Public Comment

I hope you read the recent Planet article by Thomas Lord for exposing the basis of UC Berkeley's antagonism to People's Park. As he noted, the University is quite willing to hurt students and people generally to exploit public land for private gain. The University claims it wants to build housing for students in People's Park. But as Lord reminds UC there are plenty of other spaces on the campus to provide student housing. 

UC's Board of Regents, which include many investors and business people, clearly favor providing developers with an opportunity to make big money. But there is an additional, very significant motive that accounts for the University's antagonism toward People's Park. In short, the University, despite its claims that it is committed to the free and open exchange of ideas, is contemptuous of open political dialogue and debate, particularly if the dialogue welcomes radical ideas. ideas. People's Park has been a venue for healthy, open discussion, including radical and socialist perspectives. 

Although People's Park is the property of the University of California, it has operated since the early 1970s as a free public park. From the perspective of many community members, they wanted a free speech area that was not controlled by the University. Very important, the park also provided a place to organize rallies. Not least, it became a wonderful gathering place for unconventional persons and homeless individuals. Many of the organizers who were committed to developing people's park as an eclectic, down to earth environment were the same people and politics of the Free Speech Movement. 

When Reagan was governor, he viewed UC the Berkeley campus as a haven for communist sympathizers. Reagan is now gone but Reaganism is still alive at UC Berkeley. With the tacit support of the University's Board of Regents, many of those who have gathered at People's Park have met with tear gas , police violence, arrests, and other repressive measures. But the truth is that the Park is a memorial to the free speech movement, and the values that the movement represents. And those who have been active in People's Park activities, are proud that the Park has been a haven for the poor, who could not afford the high, obscene tuition that UC students are paying. Most important, the Park is a wonderful example of participatory democracy. As one commentator observed, "People's Park belongs to everybody"