Haste Street and Dwight Way a half-block East of Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California. Or the park is a historical landmark--a symbol of all the political and cultural struggles of the 1960's. Or the park is a problem, visited by too many homeless people. People's Park is famous and controversial because of its dramatic creation story. In 1969, a diverse spontaneous coalition of radicals, visionaries and ordinary Berkeley people gathered to build the park themselves, on land they knew they didn't own, without seeking permission and without any formal planning. The action was provocative and radical but also peaceful, hopeful and simple. Building the park was a kind of protest without signs. Rather than beg for a new world based on less materialistic, more sustainable, more democratic values, people built the park that was the living embodiment of their dreams and alternative values. The University of California, Berkeley--which legally owned the land and which had been fighting increasingly bitter skirmishes with radicals and the counter-culture in Berkeley for years during the 1960's--responded ferociously to construction of the park. After thousands had labored over a period of weeks to build a park, police seized it back in an early morning raid, leading to days of violent protests. Alameda County Sheriffs fired live ammunition into crows, killing James Rector and wounding many others. The National Guard occupied Berkeley. This violent, authoritarian over-reaction may have done more to guarantee the park's continued survival than anything activists could have organized. The park became sacred ground--the University's land title forever stained with blood. This book comes out of the community around the park now-composed of people who mostly weren't involved in the struggles of the 1960's.

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