Fw: [peoples-park-news] UC Cut Our Redwood! // Dwight Triangle Resolution // Farewell, Carol Christ // Open Mic // Weekly Organizing Meeting // More
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isis feral
Jul 24, 2024, 6:23:02 PM7/24/24
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----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "peoples-...@riseup.net" <peoples-...@riseup.net>
To: "peoples-...@lists.riseup.net" <peoples-...@lists.riseup.net>
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2024 at 03:21:08 PM PDT
Subject: [peoples-park-news] UC Cut Our Redwood! // Dwight Triangle Resolution // Farewell, Carol Christ // Open Mic // Weekly Organizing Meeting // More
On behalf of the People's Park Council (PeoplesPark.org):
Early this afternoon aborists were cutting at the big redwood at the
Park:
rmd.me/LTtyv5UbXF3
People have been gathering at Telegraph and Haste.
*****
Tuesday's City Council resolution to open the Dwight Triangle did not
pass, despite valiant efforts by Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra.
Activists will continue to use it anyway, including for Saturday harm
reduction.
*****
From our friends at the People's Park Historic District Advocacy Group:
PRESS RELEASE: Farewell, Carol Christ
For Immediate Release
July 23, 2024
Contact: Harvey Smith
peoplesp...@gmail.com, 510-684-0414
Many fluff pieces have been celebrating the tenure of Carol Christ as
chancellor of UC Berkeley, particularly extolling her fundraising
prowess. However, there is a dark side to her seven years at the helm,
chief among them her obsession with People’s Park, which according to a
former Berkeley mayor began decades ago.
Obviously the relationship between UC and People’s Park over its long
history has not been an easy one; it has veered from uneasy
accommodation to outright antagonism. However, there were times when a
positive future for the park could have been assured as an
internationally-recognized asset to Berkeley and the university.
According to former UCB Vice Chancellor for Real Estate, Bob Lalanne,
who left his position in 2016, building on People’s Park was off the
table, and in fact there were proposals considered to improve it and
make it more inviting for the entire community. This was reversed when
Carol Christ took the helm in 2017, and as statements indicate it became
her vanity project. A recent L.A. Times article stated she “is proud of
her relentless efforts to build housing at Berkeley’s iconic People’s
Park.” She also repeated in the article some of the misinformation that
she and her PR flak Dan Mogulof have been spewing about the park. Early
this year she also told the Times that the park’s “redevelopment” will
go down as “one of the most important things I’ve done.”
Besides the misinformation, Christ and Mogulof have committed major acts
of omission, never mentioning the park’s listing on the National
Register of Historic Places and its recognition by the country’s leading
preservation organization, the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Likewise the anti-environmental act of destroying a park with its many
redwoods, oaks and other trees brings to mind the attitude of Ronald
Reagan who stated, "If you've seen one redwood tree, you've seen them
all."
Carol Christ will go down in the annals of history arm-in-arm with
Ronald Reagan, who formulated the original attack on the park, the
invasion of Berkeley by the National Guard, and the killing and maiming
perpetrated by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.
People’s Park was created after the Civil Rights and Free Speech
Movements in the midst of the Vietnam Anti-War movement and preceded the
first Earth Day. It is tied to and symbolizes all these movements. We
can only wonder what possessed Chancellor Christ to recently speak in
conversation about Free Speech with Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush’s
Secretary of State, champion of the Iraq War and accused war criminal.
Was this another snub to the history of the park?
Park supporters have outlived the tenure of Christ as chancellor, but
the UC machine will keep moving to acquire more property in Berkeley
with disregard for our city’s historic properties and the housing
displacement caused by its increasing enrollment.
People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group, the People’s Park
Committee, and many others have pointed out why the People’s Park
construction project is an avoidable bad idea. Those many reasons will
not be repeated here, but it is clear that the project was never about
housing but about destroying the park and its historic legacy. If
constructed on an alternative site, it would be nearly completed by now.
The inappropriate location of the project and the resultant delays have
wasted millions of dollars of public funds due to increasing
construction costs, legal and police costs, and the shipping container
wall with razor wire. This money could have been better spent in so many
ways, chief among them increasing the budget for returning the Native
American remains and artifacts hoarded by Cal and legally mandated by
the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act passed by
Congress over thirty years ago.
We are not alone in our criticism of UC corporate-like expansion and its
façade of social concern. Book length critiques can be found in Tony
Platt’s The Scandal of Cal and Christopher Newfield’s The Great Mistake.
Likewise Davarian Baldwin’s book In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower
analyzes universities’ growth, resulting gentrification, policing, and
monetization schemes.
We honor fact-based research and support social justice. We think of
these as values that should be associated with UC Berkeley. Therefore,
it is disappointing in the extreme when UC Berkeley behaves like a
greedy and abusive corporation without a conscience, but with a big
budget for public relations and legal representation.
Long Live People’s Park!
*****
UPCOMING EVENTS:
*****
Open Mic at the Triangle
THIRD SATURDAY OF THE MONTH (next one this weekend, AUGUST 17)
Telegraph and Dwight, Berkeley
The People's Park Council will be meeting at the Triangle at 1pm on
those days, preceding the open mic, NOT at our usual meeting spot at
Grassroots House.
