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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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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/

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Nationally significant People’s Park was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 24, 2022

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

(May 27, 2022) – Nationally significant People’s Park was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 24, 2022.

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.

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PRESS RELEASE – Community groups continue fight against secret, illegal agreement between the City of Berkeley and UC Berkeley

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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People’s Park Nomination for National Historic Landmark, CSHRC, October 29, 2021

Video of the People’s Park Nomination for National Historic Landmark, CSHRC, October 29, 2021

Hearing of the People’s Park nomination for the National Register of Historic Places, by the California State Historical Resources Commission, October 29, 2021

Excerpted from video of full commission meeting, available here:
https://cal-span.org/unipage/index.php?site=cal-span&owner=CSHRC&date=2021-10-29

Short introductions of Commissioners:
Lee Adams III, Chair (Public Member)
Adam Sriro, Vice Chair (Historical Archeology)
Bryan K. Brandes (Public Member)
Alan Hess (Architecture)
Luis Hoyos (Architectural History)
René Vellanoweth (Prehistoric Archeology)
and State Historic Preservation Officer:
Julianne Polanco

Followed by public comment, discussion and unanimous affirmative vote.

The Keeper of the Register is expected to issue final approval of the nomination within 45 days.

The original request for the nomination, with extensive historical context, was submitted to the commission by the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group, and can be read here:
https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/pages/1067/files/CA_Alameda_Peoples%20Park_DRAFT.pdf

For more information about People’s Park, its history and current events, please visit:
https://www.peoplespark.org/wp/
https://defendthepark.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.