The city didn’t even bring in porta potties until I believe it was July and their handwashing stations, not only at People’s Park, but at Civic Center Park, most often have no water or soap, or paper towels. The city never brought in Sharps containers, and in their recent propaganda, UC refers back to there being a Sharps slot at the bathrooms, but during 2020 the bathrooms often were not opened until later in the day, and sometimes not at all, and no one was in the office so there was no way for the container to be checked or replaced. The Berkeley Free Clinic provided Sharps containers that were placed in the porta potties loose in spite of our calls for the city to strap them onto the outsides to increase the probability that more people would use them.
Months ago, the porta potties were moved to Dwight Way so now users, if they don’t see Sharps containers in the porta potties will 1) throw on the floor of the porta potties; 2) throw needles into the toilet making it hard for upkeep; 3) throw them on the ground outside. Do we think a user is going to walk across the park to place needles into the slot at the bathrooms? I don’t.
So the city and UC have had plenty of information shared by me on behalf of the group, and Sheila who spread information widely.
In this video, I went into detail about how the sinks, certainly, are inaccessible, but the lack of any reasonable upkeep of the bathrooms over the years makes using the bathrooms actually not truly accessible for people in wheelchairs or using walkers. Most often there is no toilet paper and there certainly are no seat covers. It’s disgusting. Soap? Not for years except when volunteers provide it, and their soap dispensers are too high for accessibility anyway. The hand blow dryer is too high but in reality often is broken down for long periods anyway. Locks on the bathroom stall doors are not able to be used by many with disabilities affecting hand and finger use while there are perfectly well-known options that allow for flipping a handle over.
UC and the city have failed the most vulnerable in the Berkeley, and UC has taken a park which was created for everyone’s benefit and made sure the bathrooms are not accessible to those who may have the most challenging needs in a bathroom setting. This in a city which was central to the beginnings of the Independent Living Movement and the creation of the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act. Shameful.
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
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.
Max, Ingrid, People’s Park bathroom mural – April 13, 2019
Leading up to the 50th anniversary of People’s Park, in 2019, Max Ventura wrote to Leon Rosselson to let him know that in spite of UC’s continual threats for half a century, we’re still here holding down The Commons. Max had sung his song, The World Turned Upside Down, aka The Diggers Song, on the Free Speech Stage since 1986. What follows is the interchange between them in 2019. While the one quote from him was so inspiring, Greg suggested that we share the whole interchange about the history of the making of the mural bearing the words to his song, The World Turned Upside Down. It is based on The Diggers in England in 1649, and some of Gerrard Winstanley’s words. The Diggers’ history and Leon’s song is such an important part of People’s Park History.
We now are celebrating our 50 year anniversary of People’s Park in Berkeley, California. We met at Down Home Music some years ago and I brought you a copy of our book in which the mural is featured. I continue to sing the Diggers Song as I have sung out there since 1986. It became our instant anthem all those decades ago and people begged meto paint up the lyrics. So one anniversary I did so on the sides of the concrete bricks leading to the men’s bathroom entrance. It took over 7 hours (I don’t recommend painting on concrete without proper brushes, at very least, unless in an emergency which it seemed this was!
Some years later as it had faded, people asked me to repaint them so I spent another anniversary concert day repainting. Sore arms. It was no easier the second time, and once again it was with perhaps the worst possible brushes since I had not planned ahead to redo that day. Emergency! though… so I made do.
Then some years after that when there had been just a bit too much chaotic graffiti on that big wall between the bathroom entrances, we decided a new mural would be a good idea and some of the park dwellers said it was getting too hard to read the tiny and faded lyrics and they wanted them big and bold so a local park supporter and artist did some initial sketching to lay out my ideas and a park dweller who’s an artist, and I, further planned the mural. He started painting the background and hills, and I painted the banners and spent (ouch!) another long day painting lyrics onto the banners during another anniversary concert and then holding the ladder while Terri Compost painted up the park history above. It’s been I don’t know how many years and there has been little graffiti and some of what’s been added is interactive right on the banners. Living art.
People’s Park is 50 years of User-development and I just wanted to share, once again, how important your song has been to the people living in, and visiting the park, and that is obvious as this has been one of the longest-lasting mural up there.
So thanks for being part of People’s Park, a model for our world. Messy sometimes, but a vision we have helped nurture and which lives on in spite of the University aggressively attacking the park and the people of the park many times over the half century.
Just this Jan. they came in 5 am one morning and decimated over 40 healthy trees. They say they plan to build housing for students but that was what was there 50 years ago, before they razed the beautiful old houses and apartments on that block. So our response? We’ve been planting other trees and they keep threatening to down those, also. And so it goes, and we remind “the public” that, it’s never been about providing housing, but about silencing free speech and sanitizing the area to please wealthy parents sending their children from the suburbs.
