed, but most new housing is market rate and beyond the means of most students and the community. The crisis, however, can hardly be described as “acute” by UC Berkeley when it has known about its low ratio of housing per student for well over a half-century.

Campus messages portraying People’s Park as an area of frequent crime on the Southside is quickly countered by facts. A review of data from the Crimemapping website over a six-month period from January through June, 2022 for a 20-block area surrounding the park revealed that 94% of crime occurred outside of People’s Park. Crimes do occur there, but at a lower rate than the surrounding neighborhood. Keep in mind that the promoter of the image of the park as “crime-ridden” is the same institution that was fined $2.35 million in 2020 for underreporting campus crime.

The Chancellor’s message to the campus at the beginning of the semester was noteworthy in that it made absolutely no mention of People’s Park being added to the National Register of Historic Places. The value of the park as a cultural and historic site is beyond Berkeley, beyond California. It is nationally recognized and sought out by visitors from all over the world.

Now is the time for UC Berkeley to stop the delay in student housing construction by moving Project #2 to an appropriate location and to work with the community to make People’s Park a park that all can be proud of. The world is watching.

— Harvey Smith, People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group
http://www.peoplesparkhxdist.org/donate-now/

Posted on

Response to Chancellor Carol T. Christ’s August 15 message to students about People’s Park

In the dead of night, UC moved on the park — barricading city streets, blocking access to sidewalks, and fencing the park. Protected by riot police, heavy equipment was brought in. Peaceful protesters sat in front of that equipment to keep the park open and prevent further deforestation of the trees, which UC last did in 2018. People peacefully demonstrated against the heavy machinery and destruction of the trees. They had already witnessed the changing climate in the park after much of the east side forest was demolished by UC just a few years before. Students — of UC Berkeley, local colleges, and high schools — and other community members, including Berkeley neighbors and former residents of the park were outraged by the violent closure and destruction of this community resource.

The university has presented the project as an all-or-nothing: either people will sleep in squalid conditions on the street, or they will build housing on the park. This is a false dichotomy. The park is a vibrant community center, park and recreation space — one of the few accessible and open to everybody, including the poor who suffer within a rapidly gentrifying East Bay. Hundreds of people use the park daily, gathering to play basketball or music, to share food, and community. None of these resources are preserved in the university’s plans, which would turn our park into a sterile dorm lawn. Maximo Martinez Commons is a courtyard just one block north and similar to the one proposed for People’s Park. When was the last time you or your friends used that space?

We need People’s Park to remain a community-run, user-developed and user-defined park. That is why dozens of community groups — such as the Berkeley Student Cooperative, the largest non-profit provider of affordable student housing in the city — stand with People’s Park in opposition to the university’s plans. Homeless advocacy groups such as Consider The Homeless, Berkeley Outreach Coalition, Suitcase Clinic, Berkeley Free Clinic, Berkeley Copwatch, and others stand in solidarity with the park defense.

The UC Regents actually refused Capital Strategies’ attempt to have a $53 million contingency fund available for crowd control, and unforeseen relocations of new residents, and other circumstances in the demolition of People’s Park. Those millions could instead be spent acquiring land for supportive housing sites right in Berkeley, or adding additional housing on a site recommended by the Chancellor’s Housing Commission. And what about the Ellsworth garage, equally close to campus, which has to be demolished due to earthquake danger? In their survey not long ago, 92% of undergraduates did not rank People’s Park as their top site for housing development. If building housing was the university’s top priority, they could have already begun construction on a different site equally close to campus.

Over decades, the UC has approached the park with malice and destructive intent. In spite of this, people have stewarded the land and grown more gardens, community, and lifelong relationships. For 53 years, every time the fences have gone up, they’ve come down! People’s Park is not just some empty real estate lot. People’s Park remains a user-developed park, open for everyone to gather, host events, or hang out and have lunch. Nothing has changed. Come out and see for yourself. We will rebuild once again. Help repair the park according to your own desires. Re-connect with the land!

— People’s Park Council (PeoplesPark.org)

Posted on

Tear gas use on peaceful protesters is STILL immoral!

From: Terri Compost, August 3, 2022
Open letter to Berkeley City Council council@cityofberkeley.info

Dear Berkeley Mayor and City Council,

It has come to my attention that you could consider suspending the city’s policy against the use of tear gas, smoke and pepper spray for the duration of the City Council recess. The irresponsibility of putting an action like that in place during a time when the council can not act and respond to the situation is extremely irresponsible if not criminal.

