Letter from Berkeley: Requiem for People鈥檚 Park
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Ali Martin Staff writer
| Berkeley, Calif.
Billy Simpson can鈥檛 imagine Berkeley without People鈥檚 Park. The iconic park in this California college town was where he played growing up. As he got older, he made some of his best friends there. When he worked in food delivery, he would bring canceled orders to unhoused residents who found rest there.
鈥淭hat park is like, it鈥檚 freedom. It is what Berkeley used to be,鈥� says Mr. Simpson. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just love.鈥�
People鈥檚 Park inspired Krista McAtee to attend the University of California, Berkeley . The fifth-year student gets emotional recalling her first visit as a 13-year-old on a campus tour with her family. She returned home to Southern California, decorated a jean jacket with 鈥減ower to the people,鈥� and set her sights on the school.聽
Why We Wrote This
People鈥檚 Park 鈥� Berkeley鈥檚 iconic gathering spot, founded in the 1960s 鈥� sits on valuable real estate in the heart of the university town. Plans to develop on the site raise questions about public space and what鈥檚 best for a community.
鈥淭his idea of community, this idea of taking care of one another,鈥� says Ms. McAtee, 鈥渁re values that I learned from being at People鈥檚 Park.鈥澛�
Shipping containers line the park perimeter now, blocking public access. A decadeslong power struggle over the best use of People鈥檚 Park came to a head last week, when UC Berkeley, which owns the park, cleared it of unhoused residents and erected the container wall. The move secures the site for a long-planned university housing development that has been held up by protests, vandalism, and legal challenges.
鈥淭his is not a forever installation,鈥� says Kyle Gibson, a UC Berkeley spokesperson. 鈥淭his is going to be here through construction, and when we are done, we are going to open up a beautiful building and a beautiful new public park space that will be for the enjoyment of everyone.鈥�
That vision faces opposition and doubters. But tension has always been part of the park鈥檚 origin story.
Everyone welcome 聽
People鈥檚 Park聽, two years after the university bought it for dorm space and then left it vacant. A local paper suggested people should meet there, and they did. It became a community gathering place; people put in gardens, a pond, and a playground. But the school tore it all out a month later, leading to protests that culminated with then-Gov. Ronald Reagan sending in the National Guard.聽
Throughout the years, the university made sporadic attempts to regain control of the park, but it remained open to the community. People鈥檚 Park became a refuge 鈥撀爁or protesters, philosophers, artists, students, residents housed and unhoused. It was a place where anyone who needed it could go for help.聽
鈥淭here鈥檚 a very big lack of community spaces in the modern age. And that鈥檚 what People鈥檚 Park used to be,鈥� says UC Berkeley student Esther Choi. 鈥淣ow it鈥檚 gone.鈥�
That demise has weighed on advocates for the housing development, too, which include聽Berkeley鈥檚 mayor, City Council, and聽state lawmakers. The plan took five years to develop, with input from local organizations, neighbors, students, and officials. 鈥淭he park represents many things to many people,鈥� says Mr. Gibson, who points out that plans 鈥渞eflect that history in the new design.鈥�
Today the 2.8-acre park is on the National Register of Historic Places, surrounded by historic homes and churches noted for their architecture.
Plans for the new development include 1,100 student housing units and more than 100 supportive housing units, while preserving 60% of the open space. They also commemorate the park鈥檚 history and offer unhoused residents transitional housing, a community-led drop-in center, and a dedicated social worker. Construction is on hold while the state Supreme Court considers whether it violates environmental regulations. 聽
Everyone agrees there鈥檚 a critical need for housing. University enrollment is up 26% compared with 10 years ago, and rising costs have added to the squeeze. The People鈥檚 Park project is part of a broader school聽聽to double student housing with 9,000 new beds across 14 sites throughout the city. 聽
Safety is an issue, too. The park has long provided rest for people with nowhere to go. But during the pandemic, overnight restrictions were lifted, enabling homeless encampments. Crime and drug use increased, although opponents say it鈥檚 a challenge the university created through neglect; in the last few years, it closed the park鈥檚 public restrooms and removed trash cans, trees, and gardens.
鈥淲ho are they kidding?鈥� asks聽Harvey Smith, president聽of the People鈥檚 Park Historic District Advocacy Group, referring to Berkeley administrators. 鈥淭his is an institution that has run three national nuclear laboratories. Who鈥檚 going to believe that they actually can鈥檛 maintain in beautiful condition the 2.8-acre park? It鈥檚 crazy talk.鈥�
Damp hope聽
Rain drizzled down on Telegraph Avenue earlier this week, adding a chill to the tone of defiance 鈥� or resignation, depending on who鈥檚 asked - that blankets the park. The avenue runs a block off the park, right up to campus, where many of the shops and restaurants lining the street are entwined with Berkeley counterculture.聽
Annapurna is one of those iconic shops. Al Geyer opened his store around the time that People鈥檚 Park was established, but he, too, feels squeezed out.聽
He sees the new park development as part of the university鈥檚 larger effort to 鈥渄efunkify鈥� Berkeley amid demographic sea changes. The pandemic gutted retail activity, he notes, providing Berkeley administrators a tipping point. 鈥淲e lost all the stores, and they鈥檝e done nothing,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e happy to have this as a base moment, where you clean the counter off and you start from scratch.鈥�
Mr. Geyer recalls the park鈥檚 early days when he supported it with window displays. Protesters protected his property. 鈥淭hey would stand in front and say, 鈥楧o not harm Annapurna, because we鈥檙e open to the working man, to multiculturalism,鈥欌�� says Mr. Geyer. Even if parkgoers didn鈥檛 buy from him, they were welcome to browse his store or rest out front.聽
For now, that spirit of acceptance and mutual support is what park defenders are holding on to.聽
鈥淚f it does get taken from us, people will still gather,鈥� says Jen, a local resident who did not give her last name, citing privacy concerns. She works with the park鈥檚 mutual aid group. 鈥淭hey can鈥檛 build the wall between us because we鈥檝e already created these connections.鈥�
Editor's note: A sentence in this article has been updated to clarify that a source named Jen did not wish to have her last name published.
