BERKELEY — An overnight move by UC Berkeley to wall off historic People’s Park in preparation for a long-term construction project was met with a heated swarm of protesters early Thursday morning, beginning another chapter in a saga of litigation and demonstration against the plans.
Shortly after midnight, hundreds of law enforcement officials outfitted in riot gear were deployed by the university, California Highway Patrol and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office to start pushing out activists occupying the 2.8-acre park. The site is located just off Telegraph Avenue, three blocks south of campus.
Dozens of double-stacked cargo shipping containers were used to barricade the streets surrounding the park, clearing the way for UC Berkeley’s latest attempt to advance its controversial student housing project. The historic open space unofficially serves as an outdoor home for a number of unhoused people in the area.
Activists — apparently tipped off to the university’s plans — occupied the park Wednesday night and into Thursday morning. Protesters sat atop a single-story building known as the “kitchen” in the middle of the park and chanted at police and officials.
At least six people were arrested for trespassing or refusing to follow dispersal orders, and some were taken to Santa Rita Jail, according to university officials and community members Thursday morning.
University officials said the streets near the park would remain closed to traffic for another 3 to 4 days — before many students return to campus after winter break. Several trees were also felled inside the park, in addition to other vegetation that was removed by a bulldozer.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ said the decision was necessary because “some of the project’s opponents previously resorted to violence and vandalism,” according to a statement issued around 2 a.m. Thursday. She cited support for the $312 million project from students, community members, unhoused advocates and elected officials in Berkeley, as well as state legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
If completed, the new buildings would house 1,100 students and roughly 100 currently homeless people who regularly camp at the park, while maintaining 60% of the property as open space, according to the university.
“We wish we didn’t have to do this,” UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said early Thursday morning. “Unfortunately, because of the willingness and readiness of the opposition to engage in violent, unlawful behavior, we have to take these kind of steps.”
Mogulof claimed that the “violent, unlawful” behavior was in relation to prior face-offs between protesters and police at People’s Park, which he said has resulted in “over $1 million in vandalism,” and injured officers.
Hundreds of police @UCBerkeley’s People’s Park as trees are cut to make way for a perimeter to be installed. Kitchen razed and a few people arresred. UC says it’s a safety issue. #peoplespark #berkeley @EastBayTimes pic.twitter.com/Y76kLIttuF
— Tyska (@Tyska) January 4, 2024
The site was first acquired by UC Regents in 1967, as they were considering plans to build student housing, sparking a violent clash that established People’s Park as a hotbed of social activism, particularly revolving around issues of public space and government overreach. In 1969, thousands of protesters marched to the site after UC officials fenced the public out before starting construction, and a bloody battle ensued when law enforcement pushed them back with tear gas and buckshot, sparking a state of emergency and one death.
More than a half-century later, similar tensions continue to cloud the university’s vision for the property.
Activists and community members vehemently oppose the development currently proposed for the site, advocating instead for the entire plot of land to be preserved as a park. A state appeals court sided with the project’s opponents in 2023, ruling that UC Berkeley failed to adequately address environmental concerns. Specifically, the First District Court of Appeals in San Francisco reprimanded UC officials for not analyzing how much noise might be generated by the hundreds of students that would move into the housing project.
While construction plans remain frozen until the Supreme Court of California weighs in on that lawsuit — first filed in 2021 — university officials decided to move forward and create a “secure perimeter” of the property with double-stacked shipping containers and barbed wire. Mogulof said they are simply enforcing the site’s “legal status as a closed construction zone.”
In August, a chaotic standoff erupted between police and protesters when UC Berkeley attempted to fence in the park and started clearing the land for demolition crews — a conflict that cost UC Berkeley at least $4 million, according to public records.
“Given that the existing legal issues will inevitably be resolved,” Christ said on Thursday, “we decided to take this necessary step now in order to minimize disruption for the public and our students when we are eventually cleared to resume construction.”
Bay Area News Group staff photographer Jane Tyska contributed to this story.