Public Comment
UC Students' Open Letter Re 1921 Walnut
Dear Chancellor Christ,
We’re writing to you directly with the intention of being as transparent as possible with you, and the entire campus community, about our opposition to University’s potential plans to displace the residents of 1921 Walnut Street.
We’re also writing to you publicly to express our frustration with your administration’s refusal to communicate transparently with the tenants of 1921 Walnut Street and other members of the Berkeley community. We’re compelled to make students aware of the dismissive attitude of the University, and express our solidarity with the tenants of the 1921 Walnut Street Association and the larger Berkeley community. Students do not want to displace other people in the city.
The University is currently developing the Gateway Student Housing Project, which we strongly support. This proposed student housing project is a donor funded, designed, and constructed student housing development for the Berkeley campus on Regent-owned land in downtown Berkeley. This project will create approximately 740-810 beds of apartment-style housing for transfer or upper division students. Given Berkeley’s housing shortage, these beds, part of the Student Housing Initiative, are badly needed. Originally, the Gateway Student Housing Project was designed to encompass a collection of five University-owned parcels while leaving the remaining privately-owned parcel on the block, 1921 Walnut Street, untouched.
According to your Capital Strategies team, the University bought 1921 Walnut St because its private owner came directly to the University to sell the property. They cited an intention to develop the entire block of University Ave, Oxford Street, Walnut Street, and Berkeley Way for long-term student housing and University needs in the downtown Berkeley area.
Tenant Experience:
The Tenants experience with the University of California began with communications concerning the potential acquisition of this property. The first communication from the Regents of the University of California to the tenants at 1921 Walnut St regarding the UC’s plans on April 20th, 2020 was a letter proposed to “undertake the redevelopment of the property” with information of tenant rights under Federal and State law if displacement would occur. This original letter informed the tenants the third party data collection service, Autotemp, would begin collecting tenant relocation data starting April 27th, 2020 with clarification that if relocation occurred, the tenants would be able to stay in their units for “some period of time”. The tenants were understandably concerned that the University was immediately collecting relocation data and extensive amounts of personal information. They tried to bring their concerns to your administration, but they were redirected to Autotemp. Autotemp however couldn’t provide any further information about the UC's development plans, nor how the data would be used, and was only there to collect information on tenants. The tenants were primarily concerned that the University had the intention from the start to displace them without community engagement or feedback on the development of 1921 Walnut.
The tenants formed the 1921 Walnut St. Association to protest the University’s lack of transparency about their plans for their building. They protested the UC’s takeover outside the property on June 29th and raised urgent concerns about being displaced in the middle of a pandemic and losing the protection of the city’s rent ordinances. On August 3rd, after the UC bought the property, the tenants protested their opposition to the purchase at the UC Office of the President. Berkeley City Council and Berkeley’s Rent Board have also voiced their opposition to the building’s demolition.
Student Perspective:
As an elected representative of the student body, my office has consistently called for the construction of more student housing, but we do not want that housing to come at the cost of displacing long-term residents, especially those in rent controlled units. My office, and those of other student body leaders, were adamantly against the inclusion of 1921 Walnut St. in the Gateway Student Housing project from the start. We voiced our concerns to your Government & Community Relations department and Capital Strategies team. We appreciated their assurances you would not evict the tenants during the current shelter in place ordinance. We also recognize you are committed to providing relocation assistance to the tenants for a limited period of time. Our main ask was for your administration to meet with the tenants and answer their concerns. Your capital strategies team said they were not opposed to meeting with the tenants.
However, you have ignored our attempts to schedule a transparent conversation between the University and the tenants. Then, it was made clear by your office you would not hear the concerns of the tenants you were considering displacing based on the letter sent to the tenants on August 31st, 2020 stating: “The University will not be holding in-person or virtual conversations regarding the property for the foreseeable future”. The only reason we found out about this change of policy was when the tenants shared the letter with us.
The ASUC Transfer Representative, officially elected to serve and represent the interests of transfer students on the UC Berkeley campus, stands in solidarity with1921 Walnut residents and vehemently opposes any housing dedicated to the transfer community that comes at the cost of displacing long term residents. While the transfer community supports the dedication of new housing to serve the needs of transfer students, transfers do not support reaching these goals by displacing others.
As the leader of our University, you have the power to set the terms of the relationship between campus and the surrounding Berkeley community. Students depend on amicable ties between the University and its neighbors. Your administration operates on-campus housing, teaches classes and conducts groundbreaking research. The City regulates off-campus living, runs ambulances and opens parks. When that relationship suffers, as we’ve seen during the protracted litigation between the City and Campus, student needs, like the delayed Upper Hearst project, are sidelined. As in any healthyrelationship, your administration, the city and our neighbors around Berkeley must all be willing to make compromises. But you have the power to take the first step and change the narrative about Campus’ role in the Berkeley community. If you agree to listen to the tenants of 1921 Walnut Street and choose not to displace them, you’ll demonstrate the University’s commitment to inclusivity instead of displacement, affordability instead of gentrification, and transparency instead of secrecy. You have a chance to change this story.
As the elected representative of our campus’ 40,000 students, I ask that you listen to the tenants and pledge not to demolish 1921 Walnut Street and preserve the tenancy of the current tenants throughout the planning, development, construction, and administration of The Gateway Student Housing Project.
