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UC Regents to Vote on Destruction of People’s Park
The Regents of the University of California are poised to vote this Wednesday for the destruction of People’s Park in Berkeley. The Capital Strategies Committee will recommend whether to move forward on a massive new 12 story housing project on the site, located ¼ mile south of the UC Berkeley campus.
While student housing in Berkeley is a critical need, UC Berkeley has other sites that do not destroy the cultural and historical legacy of the city. The project will severely impact several surrounding architectural landmarks, including the National Historic Landmark First Church of Christ Scientist, designed by renowned Berkeley architect Bernard Maybeck.
UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) failed to adequately study the impacts of the project and to implement mitigation measures that would reduce its impact.
People's Park Historic District Advocacy Group and Make UC A Good Neighbor (both nonprofit organizations) have challenged the LRDP and another out of scale project Berkeley project, the proposed Anchor House. Should the Regents approve the People’s Park project, the two organizations will challenge the environmental study as inadequate.
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Background
This lawsuit will build on a previous win in court on limiting unmitigated UC Berkeley growth and will challenge UC Berkeley’s poor strategic decisions for eliminating its budget deficit through monetizing public assets.
The primary issue is UC Berkeley expansion and overreach into Berkeley, which would destroy irreplaceable open space of People’s Park but also many sites and buildings in Berkeley over the 16-year span of the plan. Every Berkeley resident will eventually be affected by UCB’s corporate-like growth.
Davarian L. Baldwin’s recent book In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities details four other cities that mimic what is happening in Berkeley, questioning if university for-profit enterprises are in conflict with their public education missions. Cal's unrestrained growth is part of the larger process of gentrification that has led to the decline in Black population in many Bay Area cities. In Berkeley, Black people made up 23.5% of the population in 1970; today it's only 7.9%. What is more difficult to measure is the creative loss – how many artists, writers, actors, poets and musicians can no longer afford to live here?
Within the richest country in history and within one of the richest areas of the richest country in history, homelessness has become normalized. In the depths of the depression during the New Deal, public policy and financing was directed to solving housing displacement. Only due to the lack of political will do we see huge homeless encampments in our urban areas. Homelessness can and should be addressed decisively, not with rhetoric but action. This problem should not be blamed on People’s Park.
What would a vision of People’s Park look like?
Ideally the university would give up its destruction plan and let the park revert to city control because it has shown it has little interest in maintaining it as open space.
· The park would be maintained at the level of all Berkeley public parks, including new curbs and sidewalks which could include imbedded medallions pointing out the architectural treasures surrounding the park.
· A thriving Farmers Market could be established, like the one in the Civic Center, to serve the Southside and campus community.
· Restoration of the Native Plant Garden that was a joint project between UC Berkeley and the park community could reestablish a cooperative working relationship with the campus.
· Continue the cultural events and rallies that have always taken place in the park. Providing food for the needy could continue in the park or be moved to a nearby location as it used to be at the University Lutheran Chapel.
· Establish an interpretive center in one of the historic buildings surrounding the park to provide background on the neighborhood’s town and gown history, on Berkeley’s incredible architectural legacy, and on the political and cultural history of activism on the Southside from the Sixties to the present.
People come to Berkeley from all corners of the U.S. and international locations and ask, “Where is People’s Park?” This landmark location is an asset to Berkeley and with some care and concern could become a much greater one.
Contact:
510-684-0414
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