I can only imagine you are considering it under the pressure of your UC controllers to encourage them forward in their attack on People’s Park and the People of Berkeley. The folly of the plan to try to build on People’s Park is evident. It has been an immoral and blatantly classist and racist assault against one of the few refuges in the City in which all people are served. The response of the people should not be a surprise to you. Building on People’s Park is a direct attack against a lot of people, some with nothing to lose. If UC or Berkeley truly wants housing, you will build it elsewhere. There is no scenario where putting a dorm on People’s Park could possibly go smoothly.

Now it’s in your hands. Do you want your legacy to be a bloodbath for this folly? UC creates the problem of scarce housing by admitting unsustainable numbers of students and then pretends to solve the problem they created. Well I’ll let you in on a little secret. People’s Park is a tar baby. The more you attack it the more stuck you will be covered in the tar of the evil of attacking the poor, the environment and our hopes and dreams.

Maybe with enough money, force, police, overtime, added expenditures, fences and ill will the University can cram in something. But it will never rest peacefully there. I suggest you don’t commit to protracted war on the poor of your city. You can not win. You will create more poverty and pain and devastation that will continue to ripple out.

There is a righteous stand to take here. Gus Newport did the right thing when he refused to allow the City of Berkeley Police Department be the ground troops for UC’s bad plan in 1979. The City has prohibited attacking peaceful protesters with chemical weapons for a reason. It is immoral.

History will remember the decisions you make. Peace can be made. A dorm can be built on the Parking Lot of Ellsworth and Channing. But it will take legislators of conscience and intelligence to take leadership and bring our town back to peace.

Please do not put swords into the wannabe overlord’s arsenal to slaughter your city while you are on vacation. Please do the right thing. People’s lives are at stake and you must be responsible now.

Thank you, Terri Compost

Terri Compost is a long-time Berkeley People’s Park community organizer, gardener, educator.

Posted on

Call In To Berkeley City Council, Thursday August 4, 2022 8:15 PM To Stop Use of Tear Gas, Pepper Spray and Smoke

UPDATE: Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin has canceled tonight’s meeting described below, perhaps he’s getting some spine or he’s just worried about national media attention. He tweeted: “Mtg cancelled. Policy stands and shame on the Sheriff for not guaranteeing mutual aide emergency support to Berkeley because he disagrees with our tear gas ban.”, in a Twitter thread that tagged Berkeleyside and others.

The Berkeley City Manager has requested to allow use of tear gas, smoke and pepper spray while City Council goes on sumer vacation, so the Berkeley City Council just called a Special Meeting for Thursday August 4, 2022 8:15 PM. The one agenda item is:

Discussion and possible action regarding the temporary suspension of the June 9, 2020 policy prohibiting the use of tear gas, smoke and pepper spray for the duration of the City Council recess.

Call in and demand the council does NOT allow this violent City Manager’s wish.

Thursday, August 4, 2022
City Council Special Meeting at 8:15 PM – (8:15 in the evening)

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89083608532
Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free)
Meeting ID: 890 8360 8532

AGENDA: 1. City Manager – Discussion and possible action regarding the temporary suspension of the June 9, 2020 policy prohibiting the use of tear gas, smoke and pepper spray for the duration of the City Council recess.

https://berkeleyca.gov/city-council-special-meeting-eagenda-august-4-2022

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas

This is a transparent attack on the people power that tore down the fence at People’s Park. Please call in and express your thoughts to stop these attacks on people trying to stop the destruction of People’s Park by UC Berkeley.

Posted on

Update on legal action to protect People’s Park, July 21, 2022

The First Appellate Court with the help of the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group has just taken down another of University of California’s (UC) attempts to take the park. On Friday, UC had asked Judge Roesch for permission to erect a fence around the park and Roesch denied them, saying I’Il see you both in court on July 29, 2022.

Well, UC was back with another complaint on Saturday demanding an expedited rehearing or Motion to Remand and saying they were improperly denied their request for a bond to cover increased construction cost incurred by the stay.

Today the First Appellate court said: NO REHEARING OR REMAND, and NO BOND. Their order instructed our team to file a response to UC Motion to Remand by August 3rd. We may see that response sooner than August 3rd. Remember the trial on the merits is July 29, 2022.

