People’s Park

I’m one of those remaining (but dwindling) people that helped build and fight for the Park originally. To the woman below reprimanding reviewers to get their facts straight (thank you, by the way) you goofed, too. The Park was created Spring of 1969, not ’72.
I lived most of my life in places distant from Berkeley since then, but have come back through town now and again through the years. I moved back to the East Bay in 1999 and have lived in nearby, adjacent and/​or Berkeley since then.
The Park now is not what it originally was, nor what was intended, in my experience. It has been «claimed» by/​f homeless people or, oonversely, by people allegedly living nearby and/​or by U.C. students (while they’re here). None of these people appear faithful to the original purpose nor spirit of The Park, nor does that much remain manifestly.
All the «scare stories» about the Park are mostly dramatic bunk, as the review below discovered. A few years back, I also spotted actual U.C. literature outright warning their incoming students about the Park. And one evening earier this year, one of the U.C. «escorts» was overheard telling a student that it’s «recommended» that she avoid that block completely.
Also earlier this year, fairly late one night a distraught woman and her companion approached some local people to ask if anyone had any information about her son, showing pictures, etc. People were comforting her and offering various assurances, when a notorious U.C. police officer arrived on bicycle. He said rather flatly that «the University maintains the Park mainly as a resource for the homeless, although it isn’t publicized like that».
That was a *most* curious and ironic advisory, especially since that officer in particular has been known for some of the worst harassment *toward* homeless people. Similarly, the public restroom there, also notorious, is usually in extremely poor condition. Yet, when homeless people have diredtly requested that some basic things be kept available (mops, disinfectant, etc.) so that THEY can do the work to keep it in decent shape, they’ve been denied. Just recently one middle-​aged homeless woman took it upon herself to both get those needed tools and materials AND then proceed to scrub, sanitize and supply both the women’s and the men’s rooms on her own.
Just so. the senior gentleman who has gained fame for «living in the park» for years on end now is nigh CONSTANTLY picking up litter and other refuse in an entire corner of the park and he and others who frequent it are REGULARLY doing the same in other sections, sweeping the sidewalks, raking the paths, etc. Meanwhile, the «community gardens“of the park (which originally was the ENTIRE Park, itself) have continued to be created, worked, maintained BY individuals — NOT U.C. In fact, U.C. workers make occasional forays into the park to destroy, damage, ruin and minimize these projects, sometimes overtly but also covertly.
Why is the University propagandizing like that about this Park that IT owns and maintains?
A most obvious reason continues to alter «the neighborhood» surrounding. The U.C. is not just an academic enterprise, it is also THE most prominent and dominant «development» outfit in
berkeley. That park is PRIME property and location, even while the U.C. has continued to build more and more major «student housing» developments where actual neighbors used to have houses and lived… as were ON the block where the park is, which the U.C. forced people to sell and leave so it all could be demolished.
It seems the Univ. WANTS the park to be an eyesore and as much of a blight as possible, toward changing the «public opinion and sentiment» about the park in their favor. This is the only sensible explanation for quite a few other dynamics, such as various «selective enforcements» that take place, campaigns that can be characterized as bolstering accusations of certain kinds of «crime waves», etc.
As for whichever «disgruntled neighbors» might actually be genuine (there are fewer and fewer private citizen occupied buildings, for one thing) they DO have SOME valid complaints, but also exaggerate and overstate things too much. I’ve only ever seen ONE EVER personally there DOing anything constructive. For those that just think they oughta’ sit at home and have the U.C. provide them with… well, whatever their fancy might be, that’s quite another matter.
PLUS, I know for a fact, that all too often what people are just automatically ASSUMING are «homeless» people are, in reality, flat wrong. Quite a few ‘homed’ people frequent that park, including some of the worst offenders. In fact, there’s an entire group of ‘homed’ people that outright *commute* from Oakland to hang out there and take as much of the donations meant for homeless people as they can manage. These can also be found on Telegraph Ave., even Shattuck downtown, *posing* as «homeless» and among the more «aggressive panhandlers» pitching various lies and cons.

