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The battle for People’s Park rages on today behind closed doors. A university-appointed panel is debating the future of the park, a cause which Cal is throwing $100,000 at.
But all of this is boring, except for one great quote and numerous granola-lifestyle references:
bq. “I think today if the university turned off its Wi-Fi [wireless Internet access], they’d get bigger demonstrations than they would for People’s Park.”
# “free food and clothing”
# “the trees are named after deceased activists”
# “grape arbor is made from the wood of a volleyball court”
# “high ideals of brotherhood and community that marked its origins”
# “those who marched for the park’s creation”
# Mayor Bates “still keeps a piece of souvenir asphalt that protesters ripped from a parking lot the university later built on the property”
# “I love the idea of having some kind of memorial recognition there,” Bates said.
# “wooded park has become a drug haven”
# “park’s large homeless population”
# “hippie concentration and rising crime.”
# “tended several gardens she maintains on the grounds
# “distributed fliers proclaiming “No Bulldozers in the Park.”
# “Compost, who changed her name to reflect her passion for organic gardening
# “A lot of the crimes are just open containers or smoking a joint,”
# “wearing a long peasant skirt
# “sitting on a bench next to the ‘John Lennon Memorial Plum Tree’…”
# “…the ‘John Lennon Memorial Plum Tree’ she planted”
# “the park’s bandstand and speakers’ platform”
# “workers from the Food Not Bombs peace collective served free vegan food”
# “advised a visitor to ‘eat more raw food’ if he wanted to lose weight”
# “the people of Berkeley have a right to adverse possession”
# “a vacant lot that students and activists turned into a flower garden, and food-sharing and free-speech zone”
# “a controversial free-clothing box”
# “‘Samatman,’ a resident mystic and park regular, the whole issue of ownership is illusory”
# “a paper plate heaped with Food Not Bombs lentils and brown rice”
# “‘Humanity as a whole is sick’”
People’s Park in Berkeley is Still a Battlefield [Los Angeles Times]
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