People’s Park, Berkeley, California – Community, History, Trees, Green Space, Free Speech, Social Justice, Civil Rights, Gardens, Music, Art, Style, Freebox, Recreation, Ecology, Education, Sports
Wednesday, July 6, 2022 at 5 PM
5 PM: Rally at Martin Luther King Civic Center Park, March to People’s Park (~ 1 mile)
7:30 PM: Live music and BBQ at People’s Park
UC Berkeley has started taking over People’s Park, a historic center of community, resistance, and mutual aid. March with us to reclaim the space and tell the UC: NO DEVELOPMENT ON PEOPLE’S PARK!
Sign up and volunteer for the march: tinyurl.com/ParkMarchVolunteer
defendpeoplespark.org • peoplespark.org • Berkeley CopWatch
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.
Download this as a printable 8.5 x 11 inch PDF flyer.
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
To all our People’s Park Supporters:
We are very happy to report that after over two years of work we were able to send out this press release today. — Harvey Smith
For Immediate Release
For additional information:
Harvey Smith peoplesparkhxdist@gmail.com
510-684-0414
This designation underscores the historical, cultural, architectural and environmental assets of this irreplaceable open space. The park has an over half-century legacy of political and cultural events, a bio system of flora and fauna, and a surround of highly significant architecture.
This recognition follows being nominated unanimously by the California State Historical Resources Commission. People’s Park has played a key role as a gathering place for free speech during the decades of anti-war and civil rights struggles.
Former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport commented that, “The stability of cities and towns is formed from the history of planning and participation of citizens. People’s Park very much reflects and proves this. People’s Park is very deserving of being on the National Register of Historic Places.”
However, the University of California plans to destroy the park despite its national significance. Harvey Smith, president of the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group, commented that, “Its planned destruction is unconscionable. The park’s importance is beyond a squabble in Berkeley or within California. It is a nationally recognized historic site.”
Smith suggests the park should be preserved so that its appearance and infrastructure are no different than any other park within the City of Berkeley or any green space within the UC Berkeley campus. This is entirely possible once the present homeless population of the park is relocated to housing as planned by the City of Berkeley and the University.
The ill-considered plan of UC Berkeley to build on the park should be scuttled because the university has many alternative sites for student housing. Chief among them is the Ellsworth Parking Structure, which is one block away from People’s Park. Keeping a parking lot and destroying a park is a totally irresponsible action in the age of extreme climate change. UC Berkeley’s plan to demolish Evans Hall to create open space on the campus should be matched by maintaining the open space of People’s Park in the community.
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 both the city and university, and among the reasons visitors from all parts of the globe are drawn to Berkeley. Recognizing People’s Park for the asset that it is and then preserving and enhancing it can only add to its value as a treasured Berkeley attraction.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.
More information on the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group can be found at peoplesparkhxdist.org.
Stop the War in Ukraine, Save the People
Hosted by United Against War and Militarism
Saturday, April 16, 2022 at 3pm
People’s Park Stage, People’s Park, 2556 Haste Street, Berkeley, California
End the War: We must come together to oppose further escalation by Russia and the United States. Join us in front of the Stage for a Rally, Speeches and discuss plans of action!
Trees • Oxygen • Gardens
Now is the time to maintain nature’s gifts!
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
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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.
For Immediate Release
For Additional Information:
Harvey Smith, peoplesparkhxdist@gmail.com, 510.684.0414
(January 31, 2022) – A coalition of community groups filed a lawsuit to fight the secret, illegal agreement that the City of Berkeley signed with UC Berkeley — giving UC Berkeley a blank check for unfettered growth. The agreement, signed in July 2021, prevents the City of Berkeley from filing any further legal action against UC Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) and withdrew the city’s objection to the destruction of several historic buildings and to the eviction of tenants from their rent controlled homes.
Three community organizations — Make UC a Good Neighbor, People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group (PPHDAG) and People’s Park Council (PPC) — amended their Petition on January 20, 2022 that challenges the City of Berkeley’s agreement with UC Berkeley regarding their LRDP. The Petition alleges the vote on the agreement violates the requirements of the Brown Act, which mandates local government to conduct business at open and public meetings.
“The residents of Berkeley will be saddled with this onerous agreement long after the Mayor, Chancellor, City Council members and Regents are gone from their positions. The basic principles of open government have been shamelessly tossed aside for purposes of political expediency,” according to Harvey Smith, member of the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group.
The agreement prevents the city from taking legal action against the LRDP for the next 16 years. Although the city’s own analysis estimated UC Berkeley costs the city $21 million per year, the agreement will pay the city only $4.1 million per year, 20 cents on the dollar. Therefore, over the 16 years Berkeley taxpayers will be responsible for covering a deficit of over $250 million. Three other cities hosting UC campuses have negotiated much more favorable agreements, including the mandatory production of student housing.
The lawsuit cites the action of the Berkeley City Council to conclude “a secret agreement in closed session, never acknowledged, approved or disclosed in public session.” The Petition to the court also cites Measure L, an ordinance passed by Berkeley voters in 1986, which mandates “That wherever public parks and open space currently exist in Berkeley, such use shall continue and be funded at least to allow the maintenance of the present condition and services.” The agreement violates voter-approved Measure L by collaborating in the destruction of People’s Park, a user-developed and community-controlled open space in the South Campus area of Berkeley.
Additionally cited is Measure N, approved by voters in 1988; the secret agreement is described as running “afoul of the intent and aspirational policies set forth in Berkeley Measure N,” which requires the city to “use all available lawful means to ensure that public agencies abide by the rules and laws of the city and that these agencies pay taxes and fees, comparable to those paid by private citizens and business to support their fair share of city services.”
Although the Berkeley City Council had also resolved on multiple occasions to support tenant rights, and specifically the interests of tenants evicted from 1921 Walnut Street, Berkeley, the agreement bound the City “to not challenge the upcoming 2021 LRDP and UC’s Anchor House [1921 Walnut Street] and People’s Park housing projects.”
The lawsuit further stipulates that the City through its agreement with UC will “induce, aid and assist” in destruction of People’s Park as a student and community park and open space and has collaborated in breach of contract by UC Berkeley. “UC has breached its mutual commitments, promises, and written contracts with responsible People’s Park organizations,” which are included in Exhibits A through L of the Petition.
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