Free People Park

Peoples Park in Berkeley is a park located just east of Telegraph Avenue, bounded by Haste and Bowditch streets and D-wight way, near the University of California, Berkeley. The Park was created during the radical political activism of the late 1960s.

Mural of the fight for Peoples Park in the late 1960s in Berkeley, CA

People Park has operated since the early 1970s as a public people park for the community, and People Park has been with us ever since. Now they want to destroy it to build a dorm.

“They cut many more plants,’’ said one of the People Park defenders.

I went with POOR Magazine to do a report on People Park, on behalf of the residents, because the park is getting destroyed. Once we got to People Park, there were big trees cut down and laying on the ground and the leaves, once floating over, were under my feet.

“They took back on the arrangements,’’ the defender continued.

There were big black gates to keep you from getting inside of People Park and from entering the park from the community.

I remember the People Park from before this happened. It was so beautiful to look at and the trees wasn’t cut down, they was alive. The People Park didn't look the same as the last time that I visited, as we did a beautiful ceremony.

Mural of Native elder & Nora, sweet angel of the street. Berkeley, CA.