Hundreds of officers close People’s Park
Protesters arrested as demolition begins for UC Berkeley housing
UC Berkeley sent hundreds of police officers into People’s Park early Thursday and began closing off the historic space with double-stacked shipping containers in preparation for the construction of a controversial student housing project.
The move to close off the public space comes nearly a year after a state appeals court ruled that UC Berkeley failed to adequately address environmental concerns in its $312 million plan to build housing for about 1,100 students and more than 100 of the homeless people who regularly camp on the 2.8acre site. The case is now with the state Supreme Court and remains unresolved.
People’s Park has long been the site of free speech and civil rights movements. Opponents of the university’s student housing project argue that the space should be preserved as a historic location and that the university should look at other sites for housing. The university argues that it’s in dire need of more student housing — UC Berkeley provides housing for only 23% of its students, the lowest rate in the University of
“Our planning and actions must take into account that some of the project’s opponents have previously resorted to violence and vandalism.” UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ
California system — and that fires and crime in the park and around it have played “an important role in the closure plan.”
Just after midnight Wednesday, the university confirmed plans to block off the park as a “closed construction zone,” and hundreds of police and California Highway Patrol officers barricaded the streets
within two blocks of the park. About 60 protesters held a vigil inside the park but were outnumbered by police in riot gear, some with batons or rifles in their hand, and were removed.
“We don’t hide behind batons and guns,” one protester shouted through a megaphone, calling the officers “cowards.”
Seven people were arrested on suspicion of trespassing — two of whom were also cited for allegedly refusing to disperse, according to a university spokesperson.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ said in a statement that the university decided to take “this necessary step” to secure the site with minimal disruption in preparation for “when we are cleared to resume construction.”
“Unfortunately, our planning and actions must take into account that some of the project’s opponents have previously resorted to violence and vandalism, despite strong support for the project on the part of students, community members, advocates for unhoused people, the elected leadership of the City of Berkeley, as well as the legislature and governor of the state of California,” Christ said.
In August 2022, before the litigation over the site, the university tried to fence off the park and start construction but was blocked by protesters who opposed the project.
Closing off the park was expected to take several days, the university said.
Police quietly towed vehicles in the streets surrounding People’s Park, and workers in orange vests used chain saws, hammers and their gloved hands to dismantle a makeshift kitchen that had been constructed by people living in the park. By about 2 a.m., two large rental trucks filled with cardboard boxes arrived, and workers removed unoccupied tents and their belongings from the park, packing them into boxes and hauling them off. People inside their tents were told to pack up and leave.
Meanwhile, tree cutters began removing three large trees at the east end of the park along Bowditch Street, chain-sawing massive limbs that fell to the ground with loud thuds. An earthmover removed debris from the dismantled kitchen. A block away from the park, on Telegraph Avenue, about 30 protesters unable to get inside gathered behind a blockade of metal barricades, four police cars and several dozen law enforcement officers.
They chanted “Whose park? People’s Park” and shouted insults at the police. As police pushed the few remaining protesters from the park, someone started blaring the Buffalo Springfield song “For What It’s Worth.”
The first shipping containers were placed on the eastern edge of the park, on Bowditch Street, around 4 a.m., dropped into place with a forklift.
Despite the faceoff, the mood in the park was relatively calm. UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said a total of 160 shipping containers will be used to block off the park.
“So far, so good,” Mogulof said of Thursday’s operation just before 6 a.m. “But I don’t want to be sanguine; we know there’s a large part of the community opposed to this project.”
On social media, supporters of keeping the park open called on others to join them in a fight to block the university from putting up fences. At about 6 a.m., about 20 protesters remained behind a police barricade just outside the park. Activists planned a rally and march from Telegraph Avenue and Haste Street.
University officials said in a statement that several streets surrounding the park would be closed to traffic for the next three to four days while crews continue building a perimeter consisting of double-stacked shipping containers.
On Tuesday, Berkeley Council Member Kate Harrison released an open letter to university administrators urging them to follow the city’s ban on tear gas when dealing with potential protesters. Harrison wrote that while she supports the university’s housing project, “it would not be worth the human cost to engage in a brutal, heavy handed police action to make it a reality.”
The university’s last major hurdle is the state Supreme Court case, which will decide whether the university can build housing at People’s Park. Mogulof said in a statement Tuesday that the university will not move forward with construction until the legal issues are resolved. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has filed a brief to the court in support of the university’s plan. A hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Berkeley city leaders have also expressed support for the project. On Thursday, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín, who is running for state Senate, said in a statement released by the university that the city is proud to support a project that “will honor the legacy of People’s Park and better meet the needs of our community through an effort that’s deeply reflective of the city’s and university’s values.”
“Our partnership will put a roof over the heads of those living in People’s Park instead of simply pushing them from one neighborhood to another,” he said.
In September, Newsom signed a state bill into law that amends California’s environmental law so that developers of housing projects no longer need to study the noise generated from future residents. The passage of AB1307, introduced by Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, whose district includes Berkeley, was a major win for the university.
Opponents of the project at People’s Park have said the university should consider other sites for housing and instead take care of the park as a historic landmark.
Harvey Smith, the president of the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group, which is against the project, released a letter Tuesday from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Washingtonbased nonprofit, calling for the preservation of the park.
“People’s Park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as nationally significant for its association with student protests and countercultural activities during the 1960s,” the letter stated.
In 1969, the site became a battlefield after UC Berkeley demolished housing to make room for new dormitories. Activists fought the plan, and a county sheriff’s deputy fatally shot a man.
Then-Gov. Ronald Reagan brought in the military to occupy the park, but the activists prevailed.
Since then, the park has been a haven for homeless people. But over the past year, the city and the university partnered on a $1 million agreement to lease the Quality Inn motel for homeless housing. So far, 21 of 25 unhoused people have moved from the park to the site, Mogulof said.