People's Park - Subsequent History

Subsequent History

The People's Café, a house trailer configured and decorated as a café, was mysteriously installed in People's Park one night in 1988, with no one claiming responsibility. It appeared overnight, and volunteers from the Catholic Worker Movement and elsewhere began serving food from it the next day, distributing approximately 100 breakfasts per day. It lasted a few months, then the university removed the trailer early one morning after an inspection by the Berkeley Health Department.

The university built sand volleyball courts at the south end of the park in 1991, which set off demonstrations. After the university police began trying to clear the park of protesters and arrested some demonstrators, riots began. Opponents saw the building of volleyball courts as yet another attempt by the university to transform the park's open space into eventual housing, parking, or other projects. They were dismantled in 1997. There had been little use by the public, and the maintenance costs were very high.

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