*****
People's Park Council Meeting
SATURDAYS 1PM (Except 3rd Saturdays of the month - see Open Mic above)
Grassroots House
2022 Blake Street, Berkeley, CA 94704
*****
*** Please sign the petition to remove the wall around People's Park:
https://www.change.org/p/remove-the-border-wall-berkeley
*** The struggle is not over! Text SAVETHEPARK to 41372 to join the
bulldozer alarm text alert
*** Let 1000 Parks Bloom!
From: "peoples-...@riseup.net" <peoples-...@riseup.net>
To: "peoples-...@lists.riseup.net" <peoples-...@lists.riseup.net>
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2024 at 03:21:08 PM PDT
Subject: [peoples-park-news] UC Cut Our Redwood! // Dwight Triangle Resolution // Farewell, Carol Christ // Open Mic // Weekly Organizing Meeting // More
On behalf of the People's Park Council (PeoplesPark.org):
Early this afternoon aborists were cutting at the big redwood at the
Park:
rmd.me/LTtyv5UbXF3
People have been gathering at Telegraph and Haste.
*****
Tuesday's City Council resolution to open the Dwight Triangle did not
pass, despite valiant efforts by Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra.
Activists will continue to use it anyway, including for Saturday harm
reduction.
*****
From our friends at the People's Park Historic District Advocacy Group:
PRESS RELEASE: Farewell, Carol Christ
For Immediate Release
July 23, 2024
Contact: Harvey Smith
peoplesp...@gmail.com, 510-684-0414
Many fluff pieces have been celebrating the tenure of Carol Christ as
chancellor of UC Berkeley, particularly extolling her fundraising
prowess. However, there is a dark side to her seven years at the helm,
chief among them her obsession with People’s Park, which according to a
former Berkeley mayor began decades ago.
Obviously the relationship between UC and People’s Park over its long
history has not been an easy one; it has veered from uneasy
accommodation to outright antagonism. However, there were times when a
positive future for the park could have been assured as an
internationally-recognized asset to Berkeley and the university.
According to former UCB Vice Chancellor for Real Estate, Bob Lalanne,
who left his position in 2016, building on People’s Park was off the
table, and in fact there were proposals considered to improve it and
make it more inviting for the entire community. This was reversed when
Carol Christ took the helm in 2017, and as statements indicate it became
her vanity project. A recent L.A. Times article stated she “is proud of
her relentless efforts to build housing at Berkeley’s iconic People’s
Park.” She also repeated in the article some of the misinformation that
she and her PR flak Dan Mogulof have been spewing about the park. Early
this year she also told the Times that the park’s “redevelopment” will
go down as “one of the most important things I’ve done.”
Besides the misinformation, Christ and Mogulof have committed major acts
of omission, never mentioning the park’s listing on the National
Register of Historic Places and its recognition by the country’s leading
preservation organization, the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Likewise the anti-environmental act of destroying a park with its many
redwoods, oaks and other trees brings to mind the attitude of Ronald
Reagan who stated, "If you've seen one redwood tree, you've seen them
all."
Carol Christ will go down in the annals of history arm-in-arm with
Ronald Reagan, who formulated the original attack on the park, the
invasion of Berkeley by the National Guard, and the killing and maiming
perpetrated by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.
People’s Park was created after the Civil Rights and Free Speech
Movements in the midst of the Vietnam Anti-War movement and preceded the
first Earth Day. It is tied to and symbolizes all these movements. We
can only wonder what possessed Chancellor Christ to recently speak in
conversation about Free Speech with Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush’s
Secretary of State, champion of the Iraq War and accused war criminal.
Was this another snub to the history of the park?
Park supporters have outlived the tenure of Christ as chancellor, but
the UC machine will keep moving to acquire more property in Berkeley
with disregard for our city’s historic properties and the housing
displacement caused by its increasing enrollment.
People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group, the People’s Park
Committee, and many others have pointed out why the People’s Park
construction project is an avoidable bad idea. Those many reasons will
not be repeated here, but it is clear that the project was never about
housing but about destroying the park and its historic legacy. If
constructed on an alternative site, it would be nearly completed by now.
The inappropriate location of the project and the resultant delays have
wasted millions of dollars of public funds due to increasing
construction costs, legal and police costs, and the shipping container
wall with razor wire. This money could have been better spent in so many
ways, chief among them increasing the budget for returning the Native
American remains and artifacts hoarded by Cal and legally mandated by
the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act passed by
Congress over thirty years ago.
We are not alone in our criticism of UC corporate-like expansion and its
façade of social concern. Book length critiques can be found in Tony
Platt’s The Scandal of Cal and Christopher Newfield’s The Great Mistake.
Likewise Davarian Baldwin’s book In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower
analyzes universities’ growth, resulting gentrification, policing, and
monetization schemes.
We honor fact-based research and support social justice. We think of
these as values that should be associated with UC Berkeley. Therefore,
it is disappointing in the extreme when UC Berkeley behaves like a
greedy and abusive corporation without a conscience, but with a big
budget for public relations and legal representation.
Long Live People’s Park!
*****
UPCOMING EVENTS:
*****
Open Mic at the Triangle
THIRD SATURDAY OF THE MONTH (next one this weekend, AUGUST 17)
Telegraph and Dwight, Berkeley
The People's Park Council will be meeting at the Triangle at 1pm on
those days, preceding the open mic, NOT at our usual meeting spot at
Grassroots House.
*****
People's Park Council Meeting
SATURDAYS 1PM (Except 3rd Saturdays of the month - see Open Mic above)
Grassroots House
2022 Blake Street, Berkeley, CA 94704
*****
*** Please sign the petition to remove the wall around People's Park:
https://www.change.org/p/remove-the-border-wall-berkeley
*** The struggle is not over! Text SAVETHEPARK to 41372 to join the
bulldozer alarm text alert
*** Let 1000 Parks Bloom!
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