Letter from David L. Axelrod, Attorney for the Petitioners

July 21, 2022

To:
The PEOPLE,
PEOPLE’S PARK COUNCIL,
MAKE UC A GOOD NEIGHBOR, and
People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group

Blurb – For Immediate Release

Re: Make UC a Good Neighbor, et al. v. City of Berkeley, et al., and U.C.

The above-referenced case started out as a Petition in Alameda Superior Court by People’s Park advocacy groups for a Writ of Mandate against Berkeley City Council, the Mayor, and the City itself, for violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act by the City’s adoption of a secret sell-out agreement with the University of California (UC) in violation of applicable California open-meeting laws.

Soon thereafter, the Court, by Judge Frank Roesch, expanded the action to include the University of California (UC), and later permitted or encouraged causes of action against UC for breach of contractual agreements with People’s Park representatives, namely the People’s Park Council and People’s Park Project/ Native Plant Forum.

As of today, July 21, 2022, in ruling on the City’s Demurrer, Judge Roesch has thrown out the Petition against the City, while the Complaint against UC remains intact. In doing so, Judge Roesch declined to enforce Berkeley’s Measure N, and also concluding that Berkeley’s Measure L does not apply to People’s Park. On behalf of the Petitioners, we argued that the City Respondents have violated Measure N by surrendering to UC, rather than upholding applicable laws, including the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and Measure L, which expressly applies to all “vacant public land . . . used de facto as open space . . .,” whether or not owned by the City.

Judge Roesch also ruled that the Petitioners had failed to file a government claim within six (6) months of the City’s wrongful act. On behalf of the Petitioners, we argued that The Government Claims Statute does not apply to our Petition for Writ of Mandamus, which simply seeks a stay, declaratory judgment, and other equitable relief, rather than being a claim for monetary damages resulting from foreseeable losses that have not yet actually occurred.

Judge Roesch also ruled in favor of a Motion to Strike large segments of the amended Petition, even though the Motion had been untimely filed five (5) days after the deadline approved in a Stipulation of the parties and an Order of the Court.

Robert Perlmutter, attorney for the City, tried to keep the City in the case as a “real party in interest,” but the Court denied this request. Accordingly, the City Respondents are now totally excluded from this case.

The only question is whether to appeal now, based upon the dismissal of all causes of action against the City entities, or to appeal after final judgment is entered in the case in chief. The only remaining now is the Defendant UC. This lawsuit, like People’s Park itself, appears to be hanging by a thread at this time.

As requested by the Petitioners, Judge Roesch did properly take Judicial Notice of the Stay Order issued by the Court of Appeal in a closely-related CEQA case, temporarily preventing destruction of the Park by UC. But he also stated that the Order was “irrelevant” to the Demurrer. Perhaps a similar order, but broader and longer lasting, can be sought in what is the newly revamped and evolved iteration of our case at law aiming to save the Park.
May 1000 parks bloom!!

For Plants and Peace,

DAVID L. AXELROD,
Attorney for the Petitioners,
PEOPLE’S PARK COUNCIL,
MAKE UC A GOOD NEIGHBOR, and
People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group

Posted on

Project Roomkey – An Independent Review of Abode Services and the Rodeway Inn, Berkeley, California

A new report has been released, and is a comprehensive analysis of the living conditions and grievances of unhoused residents currently and formerly occupying the “Rodeway Inn” hotel.

This is the introduction, and the full report can be downloaded here:
https://www.peoplespark.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Project-Roomkey-Review-of-Abode-and-Rodeway-v.1.3.pdf

The Rodeway Inn is located at 1461 University Ave. In Berkeley California. The age of the building is unknown at this time. Rodeway Inn is currently operated under “Project Roomkey” a series of transitional living facilities whose program offers individual or shared rooms to chronically homeless individuals for a limited time until permanent supportive housing can be secured.

Project Roomkey is a program initially funded by the State Of California through intermediaries such as Alameda County. However, since 2020 most if not all funding is provided by The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

In its current form the Rodeway Inn Project Roomkey program is managed by local non-profit and contractor “Abode Services”. Abode operates several hotel and alternative shelter programs in the area as well as offering other homelessness services including outreach and housing case management in Alameda County. While Abode is currently contracted through Project Roomkey, recent developments (including a consent calendar item introduced at a recent Berkeley City Council meeting*) have shown that in coming months the Rodeway Inn program will be financed by the City Of Berkeley and UC Berkeley respectfully.

