An eight-story student housing complex on Bancroft Way, to include about 330 beds, has been approved by Berkeley's zoning board right across the street from the Cal campus.
Many blame the park's founders and supporters and their counterculture values for the state of the park today. But they haven't controlled it since 1969. The responsibility lies elsewhere.
Many doubted it would ever come to pass, but construction work has started at the long-vacant lot at Haste Street and Telegraph Avenue in Southside Berkeley.
The new eight-story building is named for David Blackwell, a mathematician and statistician who was hired in 1954. He was a very popular professor, too.
A four-story apartment building destined to house grad students went up in four days in July, including beds, sinks, sofas, and stoves. It is slated to open this month.
A UC Berkeley graduate student dormitory at Telegraph and Haste got its latest approval from the zoning board Thursday, and appears — at long last — to be moving forward.
The project, in its early stages, includes an academic building for the Goldman School of Public Policy and housing for students and faculty.
The owner, Ken Sarachan, has enlisted a developer and a sign announcing construction has gone up on the property at Telegraph Avenue and Haste Street.
A week after announcing plans to build 1K student units in People's Park, Carol Christ said she will push to build on 9 other sites too, and released renderings of the park plans.
Some people who spend time in the storied Berkeley park acknowledge the need for housing but worry about the park's future; others say the plan should not go ahead, period.
Construction could begin in the summer of 2020 and be completed by 2022. The university said the park is an ideal place because development will address housing and homelessness.
Cal has treated the park with benign neglect, creating the conditions that it hopes will lead to public support of development. It should invest in improving the park instead.
The university may build 700 units for students, as well as 100 units for people experiencing homelessness. There would still be a park, although it would be smaller.
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