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People's Park

Berkeley, US

People's Park

People's Park in Berkeley, California is a parcel of land owned by the University of California, Berkeley. Located east of Telegraph Avenue and bound by Haste and Bowditch Streets and Dwight Way, People's Park was a symbol during the radical political activism of the late 1960s. Formerly a park, the

site is now under construction for new university student housing and homeless supportive housing. While the land is owned by the University of California, People's Park was de facto established as a public park on April 20, 1969, by local activists. On May 13, University Chancellor Roger W. Heyns announced plans to construct a soccer field on the site, leading to a confrontation two days later between protesters and police on May 15. On a day known as "Bloody Thursday", police used tear gas and fired shotguns at the protesters to quell the riot, resulting notably in the death of James Rector. In 1984, the city of Berkeley declared it a historical and cultural landmark. In 2018, the university published a plan to build 1,100 new units of student housing and 125 units of supportive housing for homeless people on the site, but a small contingent of activists delayed those plans through opposition...

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