I am one of the Berkeley residents that has the displeasure of living within eyeshot of People’s Park. I love my building, neighborhood and local places to go but People’s Park puts a damper on all of it. I’m not being dramatic when I say that there are people screaming and fighting there 24 – 7. Whether it is drug induced or homeless altercations, it leaves the neighborhood full of unrest and dangerous situations. The inhabitants of the park (they are there 24 – 7) have made it unsafe and unsanitary. It saddens me that a park with such rich history has turned into a dangerous dump because Cal (they own/​run the park) refuses to make the park accessible for all of Berkeley’s residents. This park is very unsafe and there are drugs EVERYWHERE! Once and awhile the police will try and clear the park out at night but this just causes the drug addicts to cross the street, hang out in our doorways and break into our cars. After years of living here and witnessing negative happenings at this park daily I’ve given up hope of it ever being a park accessible to the actual residents of Berkeley.

I encourage you all to read this review. I’m born and raised in San Francisco. I had to visit People’s Park for one of my Sociology/​Urban Studies and Planning classes at SFSU to observe who visits this public space and why. I read these reviews on Unilocal prior to visiting and to be honest, I was FUCKING scared. I expected the worst: being harassed by homeless and drug addicts or getting possessions stolen from me. Being a woman especially, I was worried I would get lost because I never visited the park prior to yesterday.
Knowing I wouldn’t have enough time to get ready for class and work back in San Francisco later, I dressed up and did my makeup. To be honest that made me even more scared (in the most ignorant and senseless way) once arriving at the park. A homeless lady even approached me within the first 5 minutes being there and told me to «not look too pretty» because people could possibly bother me.
I stayed at the park for 4 HOURS. The time went by quickly, I wish with all my heart I stayed longer, and let me tell you why.
People’s Park is so rich with history and beauty. How could a place so beautiful be so poorly maintained? The homeless people are considered to be «undesirable.» But People’s Park is called that for a reason. It was a park for the PEOPLE, meaning EVERYONE. Not just the students of UC Berkeley or the upper/​middle class shoppers along Telegraph. I completely understand why the homeless try their best to dwell here. People leave them alone and they don’t need to be subjected to constant criticism and degradation from people (including some people who wrote these reviews). Also, due to LACK OF RESOURCES, they resort to coming to the park for occasional food distributions.
One of the consistent park goers by the name of Mike told me WHY he still goes to People’s Park daily. Mike told me he had been homeless on and off for 10 YEARS. He told me his life story, between him losing his daughter, losing multiple jobs, and how at 60 years old, he now lives alone in a motel. He goes to the park to find peace and to keep hopeful that the park will be cleaned and maintained. And by maintained, he does not mean fenced off or changed to accommodate bougie-​ass people who complain about the presence of the homeless. I completely agree that if Berkeley wants the homeless out of this park, they need to make resources for them more accessible: food, water, places to wash themselves and their clothes, shelter, recreation, etc.
I talked to Mike and another man named Greg, who was maybe in his early 40s. They, along with the other 26 homeless people sitting and smoking in the park DID NOT harass me or make me feel uncomfortable in ANY WAY during my 4 hours of being there. Many of them were high on SOMETHING. But still I was able to converse with Mike and Greg and listen to their immense knowledge and wisdom.
They both brought me to tears. I really couldn’t even comprehend how simple they were in living their lives, and I was very disappointed in myself for being such a brat in my initial way of thinking. I cried because I hurt for them and for the park. The park has a fucking basketball court. It has a playground area that isn’t even used by children because no one maintains it. The place gets good sunlight. The trees provide shade but not as much as before I assume since they cut down so many trees and just leave them there (the absence of trees makes homeless easier to identify so police can prevent them from sleeping there… *just a thought).
The murals will tell you a little bit more about the history of the park and the struggle of the people if you decide to just open your eyes and THINK.
I promised Mike and Greg that I’d come back next week. :)

I wouldn’t take my kids here but the people generally leave you alone. Berkeley kids tend to avoid it, or ignore it.

If this park was cleaner, it would be an excellent place to enjoy a day out in the sun with your family, but since it is home to so many street people; it’s negative aspects always outweigh it’s positive features.
There is plenty of open area here to play catch or toss a frisbee, but with so many people laying around; it’s kinda difficult to take advantage of the space. The children’s play structure here is a mess, it’s covered in graffiti, smells like piss, and looks like something out of the opening credits of Terminator. Also, the public bathrooms here are disgusting, they are always covered in debris and graffiti, always smell like piss and patchouli, and never have toilet paper, seat covers, or hand soap.
Despite having many problems, this park does have a nice basketball court with a lot of space and this is also one of the only places where the homeless community can enjoy a sense of togetherness and take advantage of free meals outside of a shelter environment.

