Yesterday afternoon Hippies and Hip Hoppers alike flocked to People’s Park for Students for Hip Hop at Cal’s annual Hip Hop festival, Hip Hop in the Park. This year’s show featured headliners Mystic and Clyde Carson, along with multi-cultural break dancing showdowns (for reals, yo–check out the pictures), a DJ, graffiti art and lots of … er–herbal refreshment in the air. read more »

Many of you Cal students love, loathe or perhaps live in People’s Park. If you feel strongly about the place and have a few years to spare–then now is your chance to contribute to its painstakingly deliberated future!

Drama went down at the People’s Park Advisory Board early this month when five members of the board collectively resigned. In short, the five wanted to get cracking on park improvements by holding a student design contest (because the College of Environmental Design doesn’t have enough of those), while the university–which owns the land–needs to think about that a little bit. What if they don’t want a park anymore? What if they want to build housing? No, not for the homeless people, but for graduate students (who are probably just as poor).

read more »

 

 The People’s Park Advisory Board is scheduled to meet to hear public comments on a report and the state of People’s Park on Nov. 5. On Dec. 3 the Board will make recommendations to the University of California about the study and future steps.The draft can be viewed at the Web site of Office of Community Relations.It’s not so surprising that some people want change in People’s Park. It’s not exactly the most groomed, family-friendly place.What might be surprising, though, is that the university owns People’s Park. Yeah, we also thought the university only owned manicured lawns and buildings with metal grading that is supposed to look like bamboo.Now, tell us if this is surprising: the people fighting against the university for the fate of People’s Park also list “Saving the Oak Trees at Memorial Stadium” on their agenda.We were also surprised at some of the recommendations people had for the park, as the Daily Planet reports:

“I have said in the past that it would be great to have something small like a cafe to mark the history of the place and have a cup of coffee,”(Board member George Bier) said. “That’ll attract young people.” 

 Then, there is a whole Web site dedicated to “community members who are working towards improving the children’s play area at People’s Park in Berkeley.” Everyone has their own agenda, even the kiddies.And, of course, the University of California has plans of their own. It summarized in a press release several broad findings about the park, which indicate the direction the changes will actually go.

There is a broad desire for People’s Park to remain, to some extent, a publicly accessible open space.

The park should better fit the needs and interests of the local community and UC students.

There is a lack of coherent guiding principles, long-term planning, and programming to anchor the park to the local neighborhood.

The park is not an optimal place for providing food and social services.

Greater intervention and oversight of the park is needed to make it safer and more welcoming to the broader community.

Thinning and/or removing vegetation along the park’s corners and in wooded areas would improve sightlines and provide better pedestrian access points to the park.

There should be formal recognition of the park’s history at the site.

Image Source: George Derk, Daily CalPress Release: Ideas and reaction sought on report examining People’s Park future [UC Berkeley]University Seeks Community Input on People’s Park Report [Berkeley Daily Planet]People’s Park [Web site]People’s Park News [Web site]Office of Community Relations [UC Berkeley]