UC Berkeley spent $7.8 million to deploy its own forces to wall off and secure People's Park, the historic 2.8-acre green space that activists took advantage of in the 1960s to serve as open space for freethinkers.
That multimillion-dollar total is expected to grow substantially as outside law enforcement agencies submit their bills to the university.
And the cost of keeping people out of the park remains high: The university pays nearly a million dollars a month to station private security guards outside the park, 24 hours a day.
The massive late-night operation to clear the park and surround it with a double-height stack of 160 steel cargo containers was executed in early January, in anticipation of the Berkeley campus being cleared for a new complex. household.
Litigation continues to block construction of 1,100 units of student housing, 125 units of supportive housing for the homeless and a park memorial south of the Berkeley campus.
University officials expect the state Supreme Court to hear a case on the park's future this spring, and potentially decide by summer whether to allow construction on the property, first seized and converted to open space by activists in 1969.
In response to a public records request, Berkeley campus officials revealed Wednesday that they spent $2.85 million to build the 17-foot-tall perimeter around the park. Those funds were used to pay for shipping containers (at a cost of $972,000), doors, lighting, other equipment and supervision ($1.27 million) and for engineering and surveying ($515,000).
Another $3.77 million went to pay, house and feed the police officers and sheriff's deputies who cleared and surrounded the park in early January. Nearly $1.5 million of that money went to pay overtime for officers at the University of California Police Department.
The $7.8 million bill also includes $1.16 million UC spent to move homeless people from the park to a Quality Inn, where they receive meals and other services.
Bills remain to be filed and/or totaled by the California Highway Patrol, the Alameda and San Francisco County sheriff's departments, and nine other UC and Cal State University police departments. A UC spokesperson said “it could be several more months” until those notes arrive. They are expected to add millions of dollars to the cost of cleaning up the park.
In a letter accompanying the figures, UC Berkeley spokesman Kyle Gibson explained that the extraordinary operation, shrouded in secrecy, was designed to avoid the kind of conflict that had prevented the university from developing People's Park for more than half a century. .
“Our top priorities for the closure were safety, avoiding/deterring conflict, and minimizing disruption to neighboring students and residents,” spokesperson Kyle Gibson's statement said.
The letter described “vandalism, violence and other illegal activities” that occurred when the university unsuccessfully attempted to take control of the park in August 2022. That prior experience “required extraordinary measures, precautions and expenses” when UC moved in January. to secure the park, Gibson's letter said.