I can’t believe how many people don’t know the history of People’s Park. Christ, Joni Mitchell wrote a song called Big Yellow Taxi about People’s Park!
To me People’s Park represents a time when an entire generation dared to stand up to criticize & disagree with our government-​the US Govt. Johnson then Nixon were the Presidents — not Ronald Reagan! This was a time when people were not afraid (although we should have been), to stand up for what we believed in, not content to cry about how horrible things were & wishing they would magically get better!
People’s Park is just as its name implies it’s for all the people. All the negative reviews, shame on you. But I guess its easier to complain & blame someone/​thing about a situation instead of trying to change it.
People haven’t changed that much going by the majority of the reviews most still mask what they fear with hate. To those people, be glad you’ve been fortunate enough not have fallen victim to the economy and lost everything you worked your entire life for. Remember not all homeless people chose to be so and not all are drug addicts.
To GraceyPoo from Boston MA: get your facts straight before you sling your BS! UCB owns People’s Park & they didn’t give it to the homeless you idiot! Back in 1972 UCB students & hundreds of others took back the park after the Board of Regents put up a parking lot in 1967 to make money off all the tourists that came to the Ave (Telegraph). Are all Bostonians such morons or are you just pissed because you didn’t get an In & Out Burger, lol?
Joline from Berkeley wrote the following:
Sunday evening, April 20, 2014: One man has his pitbull bite a woman after getting into a fight with her on the basketball court in the park.
To you Joline all I have to say is of course it was a PIT BULL because no other dog could ever be trained to bite someone and everyone knows all homeless people own pitties. Idiots like you are the reason these dogs have a bad rap; some homeless people didn’t choose their life, sadly, pit bulls can’t choose who owns them all they know is how to love unconditionally. You know, I tried to find info on the «chronicle of crime» you posted through police blogs & couldn’t find even one of the instances.
To the woman who got «bit» by a homeless guy’s dog but didn’t file a police report because it didn’t break the skin: Another vicious pit bull? LMAO! What a crock!
Sometimes when I read crap like this it really pisses me off! Quit whining & clean up the park! If you don’t think its your responsibility then quit crying about it!
Later,
Peace Out
Oh yeah one more thing, under «Was this review???» there should be a thumbs down box!

Interesting to take a walk back through this park after so many years! While it is kept up and kept pretty clean the large number of homeless make it an obsticle course of beggars as you go down the sidewalks near the park.
I was pleasantly surprised to find the bathroom clean!

I would give this place zero star if Unilocal has this function. Totally occupied by homeless who do not seem to be sober during the day. I feel unsafe even walking adjacent to the park. DO NOT GO IN UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE ROBBED OR BITTEN BY DOGS.

I live right near this place and have never had to go past it on adjacent streets until tonight around midnight. Yeah, this is fresh.
Shoulda brought my mace, because the ONE night I decide against it, I get blindsided by a god damn dog, who bit my hand as his owner was sleeping (pretending to sleep? hiding?) nearby.
I would have fought both man and dog with tunnel vision had my roommate not been there.
Stay away, unless you’re too poor to move to northside.
Not filing a police report… no skin was broken as I was in mid-​run already, and it wasn’t too much of a problem as I just talked mad shit and fled to my apartment.
I say nuke this place.

I walked over to this park to try and get my dog to go to the bathroom. This park is so filthy my dog wouldn’t even take a shit there. I am lucky my dog didn’t get stuck with a dirty heroin needle or get rapped while walking through. This place is one of the biggest dumps of a homeless junky hangout in the Bay Area, ridden with crime and disgusting waste.
On a side note, while we were walking through: as part of some kind of fraternity hazing stunt, two frat boys ran through the park in their underwear. Everyone in this park was too strung out to even notice them. This is honestly too easy of a feat to even call hazing. If your a fraternity and trying to do some authentic underdressed hazing stunt, do it somewhere else, where there might actually be some shock value.

