The groups unsuccessfully argued that environmental impact reports within UC’s long-range development plan, which, in part, lays out how the institution plans to accommodate its ever-growing student population over the next 15 years, were inadequate. They’ve orchestrated this quite well.”Ĭonstruction was delayed until Judge Frank Roesch submitted his final judgment, denying several lawsuits - filed jointly last year by the Local 3299 union for UC service workers and community groups Make UC A Good Neighbor and Berkeley Citizens for a Better Plan - that argued that the housing project violated the California Environmental Quality Act. “This falls well into UC’s facade: clean, crisp and put together as an academic institution. “They knew that they could not bring out this all-out offensive in broad daylight when there were still numbers in the park,” Harger said. Prior to construction commencing on site, the park was quiet Tuesday evening, with only a handful of college students, bikers and an occasional car driving by the site, lit primarily by a waxing crescent moon.Īlecia Harger, who stayed at the park while construction crews fenced protesters inside, said there’s no mistaking why UC overtook the park “overnight and under the cover of darkness.” NEW: Protesters have broken through a section of the fence around People’s Park in Berkeley, temporarily pausing crews with chainsaws that have been cutting down several trees /z4CRBqiU78 In addition to 1.7 acres that will be preserved as open space, the university has included tentative plans to honor the history of People’s Park with a memorial walkway, murals and photo displays. Obviously, a time when the park is least populated, that minimizes the chance for confrontation and maximizes the chance for a safe process.” “As soon as we got the green light, of course we were going to be ready,” Mogulof said Wednesday morning. About 82% of the more than 45,000 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled last fall were left to find off-campus housing - the highest percentage among the entire University of California system. UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said the university wanted to start construction as soon as possible in order to complete the project and welcome new residents within two years, attempting to address the university’s “urgent” student housing crisis. They didn’t want a shitstorm.”Ī small handful of protesters and activists vying to preserve the park - bounded by Telegraph Avenue, Bowditch Street, Dwight Way and Haste Street - were arrested after lying limp in front of construction tractors trying to make their way inside under bright flood lights. “They knew the timeline, so they had a chance to refine their tactics. “It’s almost worse because it’s so calculated,” Teague said, adding that the timing was “perfect” in between the completion of summer classes and the start of the fall semester, before a majority of students would return to Berkeley. Lisa Teague, a member of the People’s Park Council, said the operation unfolded just as she feared: slow, methodical and with “lots of backup.” Within an hour after midnight, each of the four streets bounding the 2.8-acre park were barricaded and cleared of any lingering cars, in an attempt to keep non-residents away from the area as dozens of construction workers and private security guards on site effectively closed down the park. The fencing was the first step in UC Berkeley’s plan to construct housing for 1,100 university students and 125 unhoused residents within two 12- and six-story dorm buildings, after an Alameda County Superior Court judge effectively lifted a stay preventing any physical changes to People’s Park. As more protesters arrived at People’s Park, skirmishes broke out intermittently throughout the morning, and several people were hit with batons while police attempted to clear crowds away from the site.
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