Photo courtesy of Carol Denney.
Hmm…here’s an interesting tidbit of news. UC Berkeley sent in bulldozers to clear out the west end of People’s Park, citing sanitation concerns.
The bulldozers cleared out healthy plants and trees, tossing out decades of community garden work. None of the People’s Park Community Advisory Board members were informed.
Another article states that the removed plants will be replaced by smaller ones that use less water and that the clearing was to get rid of rats.
Some initial thoughts: best possible timing for UC Berkeley to pull this off. If it was during the school year, you can be sure crowds of people would be sitting in front of the bulldozers.
At the same time, is this a good move? I definitely think that sanitation is beneficial to students, but how much cleaner is the park going to get? There will still be people living there, unless there’s specific permission granted to clear them out, too.
What are your thoughts on this piece of news? Did UC Berkeley make the right move?