This park is a festering cesspool of crime, homelessness, and mentally unstable individuals. It is unsafe to be in or very near this park. Here is a short chronicle of crime in the park in just the last few months:
— Monday night, May 12, 2014: A woman walking along the street next to the park is yelled at then sexually assaulted by a man who then escapes into the park. The man is an out-​of-​compliance sex registrant with an extensive criminal history.
— Sunday evening, April 20, 2014: One man has his pitbull bite a woman after getting into a fight with her on the basketball court in the park.
— Wednesday morning, March 5, 2014: A man walks out of the park and attacks a nearby family, including a small child, by throwing a rock at them, smashing a window in their car.
— Saturday afternoon, January 11, 2014: A man is robbed at gunpoint after sitting down at a picnic table in the park.
— Monday morning, December 23, 2013: A woman is robbed of her purse in the park.
— Saturday, noon, December 14, 2013: Three men get into a fight in the middle of a park, armed with a machete, a fishing pole handle, and a pole with a hook on it, respectively.
— Tuesday night, December 10, 2013: A female student is assaulted and robbed a block away from the park.
— Sunday night, late, September 1, 2013: A woman is raped at gunpoint in the park.
In my personal experience, I have been aggressively confronted and threatened (i.e., a person yelling, cursing at me, waving their arms, getting in my face) by mentally unstable individuals several times when walking or jogging by this park. I don’t know what they wanted as they usually aren’t very coherent. If you don’t want trouble, do not enter this park. Do not interact with the inhabitants of this park.

This place is a park only in the loosest sense — it’s honestly an abomination and it’s a mystery why the city still allows this place to exist. This place is overrun by homeless people, and the only thing recreational about this place are all the drugs. I’m not talking about relatively harmless hippies smoking joints, you’ll find used needles all over the place. This «park» is possibly the filthiest and most off-​putting place I’ve ever come across in my life.
Avoid People’s Park like the plague, especially after dark. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about this place, the faster it’s gone the better for Berkeley.

This place is not a park, it’s a homeless encampment. If you go here, even in broad daylight, you will see a bunch of people in sleeping bags, used syringes, various drugs being injected, smoked, snorted, etc. Then there’s the pervasive smell of urine and feces — always a treat.
It’s not a place you would go to eat lunch, walk the dog, hang out and enjoy nature, or do any of the others things people generally associate with parks.
Other than that, it’s fantastic.

«Parks should be for everyone to enjoy.»
That seems like an agreeable statement. What happens though when a fringe group of people take over the park in a way that does not allow for most people to enjoy said park? Therein lies the problem with Peoples Park. The park has been taken over completely by homeless people and drug users. While the majority of the people are harmless, it does ruin what could be a great place for all kinds of people to hang out at.
Activists in favor of letting homeless people and drug users frequent the park say things like:
«Rich people are welcome here as much as poor people, but if rich people want to change the park to make poor people feel uncomfortable, that’s obviously a problem.» (from the Peoples Park Wikipedia page)
to try to imply that anyone opposing the presence of drug users in the park as committing class warfare against the poor. This is simply not true. I tried to enjoy Peoples Park. During my hour of attempted leisure, I saw:
–A guy tying off in preparation to inject himself with something
–Two homeless people saying really racist things about another homeless man
–Some junior high kids mooning cars and smoking cigarettes
–Two more homeless people about to get into a fist fight over something
–There were also several drug needles on the ground
I’m not a rich person. I’m a poor grad student. I don’t hate the people who frequent the park. I just want to be able to sit on the grass and have a picnic without worrying about sitting on a drug needle. Is that too much to ask?
If «everyone» can’t be in the park, I would rather it be hospitable to families with children instead of junkies and the homeless. I grew up in a different city, and I have many fond memories of playing in the park with my friends. I would like for the children of Berkeley to have similar opportunities.

Walking by at night made me seriously think, for the first time in my life, that I could seriously be physically threatened, assaulted or kidnapped Sinaloa-​style. I’ve been through sketchy areas of big cities before, but seriously none compares to People’s Park. Not South Boston. Not Figueroa St. in LA. Not Vegas. Maybe San Bernardino, but few examples exist to describe the way walking on that sidewalk really feels. One summer I worked here, the opposite sidewalk on Haste was occupied by construction, which made things worse by corralling me into the jaws of PP.
I passed by definite drug dealers/​possible bike thieves hanging out in front of Remy’s one night. They tried to get involved with their conversation but I desperately just wanted to be on my way. Graffiti covers the «free» in the «Drug Free Zone» sign posted on the corner of Haste and Telegraph. Makes sense.
+1 star for being absolutely unique in the entire world.

