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People’s Park Update – December 2023

Media outlets are reporting that UC Berkeley intends to attack People’s Park in the first week of January 2024. Yes, 16 months after UC’s failed attempt in August of 2022 to fence and destroy the park, they have regrouped and now they are ready to go back on the offensive.

We won’t let them destroy it!

Park defenders are preparing to protect People’s Park once again, as we have successfully done for the past 54 years. While there are still some issues winding their way through the courts, the situation has changed since 2022. State politicians such as Buffy Wicks, Nancy Skinner and Gov. Gavin Newsom have worked to change the law to enable UC Berkeley to ignore environmental law and finish their conquest of People’s Park.

The university will rely on hordes of riot police to do their dirty work. Do not be afraid! Come join us! When it comes to the park, the people have always prevailed — but we can’t do it without you.

Now is the time to prepare and get ready to mobilize. Get supplies together in preparation for a late-night, or early morning, resistance. Tell your friends about the Park and encourage them to join you.

Get connected in the following ways:

  1. Text SAVETHEPARK to 41372 — and share this number! If possible, disable your phone’s “Do Not Disturb” for the first week of January to ensure you get nighttime alerts.
  2. For further updates, text “@pplspark6” to 81010
  3. Come out to the park to meet people and get prepared.
  4. Form Affinity Groups so that you and your friends can engage in creative resistance to help save the park. Diversity of tactics is encouraged!
  5. Please donate to:
    People’s Park Council: https://account.venmo.com/u/PeoplesParkCouncil
    People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group: https://gofund.me/ae2351ea or http://www.peoplesparkhxdist.org/donate-now/
  6. Visit defendthepark.org and peoplespark.org for info & resources.
  7. Follow us on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/peoplesparkberkeley/

Protecting People’s Park affirms Berkeley’s radical tradition and the park’s place in our hearts and social fabric. It is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as a place of major historic and cultural significance and value, and is home to free daily food servings, basketball, and companionship of plants, animals, and humans.

Let a thousand parks bloom!

People’s Park Council

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Opinion: Breaking the impasse on People’s Park

This statement is published at:
https://www.berkeleyside.org/2023/01/10/opinion-peoples-park-student-housing-alternate-site

We suggest UC Berkeley commence construction of the student and supportive housing planned for the park on an alternate site as soon as possible.

By Shirley Dean and Gus Newport
Jan. 10, 2023, 8:01 a.m.

Although UC Berkeley has stated it wants to build 8,000 student housing beds as soon as possible, the university has picked a site, knowing it would be vigorously opposed, and now has caused months of delay. We suggest it commence construction of the student and supportive housing planned for People’s Park on an alternate site as soon as possible. Indeed, UCB has identified up to 15 alternative sites.

The National Register of Historic Places has recognized the value of People’s Park. The park has an over half-century legacy of cultural events; town, gown and political events; a biosystem of flora and fauna; a surround of highly significant architecture; and a role as an everyday community recreation site.

UC has been defeated in the courts in many of the California Environmental Quality Act challenges to its campus development plans. These court decisions have made it clear that UCB is not doing an adequate job of identifying and mitigating the impacts of its development in Berkeley.

Additionally, UC’s reckless demolition of most of the historic trees in People’s Park on Aug. 3 has threatened a key element of the HUD funding for the supportive housing portion of the project due to the lack of agreement to do the required federal environmental review, thus putting that project in jeopardy.

UCB’s almost 50% increase in enrollment (almost 15,000 students) means that the Southside of Berkeley desperately needs the open space of People’s Park. Based on the city’s recent population growth, concentrated in the areas nearest the campus, and the city’s standard of 2 acres of park and open space per 1,000 residents, the Southside neighborhoods need approximately 18 acres of new, accessible open space.

City planners agree increasingly dense urban areas need more parks, not fewer. Furthermore, the park is needed as a shelter during earthquakes, fires and pandemics – Berkeley will face them all again.

Now is the time to develop a feasible plan of action based on cooperation between the state, the University of California and Berkeley residents who host its flagship campus.

The park’s future should include proper maintenance, user development, and interpretation to provide Berkeley residents and visitors with information on all aspects of People’s Park — Berkeley’s incredible architectural legacy and the political and cultural history of activism on the Southside. Like other parks, it should become a welcoming recreation resource for anyone in the community – housed or unhoused city residents, students, and visitors of all backgrounds and income levels.

Both the city of Berkeley and UC Berkeley celebrate the Free Speech and Sixties history of the Telegraph Avenue corridor. It is an asset to the city and the university and draws visitors from around the globe to Berkeley. Preserving and enhancing the park can only add to its value as a treasured Berkeley attraction.

With the park’s permanence assured, its future could evolve in collaboration with the People’s Park Council, the long-standing consensus-based group of stewards and advocates for the park, with California Indian tribes, and with a land trust or conservancy. Financing for this vision could be through federal or state funds for parks.

Whatever future model is adopted for People’s Park, it is clear that the plan to destroy the park and the possibility of continuing conflict between park users and the university are neither desirable nor inevitable. Community members can develop a partnership with an enlightened public agency to preserve and enhance People’s Park in a way that honors its culture and heritage and provides valuable open space for the Southside neighborhood. With goodwill and hard work, this future is possible.

Shirley Dean and Gus Newport are former mayors of the city of Berkeley.

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Let’s Stroll Along Derby Creek in People’s Park

Imagine the beauty of the sun on sparkling water of Derby Creek running through a wooded glade in People’s Park. This can become reality as we all get involved in caring for our precious open space in Berkeley.

Derby Creek in People's Park color map
Derby Creek in People’s Park color map
Derby Creek in People’s Park pencil sketch

This very detailed and informative report looks the process of daylighting Derby Creek in People’s Park, restoring a beautiful riparian Berkeley habitat with native plants and flowing water and the restorative power of nature in our neighborhood and town.

Report to the University of California and the People’s Park Community Advisory Board on the Feasibility of Restoring Derby Creek at People’s Park, Berkeley, California

Submitted by: Wolfe Mason Associates, Inc. in association with Waterways Restoration Institute. June 20, 1998
https://peoplespark.org/images/derbycreek1998.pdf
(69 pages, 29 MB, PDF)

Contact People’s Park if you would like to be involved in or want to support this project: e-mail: info@peoplespark.org.