Telegraph & Bancroft
Berkeley
CA
A public forum on People’s Park. Mayor Arreguin and UC Berkeley’s Chancellor Christ are hosting a public forum to rally support for the final devastation of People’s Park. Along with the development plan, they will discuss what the mayor calls “the displacement plan”.
Attend this meeting to challenge their narrative. There is no particular reason why the dorm must be built on People’s Park. UC Berkeley does have other locations to build a dorm.
The Chancellor and the Mayor will describe a 3 part development plan: a dorm, a separate building for very-low income residents, and park space. People’s Park is big, but it’s not that big. After the buildings are established, there won’t be much room left for open space. Any remaining park will be a trivial afterthought.
There are no plans for a replacement park. Despite owning several empty lots in Berkeley, the UC has not offered one to be a replacement user-developed, community open space. Such an issue circles back to the question: if there are empty lots, why not build there instead?