So we are on to our next 50 years. We had our first of two anniversary concerts yesterday and the second is the 28th. In between we have nearly daily events. I’m attaching a flyer for one I’ve coordinated, and at which I shall speak. If you go to www.peoplespark.org you can see the schedule of events. Lots of inspiration.
Sincerely, Max Ventura
Subject: Re: photos in front of people’s park bathroom mural Date: 2019-04-21 03:26 From: leon rosselson To: Max Ventura beneficialbug@sonic.net
Dear Max,
Thank you so much for your email, the photos and all the information about the happenings in People’s Park. I’m touched and feel honoured that you have given so much of your time and worked so hard to give the lyrics of my song a new life on this beautiful mural. This is my 60th year of singing and writing and one of my most treasured moments in all that time was to visit People’s Park and see the mural when I was in Berkeley in 2011. I am unlikely to visit again but I have the book, so thank you.
Good luck for the next 50 years. What you are all doing is a bright spot of hope in these bleak times.
We’ve had such a great almost 2 weeks of celebrations already, have a few more workshops and other events, and have our second concert all day Sunday.
At our People’s Park Committee meeting Sunday, people wanted me to ask you whether we could put this onto our website (we’d say, of course, that this is from you, writer of The World Turned Upside Down). The website is www.peoplespark.org:
Re: May we put this quote from you on the People’s Park website?
“This is my 60th year of singing and writing and one of my most treasured moments in all that time was to visit People’s Park and see the mural when I was in Berkeley in 2011. I am unlikely to visit again but I have the book, so thank you.
Good luck for the next 50 years. What you are all doing is a bright spot of hope in these bleak times.”
Added in 2021 as we are about to celebrate 52 years, enjoying the student and community uprising end of January where UC’s fences once again were torn down, and then were marched down Telegraph Avenue to be deposited on the steps of Sproul Hall:
While I was painting the lyrics on the mural so many years ago, my three children painted over the faded tiny lyrics on the edges of the concrete block wall at the bathroom entrance. They painted veggies and this kid art also has been left alone for everyone to enjoy. Even their names survive on the bottom painting of the bunch. Attached is a photo of Ingrid by those veggies paintings from so long ago, and there is one of Ingrid and me in front of the mural in 2019.
— Max Ventura
Ingrid, People’s Park bathroom tiles – April 13, 2019
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
This letter is regarding Agenda Action Item F4-A: Preliminary Plans Funding, People’s Park Housing, Berkeley.
People’s Park in Berkeley is a poor choice for this housing project for a number of reasons. First and foremost is the incredible importance of this site on a national and even international level. The death and grievous woundings that resulted from then-governor Reagan’s unleashing of live ammunition on student protesters and innocent bystanders in 1969 was a pivotal moment launching a trajectory of polarized politics that is playing out today. The historical integrity of the site is not confined to 1960’s radicalism on and off campus. The advent of the user-defined development movement and the ecology and food not bombs movements also play crucial roles in the legacy of people’s park past and present. Sproul Plaza may have been the site of many rallies of the free speech movement but the flowering of radicalism and counter culture in Southside campus (which is so important to UC Berkeley’s legacy) has found its most fertile ground at People’s Park. Today the park is in use as community gardens and open space for rest and relaxation to many people, a treasured open space for over 50 years, a living monument to the passions and struggle of that tumultuous and important era. Nowhere is that legacy more integral than Berkeley, especially adjacent UC Berkeley campus. No shadowed plaque could replace this powerful testament.
In addition, students and faculty have expressed continuous interest in the park as an area of study. People’s Park offers a unique environment for experiments in user-defined community projects, as the site is not confined by city park management bureaucracy and has a large and committed constituency that is deeply invested in both the physical site and the more abstract meaning there. I and many students feel that UC should view People’s Park as part of the university’s diverse offerings, not as s blemish that needs to be suppressed and/or destroyed. I feel that the agricultural study areas at Oxford and Gill Tract are worthy of preservation for similar reasons; UC Berkeley gains value by having diverse study offerings. Local graduates also gain horticultural careers through these programs; a wonderful community benefit that the school provides.
There are quite a few other sites to build on that have much less community pain and resistance associated with them, Including the 6 other sites listed in your current housing plan. This plan spans the decade of the 2020s in scope, with the sites projected to be developed sequentially. At the end of this decade, 50 acres of UC land and another 50 acres of adjacent city land at Clark Kerr campus become buildable. 2032 marks the expiration of a 50 year no-build covenant that UC generously signed with affluent neighbors. The times have changed. Over a hundred acres of prime land near campus can, should, and will be built upon to alleviate this terrible housing crisis. With this huge undeveloped area soon to come online, there is no logical excuse for developing such a small and controversial site as People’s Park.
Thank you, Ivar Diehl Berkeley resident Oakland business owner
