![]() Construction of the park itself will also push people out before that, she said. “I’m trying to minimize harm as a formerly unhoused person, but I understand the feelings and I myself am really upset,” Hill added.īut the UC spokesman said he was unaware of any reports that UC police threw away people’s property, or that their things were taken away. He said the university is not “clearing any of the area.” However, if there were garbage or rotten food, he admitted that could be thrown out.Īmanda Hill and other student activists are also concerned that the university’s plan doesn’t guarantee that those currently living at the park will be able to move into the proposed housing. Two people may have lost their belongings as UC police placed the items into vans, Hill said. Monday morning and people in the park were told to move by UC police. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)Īmanda Hill, a student who is also on the People’s Park Planning Committee and is formerly unhoused, said those who live at the park were told last week they may have to move on Tuesday. Students are occupying the park in order to protest the university’s proposed project to build student housing there. “They want to be the opposite of that, showing their solidarity for the people within People’s Park and the antagonism against the university and their development plans by any means necessary.” BERKELEY, CA – FEBRUARY 09: Activist Aidan Hill, left, talks with fellow activist Michael Delacour during a press conference at People’s Park in Berkeley, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. “The students especially feel a sense of guilt that they were part of this machine called UC Berkeley, and (the university is) actively going against what they believe,” Hill said in an interview. “At the same time, we’re going to continue our efforts to address the pressing need for student housing and to build supportive housing.”Īidan Hill, a student and activist, said Tuesday that students spontaneously decided to occupy the park in a free speech protest to show the university “this land can’t be destroyed. “If there are students who want to join them … they will not be evicted,” he said. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)ĭan Mogulof, the university’s assistant vice chancellor of communications, said Tuesday in an interview that the university’s plans have not changed no one living at the park will be forced out. UC Berkeley students are occupying the park in order to protest the universityÕs proposed project to build student housing there. “The legal remedies haven’t been exhausted,” he said, noting that his group had asked a court of appeal to halt construction Wednesday morning.BERKELEY, CA – FEBRUARY 09: Homeless tents are seen in PeopleÕs Park from this drone view in Berkeley, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. Harvey Smith, president of the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group, said he was happy work had stopped but that officials never should have tried to commence it in the first place. University officials, who rushed to begin work just hours after a judge issued a ruling allowing it, said they would “assess the situation in order to determine how best to proceed” with construction of a project that would provide housing for students and homeless people. It was unclear what would happen next or when. In a statement, officials said safety is the university’s highest priority and that construction workers and law enforcement had been “withdrawn from the site,” which has long been a symbol of 1960s counterculture and which many view as hallowed community ground. The move was a victory for protesters, who had raced to the park soon after UC officials erected a fence around it early Wednesday morning. Following hours of angry and tense protests, UC Berkeley officials abruptly announced Wednesday afternoon that they would pause work on transforming historic People’s Park into housing “due to the destruction of construction materials, unlawful protest activities and violence on the part of some.”
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