“Where Do We Go Berkeley”(WDWG) is a non-profit advocacy group based in Berkeley CA. WDWG has been in contact with the Rodeway Residents in question for over 3 years in several collaborative and supportive capacities. WDWG was instrumental in ensuring the placement of most residents by coordinating with “Lifelong Medical Street Medicine Team” who managed hotel referrals during the eviction of “Seabreeze” and “Ashby Shellmound” encampments. It is for this reason that WDWG carries the responsibility of ensuring that all who entered this Project Roomkey site are allowed the same rights and respect that any housed individual would be entitled to.

Almost immediately after unhoused residents from the I-80 Corridor were placed at Rodeway Inn, WDWG began receiving numerous complaints of misconduct and mistreatment regarding Abode staff. WDWG is bound by its mission statement and organizing documents to take each complaint it receives seriously and to attempt negotiation and advocacy for remedies that would be satisfactory to the complaining party. To that extent, WDWG feels ignoring or dismissing complaints would make them complicit and liable for any injury that may occur to their clientele during participation in a program such as “Roomkey”.

Contained in this report is a series of findings and recommendations. Some findings are based on declarations made by Rodeway Inn residents while others were witnessed directly by members of Where Do We Go Berkeley. Because of the discrimination inherent in homelessness issues, WDWG is inclined to believe allegations made by residents unless clear evidence can be provided that shows otherwise. While not all allegations have been submitted to Abode through their official grievance policy, most if not all issues have been expressed to staff and management at various times.

Project Roomkey – An Independent Review of Abode Services and the Rodeway Inn, Berkeley, California
Where Do We Go Berkeley
Telephone: 510-570-8026
Email: wheredowegoberk@gmail.com
Web: www.wheredowegoberk.org

Download the report:
https://www.peoplespark.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Project-Roomkey-Review-of-Abode-and-Rodeway-v.1.3.pdf

Posted on

People’s Park and Neighborhood Groups Challenge UC’s 2021 LRDP

In a lawsuit claiming the nearly total inadequacy of the University of California’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on its 2021 Long Range Development Plan and Housing Project #1 and Housing Project #2 (LRDP) a team of lawyers representing Make UC a Good Neighbor and the People’s Park Historic Advocacy Group (PPHDAG) are seeking to void approval of the LRDP and the EIR, and thereby stop all activities proposed in that LRDP. This legal action is of great importance to supporters of People’s Park since it would mean significant delays for any attempts to destroy the Park by erecting three buildings on that beloved site. It would also keep our friends at 1921 Walnut Street in their rent controlled homes for the time being.

The lead attorney in this suit, Thomas Lippe, has prevailed in two California Environmental Quality Act cases against the University of California and, because his most recent victory against UC concerned plans to build on Upper Hearst, Mr Lippe is very familiar with the 2021 LRDP. This suit wast filed on August 20, 2021 in the Superior Court of California in and for the county of Alameda.

It describes the nearly total failure of the EIR for the 2021 LEDP to adequately either describe or address the environmental effects caused by the program or projects proposed in the LRDP. Among its contentions are that the EIR fails to make required findings, fails to propose and evaluate adequate mitigation measures, fails to respond in good faith to the public comments received in response to the draft EIR, and fails to lawfully assess the LRDP’s effects on traffic, noise, air pollution, population and housing, parks and recreation, or historic and cultural resources.

This site will post any response from UC or upcoming court dates as they are announced.

— joe liesner, secretary People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group

Donate to Lawsuit at:
People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group
P.O. Box 1234
Berkeley, CA 94701-1234

More information at peoplesparkhxdist.org

Full text PDF:
Make UC A Good Neighbor, et al., v The Regents – LRDP Petition.pdf

Posted on

Save 1921 Walnut, Save People’s Park! Protest: April 24, 2021

Save 1921 Walnut, Save People’s Park!
Protest
Saturday, April 24, 2021, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
1921 Walnut Street, Berkeley, CA 94704
TANC, 1921 Walnut, People’s Park Committee

Link to poster: https://www.peoplespark.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Save-1921-Walnut-April-24-2021-poster.jpg

End the UC’s displacement, gentrification, and violence!

Protect community, protect history, protect People’s Park and 1921 Walnut Street!

The University of California, Gov. Newsom and their billionaire cronies is trying to evict tenants of 1921 Walnut Street, a rent-controlled building, and destroy affordable housing in Berkeley, California to create student dorms. The UC is also trying to destroy People’s Park, an open space, center for arts and culture, mutual aid, and poor people in the East Bay.

We say NO!

Meet at 1921 Walnut Street on April 24th at 12PM.