Berkeley Locals Lament the Closure of People's Park as Shipping Container Barricades Go Up

Activists and residents living near People’s Park in Berkeley expressed shock and anger at the double-high wall of shipping containers closing off the community landmark that was once a green public space.

“So I drive up here … get a look at it with the containers surrounding it and the security guys and all those cop cars … It’s terrible, very depressing,” said Roger Fox, a former Berkeley resident, who described the barricade as “grotesque,” comparing it to the Berlin Wall. “It’s ugly, it’s unnecessary, it’s stupid.”

Late Wednesday night into early Thursday morning, hundreds of officers arrived at the park to clear the site of its occupants in preparation for building student housing. Construction crews then began installing 160 double-stacked shipping containers around the park’s perimeters, as demonstrators gathered at the intersection of Telegraph and Haste avenues outside the park. In the ensuing skirmishes and scuffles with police, nearly a dozen people were arrested on charges including resisting arrest and battery.

Local resident Song Ly, who moved to the neighborhood a few months ago, said she was shocked to see the trees being cut with chainsaws and added that her car was towed. She said the containers were like “being in prison.”

“It’s depressing … apocalyptic feeling, there’s nobody here,” said Ly as she left her house by the park. “It’s just people in uniforms, and getting to and from the apartment is like, ‘Who are you?’ And I’m like, ‘I live here.’ And they don’t believe you.”

Work to construct the planned student housing at the park stalled in February 2023 after an appeals court ruled UC Berkeley could not move forward with construction until it evaluated other possible sites for the housing and addressed concerns that noise pollution from students would impact neighbors. In September, Gov. Newsom signed a bill — AB 1307 — clearing the way for construction of the controversial $312 million project that UC Berkeley says would create sorely needed housing for some 1,100 UC Berkeley students. A separate facility would also house roughly 125 of the unhoused people that currently live on the 2.8-acre site south of campus that is owned by the university.

South Berkeley resident and native Utahan Loa Niumeitolu, and Zachary Greer, a former Oakland resident, said they were both attracted to the Bay Area and to People’s Park because of the “rich history” of “people-powered movements.”

“People’s Park has been a piece of land that all communities have come together to ask the city to please preserve for many generations, to come as a place of peace, as a place of abundance, for all diverse communities to work together,” said Niumeitolu, who described the containers and decision to cut down trees as “horrific.” “The UC [is] … just blatantly saying, ‘We don’t care. We’re going to go ahead and build whatever we want without your consent.’”

On Thursday, UC Berkeley spokesperson Kyle Gibson said the university’s goal is to ensure the park’s closure is “as peaceful as possible,” adding that the park would reopen after construction is complete.

“Over two-thirds of this site will be a brand new public park that will be open to the community and will not be fenced,” said Gibson.

But Niumeitolu considers People’s Park a “community sacred site,” with a decades-long history that made it more than just a park.

“The land is sacred here, and the struggle of the people is sacred here. And that’s why we’re standing with it,” she said.

On Sunday, a “Protect People’s Park/Free Palestine” protest march is planned for 5 p.m. at Haste Street and Telegraph Avenue.

KQED’s Annelise Finney, Spencer Whitney, Attila Pelit, Erin Baldassari, Vanessa Rancaño and Rachael Vasquez contributed to this story.