Public Comment

On May 8th of 1978 the University of California's Associate Vice Chancellor for Business Affairs J. H. (Ted) Chenoweth signed a Letter of Agreement with People's Park's neighbors, gardeners, project participants and users affirming the use of the park as "primarily reserved for educational, research and recreational purposes." It included a suggested mechanism for disputes resolution, maintenance, and additional issues. It was the first of three agreements over 1978 to 1979. In his outgoing letter to Vice Chancellor Kerley, Chenoweth stated "I expect to remain active as a member of the People's Park Council" to assist with "communication and coordination." He is not the only original signer who lives nearby, ready to assist with a framework for the park's future. 

All parties wanted peace. In the late 1980's, after the 1984 declaration of People's Park as a city landmark in for its historical and cultural significance, the university and the city coordinated to create a special committee populated with park and university representatives to assist with decisions about the park. But since then neither the City of Berkeley nor the University of California has shown much interest in assisting the gardeners, project coordinators, neighbors, park users and neighbors who meet regularly to address the issues which arise in a park which feeds the hungry, maintains a community garden, and puts on events and concerts under a 1987 legal court decree by famed Judge Henry Ramsey affirming the park as a quintessential public forum and legally binding the university and the city to respect it as such. 

Peace grows more easily in fertile ground, and we have plenty. The Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC) voted unanimously to support and affirm the necessity of the newly-rebuilt freebox created on the second People's Park 50th Anniversary concert April 28, 2019 - a week before a university crew tore it out in the middle of the night. The Peace and Justice Commission voted unanimously to affirm People's Park's unique history, a resolution affirmed by a unanimous City Council on Tuesday, May 14th, 2019. 

Even the Faculty Senate voted against the university's plans for the northeast corner of campus which includes cutting down redwoods, losing 150 parking spaces, unaffordable $3,000/month faculty studios but special perks for Goldman School of Public Policy bigwigs; an unadulterated affront to those who recognize "public private partnerships" as privatization of public resources, a favorite Trump mechanism which should offend anyone interested in protecting the public's land, space, universities, and interests. There's no real educational benefit for students in the plan rejected by the Faculty Senate. And there's no real housing benefit in the plan for housing in People's Park, just another shovelful of public land offered up to private interests out of Texas or Alabama who salivate over the opportunity to feast off of the manufactured housing crisis with guaranteed turnover - "students", a temporary population, who are housed by semester, and "homeless" people on the popular three to six month timeline where the rent or grant money can go up with every resident's exit. At UC Santa Cruz students are offered only two years of housing; after that they are on their own. 

Peace can be nurtured, planned for, and built. The university seems determined to vandalize our community trees, gardens, park projects and our community's prospects for a peaceful, respectful, and inclusive future in favor of the conflict it currently has in store. Our parks, our neighborhoods, our peaceful enjoyment of what little crucial urban open space we still have, our respect for the internationally renowned confluence of civil rights and anti-war movements which gave birth to not just People's Park but the force for ethnic studies, the recognition of free speech's imperative role in anti-war efforts, disability rights, women's rights, let alone avoidance of conflict should inspire us to come together - now, while there is still time to build the opportunity for "discussion and resolution of issues" memorialized in the still extant agreements of 1978, 1979, and 1987. 

Let's build the peace. The moment is right for all parties with an interest in and concerns about People's Park's future and the future of its neighborhood, the most landmark-saturated neighborhood in Berkeley where, from the park, you can enjoy architectural gems and significant cultural heritage sites in every direction. Just imagine. Whether you're a policymaker, a neighbor, a student, or a business owner, imagine for a moment that we take this time to plant peace together in People's Park's 50th year as surely as we planted the original garden. 

There are 10 acres at nearby Smyth-Fernwald's campus. Seven post-war dorms on property originally donated in 1926 to the university by inventor William Henry Smyth were only recently razed, while other buildings are currently in use. Re-building the dorms with additional stories on land already graded for construction and dedicated for more than 70 years for student housing is common sense. And just across the street, the spacious 130 acre Clark-Kerr campus has numerous low-rise, derelict buildings which would add hundreds of units without disturbing the landscape or blocking any neighbor's view. The university builds up there, to be sure; skateboard parks and sandpit volleyball, its former crucial plan for People's Park. 

People's Park was community land before the university exercised a dubious use of eminent domain in 1967 destroying housing, ironically, for a mix of students, workers, and families. It was then abandoned, left a muddy, rebar-studded blight of old foundations. Neighbors restored to the block to community use in 1969 for a much-needed park. That park is even more crucial now simply as open space. It's the only park in the most densely populated area in Berkeley, and probably the best-used urban park in town. It is certainly the only park protected not only as a city landmark but as a "quintessential public forum" by the late Judge Henry Ramsey's still operative court order requiring the university to allow amplified concerts, a judge whose own civil rights legacy is also a renowned part of California history; 

Among his many contributions as a member of our board was his persistent push for the foundation to invest in criminal justice reform, decrying the over-incarceration of young Black men, which he deemed a national crisis. When talking about the work to transition formerly incarcerated people back into communities, he often said that, “the best reentry is no entry.” -- The Rosenberg Foundation 

Our city leaders are currently negotiating with the university over its over-enrollment and impact on city resources. It's appropriate for them to include a serious concern about the proposed destruction of an internationally respected city landmark in that discussion. 

We can build housing and protect our parks and landmarks. Building peace is an active process. If you're a city councilmember, a neighborhood association, or just a neighbor, let the People's Park Committee know you support building peace together rather than cowering in the shadow of the chancellor's plan. A jubilee year, a fiftieth year, is traditionally a year of joy, restitution, and the pursuit of long-awaited justice. Our town has suffered extraordinary, blood-soaked tragedy for planting flowers, and if we come together we can actively build a lasting peace.