Said Michael Delacour, quoted in
"Michael Delacour, People’s Park co-founder, dies at 85
Delacour hosted the first meetings to organize and build People’s Park at his Berkeley home in the 1960s" (Berkeleyside).
Delacour and Chu opened the Red Square Dress Shop in an apartment above Bongo Burger in 1966, and it became a hub for organizing meetings about a nascent concept for People’s Park. The idea finally took hold in April 1969.... On May 15, 1969, known as “Bloody Thursday,” state and local police came to the park in the early morning hours to reclaim the land for the university. They fenced off the perimeter of the park and bulldozed what had been planted.
Thousands rallied and marched on the park in protest that morning, and a 25-year-old bystander, James Rector, was killed by police. Carpenter Alan Blanchard was blinded by buckshot, and many others were tear-gassed or injured....
Then — 30 years later — Delacour posed a critical question to those gathered at People’s Park in 2021 as they protested the university’s new (but cyclical) fencing off of the park to begin construction.
“What are we trying to do, take down this fence?” asked Delacour, now with a characteristic long white beard and a pandemic-era mask. “Looking at the fence, we have the numbers here,” he said. “You guys can decide what to do.”
“There was a brief, electric pause while the crowd of students looked at each other, and then the fences started coming down”... Delacour returned to protests for People’s Park throughout the pandemic, and before his health declined, he turned out in the summer of 2022 at large rallies to “save the park.”...
“Never a theorist, always an organizer, Michael lived close to the bone,” Steve Wasserman, a civil rights organizer in Berkeley and local publisher....
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15 comments:
Celebrating over 50 years of stasis. That’s real progress.
While the land is the property of the University of California, People's Park has operated since the early 1970s as a free public park. The City of Berkeley declared it a historical and cultural landmark in 1984. It is often viewed as a sanctuary for Berkeley's low income and large homeless population who, along with others, received meals from East Bay Food Not Bombs regularly. Many social welfare organizations do outreach at the park, like the Suitcase Clinic. Nearby Berkeley residents partake in regularly scheduled activities around the park like gardening, musical performances, and movie nights.
( ... )
On July 29, 2022, a judge ruled in favor of the UC Berkeley construction project. Deforestation work began just after midnight on August 3, 2022, which was meet with protests by community members opposed to the redevelopment effort.
People's Park (Berkeley)
Much more at the link.
Hey, hippies need a place to go BM too!
Creating an open-air drug market is a stupid cause to die for.
People's Park is a dump, filled with bums, used needles, and human feces.
Ask me how I know...
What's the difference between a People's Park and a park? These are construction fences, so I guess they are planning to build something that will destroy the park, but park preservation as a general concept and People's Park preservation--preservation of a single specific park--I prefer saving parks over saving one park. You'll help more people that way.
Of course, that means getting involved in urban planning, which isn't as exciting as chaining yourself to a tree.
The word reactionary is only applied to conservatives. There should be some kind of word that describes left wing bigots whose views have calcified and have not changed over the years. As I understand it, California is now more in need of housing than of organic vegetables, but he kept the faith. "Vegetables now.
Vegetables forever". ...Well, from the pictures given, he looked fit and vital until the end. There are some advantages to being a bigot. You're not tortured with self doubt or regrets about past mistakes.
I was there in the eighties. People's Park was still around, but it had long since ended anyway. No one ever heard of it.
Civilization is held together by the masses.
Or, not at all.
The neverending culture wars, check.
I remember People's Plaza in Ann Arbor (circa 1969). It's the only place I have ever participated in a demonstration — a march, with chants. The issue: demanding that the University adopt a policy of affirmative action.
I certainly don't know the history of People's Park and its relation to the university, the city of San Fracisco and/or the people who used and lived in and around the park. But ... I do find wandering around the neighborhood at various times using Google Maps adds a little to the story.
People's Park (August 2022)
People's Park (January 2021)
People's Park (March 2020)
People's Park (January 2019)
People's Park (January 2018)
I speculate that there are public parks in Berkeley that could use some volunteers to help keep them cleaned and fit gor use by the people, but the energy that could go that way gets spent on protests over this piece of land.
Perhaps raking up a bunch of litter every Wednesday morning doesn't give people the virtue hit they want.
I was at Berkeley in mid to late 70s. It was colloquially known as People’s Pit. it wasn’t a park, it was a ratty mess with trash and weeds. It may have belonged to the University, but it wasn’t students hanging out there.
“I remember People's Plaza in Ann Arbor (circa 1969). It's the only place I have ever participated in a demonstration — a march, with chants. The issue: demanding that the University adopt a policy of affirmative action.”
Hmm. So did you volunteer to give up your place to an underrepresented minority? Or did you feel that being female made you underrepresented enough?
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