...The park... is one of the Bay Area’s most storied plots of land, the site of massive counterculture protests in the 1960s. And after facing decades of opposition to developing People’s Park, the leaders of the University of California system last year approved a $312 million plan to build housing there for both students and unhoused people from the community. But the university’s efforts to transform the park have been plagued by delays, lawsuits and protests, especially in recent weeks. On August 3, workers arrived at People’s Park to fence off the site and cut down trees to begin construction. But protesters soon showed up, too. Park supporters view the land as precious community space and a historical site that represents the wins of the Free Speech Movement... In a victory for the protesters, campus officials paused construction. Two days later, a judge issued an order officially halting further development, in response to a lawsuit filed by activists.
...“Obviously, we’re going to seek to avoid any repeat of what happened last time around,” Dan Mogulof, a campus spokesman, told me. “The commitment to the project is unwavering, but we need to rethink how we’re going to approach that given the sort of response and behavior we’ve seen.”
...In an email sent to students and staff members this week as the fall semester begins, the U.C. Berkeley chancellor, Carol Christ, said the changes to People’s Park were necessary to meet an urgent need for student housing...
Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/17/us/berkeley-peoples-park.html.
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