Call For Occupy and Anonymous to Defend People's Park From the 1%

Operation People's Park

This is a call for tree sitters and Occupiers to defend the Park. Tree sit actions in People's Park have defended the Park in the past, but the UC is upping the ante, and new tree guardians are urgently needed. Occupiers are also needed as ground support to assist any tree defenders.

This is a call for transparency/data/journalism activists who can do do FOIA requests for development plans, including activists who can follow the chain of funding for the redevelopment of People's Park. It is theorized that the redevelopment of the Park is in part being guided at Federal levels. Activists are needed to get at emails, and internal documents outlining the attack against People's Park.

The UC has been 44 years of history is going to be transformed into a Park dominated by business interests. The Telegraph Business Improvement District (TBID) has been privy to the drafting of the People's Park redevelopment plan, but park activists and gardeners have not been allowed into the closed meetings between the UC and the TBID. Robert J Lalanne has stated that Bryant Park will serve as the model for the People's Park redevelopment, but New York's Bryant Park forbids bicycle riding and gardening, and even forbids photography without a permit (http://www.bryantpark.org/plan-your-visit/rules.html). Bryant Park is owned by a corporation, in which regular community members cannot participate in decision making; the Bryan Park Corporation is dominated by the 1% elite. The future of People's Park will follow suit, with a People's Park Corporation dominated by the UC and major business interests.

In January, as students return from break, Robert Lalanne takes position as the UC vice-chancellor in charge of redeveloping the Park. In preparation for his arrival however, it is strongly believed that the UC will begin clearing the park over the winter break.

The UC states it wishes to reduce crime in the park and surrounding neighborhood, but the only plans the UC has involve removing trees and plants. There is no plans for mental health assistance, drug rehab, or homeless support to rehabilitate and assist the homeless population in the Park. The park is going to be graded to be flat, and the foliage will be reduced; destruction of a local ecosystem in the name of public safety.

The 44 year history of resistance and creativity is under siege by the 1%. It is necessary to Occupy People's Park. The UC has been divesting from education, and has been putting money into real estate projects and development schemes, at the loss of classes and professors. Rather than focusing on its educational mission, the UC is pooling it's dwindling resources into a new battle for the control of People's Park.