People’s park is a rank sh*thole. I am a grown man and a bit intimidating myself and I don’t like to even walk by this place. This is not a «People’s Park». It’s «Those People’s Park» and they let you know it.
If Berkeley ever wants it’s downtown to thrive then filth pens like this need to be eliminated.
Stay away, there is nothing to see here unless you are interested in human misery and wretchedness.
Let me add a bit more… want to clean this place up? Get the Chancellor of UCB to grow some balls and fence it off. Rip out everything except the tree and send in a squad of UCPD to chase off the drug dealers, drug addicts and hookers. An application of «hickory» ought to do the trick.
To those pissing and moaning about a long lost past when People’s Park meant something… «Wake Up». The 60’s are gone. it isn’t 1972. it’s 2014. Your dream turned into what we have today and YOU are largely responsible for it. You «built» a park and then stopped caring for it.
Hey, I love Joni Mitchel but that doesn’t make up for the fact that I won’t cross that park without a firearm. Use you heads for something other than a place ti put flowers.
Oh, and that grand world you wanted to create? You fucked up well and good about a decade later.
Tourists… stay away. Thee is nothing here but broken dreams.

People’s Park represents the era of the Free Speech movement and is somewhat of a tourist attraction in its eccentricity and tolerance of obvious homelessness and drug/​alcohol use. On a sunny day, it almost looks like a cheerful place, with a mixture of people in sleeping bags, a couple of dogs running around, residents fraternizing in small groups… and there’s even a basketball court.
I’m sure it becomes a different place at night and the safety goes down immeasurably. Because this is Berkeley, this park will most likely be allowed to remain as it is. I haven’t heard of any violent crime happening here but I would caution all to stay away after dark to be safe.

Four years of being near people’s park as a student has made me disdain this park. True, it might have been a fantastic place to be in the ‘70s but it definitely is an ugly smelly place right now. From experience, DO NOT rent a place with a window facing the park and free yourself of the wretched scent from the park. Only stayed there for about a month, thank goodness.
Actually, People’s Park is not that dangerous. The most dangerous intersection on Southside at night is Benvenue and Parker since it can be pitch black over there and crime reports show lots of action over there. At least there is always light and people present near People’s Park.
Do not let a random hobo play basketball with you and your friends because he will forget which team he is on. Also, have you ever seen one hobo beat up another hobo and a bunch of hobos asking the first hobo to stop hurting the second hobo?

HAHAHAHAH ARE YOU SERIOUS!!! THIS PARK IS A JOKE…
First off, the look of it is very depressing. You can clearly see smelly ass bums laying in the ground picking their nose, grazing in the grass and eating grass, people’s ass cracks hanging out of their holey jeans, wierdo’s that play basketball with cans… shit like this goes down here.
You can automatically smell the fresh scent of expired urine and feces on the walls and floor of the park. People are slanging weed and shooting heroin, dirty ass people making out on top of benches. I def think most of these people are ex-​students that gave up purposely to join this «culture».
The reason why I gave this place a star is because the painting of the mural is pretty nice and colorful. It sucks because I know there is soo much history around this place but it isn’t preserved whatsoever. The city of Berkeley should def create this place into some type of museum of a park that is clean representing the rich culture of it. I think people should start doing something about it.
I think I even saw squirrels humping each other here… UGH smelly ass park

This place is part of the reason why Berkeley has its reputation of not being a safe place to live. Here at People’s Park, you constantly see sketchy people congregating. On more than one occasion I’ve seen drug deals go down here.
People’s Park truly is the people’s park. The homeless that is. There is a huge community of homeless individuals living here. Upwards of 30 actually. Homeless people can be sanitary, but these people are not. When you walk by the park, there is a nasty stench from human excrements. NASTY.
The Dwight Apartments which is on one side of People’s Park regularly suffer the screaming and loud random noises made by the people in the park.
Berkeley needs to do something about this park, as well as the homeless people living here.