People’s Park

An ode to the ghosts of People’s Park

By Terry Messman on
Features   Uncategorized
The ghosts of People’s Park still haunt us today, 50 years after the police and National Guard met unarmed demonstrators with overwhelming firepower. Restless spirits still demand to be heard, and seem to speak with special power in the springtime, bringing to mind the spring of 1969 when the Park was created. It was the very springtime of our generation’s struggles for peace and justice.

Remembering Hateman; champion of ‘oppositional caring’

By Daniel McMullan on
Features   Uncategorized
Another milestone came and went on September 26, 2017. It would have been the 81st birth- day of Berkeley icon and People’s Park denizen Hateman, also known as Mark Hawthorn. A group of about 35 people showed up at People’s Park to remember him at his spot at the top of the Park, reminiscing on his lifelong philosophy of “oppositional caring.”

Bloody Thursday: how People’s Park became a battleground

By Benjamin Schneider on
Features   Uncategorized
At 4:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 15, 1969 250 California Highway Patrol officers arrived at newly constructed People’s Park, while a helicopter buzzed overhead. They cleared a few people who were sleeping on the fresh sod and put up a chain link fence. As the sun rose, Berkeley’s newest green space, a symbol of an alternative vision of society, was enclosed behind a perimeter of state police officers.

39 years of Food Not Bombs

By Keith McHenry on
Commentary   Opinion
Food Not Bombs has been serving meals at People’s Park five days a week since 1991. And as the Park commemorates its 50th anniversary, Food Not Bombs is celebrating 39 years serving meals to the hungry. In honor of this shared anniversary, Food Not Bombs co-founder Keith McHenry shares his project’s origin story.

The People’s Park trees have standing

By Carol Denney on
Commentary   Opinion
At 4 a.m. on December 28, the University of California cut down 40 trees in People’s Park, arguing that they endangered public safety, or at least blocked the light. The “long-deferred maintenance”, as a UC Berkeley statement describes it, was initiated without any warning to neighbors, park supporters, and community members. In the weeks since, the University’s demolition of the trees has continued—as of the end of January, they have cut down at least 42 trees.