Public Comment

A recent article and editorial in the Los Angeles Times, as well as statements from the University of California, conveniently neglect to mention that People’s Park is on the National Register of Historic Places. This listing takes the issue beyond being merely a Berkeley struggle, after deserved recognition by the State Historical Resources Commission and by the National Park Service.

With little focus on the core issues of the legal case challenging the proposed destruction of the park, recent press has instead focused on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The key issue in the case is UC did not analyze alternative sites in their Environmental Impact Report (EIR). Having to choose either a park/open space or more student housing is a false choice. UC maintains the park is the only adequate site for Housing Project #2 when their own planning documents show they get many more student beds from another site a block and a half away. Choosing the most controversial site as their second housing project is also very poor planning on UC’s part.

Some politicians and media want to describe park defenders as being NIMBYs, which hardly explains the essence of the opposition to destroying the park. Defenders of the park want more student housing, but CEQA (a 1970 law signed by Governor Ronald Reagan) is the only legal tool available to defend People’s Park. The community is up against an institution that seemingly has an endless budget enabling the hiring of lawyers and PR flacks who earn six figure salaries. The People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group (PPHDAG) board members get zero income to fight UC and must raise money from park supporters. Hundreds have donated to the legal challenge with anything from crumpled dollars to at most four figure sums sent from all over the country. Supporters are multicultural, young and old, some with means and others just surviving. This is grassroots, David vs. Goliath. 

UC wants to frame their project as “revitalizing” or “recrafting” the conditions they have nurtured and allowed while at the same time decrying them as “blight and unsafe.” This misinformation is spewed to the student population and then they are surveyed to make the case for student support. The case for the park being an epicenter for crime falls apart when the actual data is explored. And, shouldn’t we all be worried that an institution that manages two national nuclear laboratories is unable to maintain in good condition a 2.8 acre plot of land? 

Opportunistically forgotten is the support of the student journalists at the Daily Cal and the Berkeley Faculty Association for preserving the park. Forgotten are the hundreds of students who turned out to tear down the fence in August. Forgotten also is the support of former Berkeley mayors. Forgotten are academic critics of UC like Davarian Baldwin and Christopher Newfield, who have researched the impact of increasing privatization on our public universities. 

The projection that this case will harm developers is overblown, the charge being led by lawyer Christopher Elmendorf who is celebrated by California YIMBY. Dismantling CEQA is a developer’s would be a return of the good old days of urban renewal. Building anything everywhere is promulgated by legislator Scott Weiner, but how is trickle-down, market rate housing actually helping the unhoused and creating adequate amounts of affordable housing? The increase in California homelessness described in the December national homelessness survey clearly illustrates this. 

An October 2021 report, CEQA: California’s Living Environmental Law, reviewed by five environmental experts from throughout the state including two from UC, found that there is no evidence that supports the assertion by critics that CEQA is a “’major barrier to development.’” This report was. Now is the time to clear the fog of obfuscation around both CEQA and People’s Park. We invite all who are sincerely interested in getting student and supportive housing built to join us in requesting the university move ahead and build Housing Project #2 on an appropriate site, while preserving the historical icon and much needed public open space that is People's Park.