UC Berkeley closes Individuals’s Park as housing development begins

“As a result of destruction of constructing supplies, unlawful protest exercise, and violence by some protesters, the college has determined to halt development work on the Individuals’s Park housing web site,” stated the UC Berkeley spokesperson. , Dan Mogulof, in an announcement.

Building staff had been withdrawn and “in an effort to stop additional clashes”, law enforcement officials had been additionally withdrawn.

“The campus will, within the coming days, assess the scenario to find out how greatest to proceed with the development of this urgently wanted pupil housing undertaking,” Mogulof stated.

Building started shortly after midnight, a number of days after an Alameda County Superior Court docket decide dominated the college might transfer ahead with its housing plan regardless of native teams submitting lawsuits to cease it.

Make UC a Good Neighbor, Individuals’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group, Berkeley Residents for a Higher Plan and UC’s largest union employer had sued the college, difficult its long-term improvement plan, which requires constructing housing for 11,730 college students to 2037.

They argued that the plan’s environmental evaluation was insufficient and that the college didn’t consider historic assets, equivalent to Parque del Pueblo.

Harvey Smith of the Individuals’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group stated they plan to enchantment the decide’s resolution Wednesday morning and hope to get a keep to stop UC from shifting ahead with development.

Russell Bates, a Berkeley resident, sat in entrance of a barricade arrange on the intersection of Bowditch and Haste streets in an try to cease development vehicles from passing.

“It will be important that this isn’t simple for them. It has been a consolation to me,” Bates stated. “They wish to get it, however I do not need them to return in. I will not transfer till they transfer me.”

Contained in the fenced park, protesters unveiled a banner studying “Save the Individuals’s Park” banner and walked to the gate to show it in entrance of officers outdoors.

Police entered the fenced space simply earlier than 9 am Outdoors the fence, folks on the road tried to dam a development truck carrying an excavator from getting into the world.

Thirty minutes later, crews may very well be heard chopping down bushes contained in the park with chainsaws.

The college’s Individuals’s Park undertaking is a crucial a part of UC Berkeley’s plans to assist home its college students, who wrestle to seek out reasonably priced hire within the space. Among the college’s college students wrestle with homelessness.

The long-term improvement plan consists of two housing tasks: the Anchor Home undertaking that will home 772 switch college students, and the controversial Individuals’s Park undertaking to construct pupil housing for greater than 1,100 college students and 125 homeless folks.

In September, UC Berkeley authorised a $312 million plan to construct the Individuals’s Park undertaking, with development scheduled to start this summer season. However an appeals courtroom issued an order in July quickly barring the college from beginning development on the two.8-acre web site.

Opponents argued that the college has different properties in different elements of Berkeley and surrounding cities, equivalent to Richmond and Albany, the place it’d take into account constructing undergraduate housing. Additionally they argued that Parque del Pueblo ought to be preserved due to its historical past and that constructing on it could destroy its legacy.

Berkeley metropolis officers are largely supportive of the college’s plans for the park. Councilman Rigel Robinson, who represents the district that features Individuals’s Park, launched an announcement Wednesday saying the undertaking would carry “desperately wanted” everlasting supportive housing and that “there isn’t a extra treasured useful resource in Berkeley than everlasting supportive housing.” Robinson stated.

“Individuals’s Park has been a robust image of resistance towards authorities oppression, however it has since turn out to be an emblem of one thing else completely: our failure as a area to answer the housing disaster,” Robinson stated. “The time has come to show the web page and meet these challenges head-on.”

Building crews started work shortly after midnight, closing the park. Dozens of police in riot gear arrived to dam off the world and remained within the park all through the evening.

About three homeless residents nonetheless remained within the park. Mogulof stated the town’s homeless response group was on the park to attempt to persuade them to show to metropolis providers, however it wasn’t clear if folks complied.

The park was beforehand dwelling to dozens of homeless residents. About 70 homeless residents moved into the Rodeway Inn, a motel in Berkeley, as a part of a partnership between the town and the college to supply housing to homeless residents of Individuals’s Park. Robinson stated a number of motel residents had been supplied everlasting housing.

Lisa Teague, a member of the Individuals’s Park Council, a bunch that has existed since 1969 to defend the park, stated she acquired a textual content message that the college was towing automobiles across the park Tuesday evening.

Individuals’s Park has an extended and controversial historical past of residents and college students opposing housing within the park. In 1969, the land turned a battlefield after UC Berkeley tried to construct dormitories within the park. The activists fought towards the college and at last gained, however their struggle got here with bloodshed. A county sheriff’s deputy fatally shot a person throughout a rally and then-governor. Ronald Reagan introduced within the navy to occupy the world.

In recent times, the park turned a homeless shelter.

“Individuals’s Park is the guts of Berkeley to me,” Teague stated.