Police in Riot Gear Clear Out Berkeley’s People’s Park
By Keith Burbank, Bay City News
People’s Park in Berkeley was closed early Wednesday morning by police in riot gear to prepare for the construction of housing following a judge’s final ruling on the matter, advocates for maintaining the entire park as open space and University of California at Berkeley officials said.
The police descended on the small block-square park to clear out the homeless encampment. The park, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and is owned by UC Berkeley, was being fenced off just after 3 a.m. and staffed by security. According to SF Gate, before sunrise, forklifts and large moving trucks with fencing arrived.
Community advocates opposed to the plan for housing are planning to file an appeal Wednesday morning and pursue another stay of demolition.
“We’re pleased with the judge’s decision,” UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said Friday following the judge’s tentative ruling. He had the same sentiments Wednesday. University officials are looking forward to “starting construction this summer,” Mogulof said.
The university plans to build student housing and supportive housing for homeless people.
On March 9, 2022, the campus, the City of Berkeley, and community partners announced a unified plan that honors all these commitments — and more:
- Interim housing for people currently living in People’s Park with services that support a transition to permanent housing.
- Construction and funding for a new community-led daytime drop-in center.
- Permanent 24-hour public restroom in the Telegraph neighborhood.
- Full-time social worker who will continue servicing the needs and interests of unhoused people near campus.
- Permanent homes for 100+ unhoused and extremely low-income people.
UC Berkeley has said it will “work to meet the needs of unhoused persons in our community, provide more than 1,100 new beds of urgently needed below-market student housing, and revitalize 1.7-acres of public green space for the safe enjoyment of everyone.”
Read more at UC Berkeley.
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Listening to the horrible sound of chainsaws in People’s Park. Watching trees drop. Sad day for Berkeley. pic.twitter.com/JJtXKcrEfw
— Jimi Devine (@JimiDevine) August 3, 2022
I’m at People’s Park in Berkeley. Hearing there are ten people still inside. Ronald Reagan’s wet hippie bashing dreams unfolding before our eyes. pic.twitter.com/LvfR9d3QIf
— Jimi Devine (@JimiDevine) August 3, 2022