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UC-B Police Converged on Grove Wednesday Afternoon
Police Detain Oak Grove Tree-Sitter on UCB campus
Breaking News: Police Converging on Grove Wednesday Afternoon
Breaking News: Police Converging on Grove Wednesday Afternoon
December 13, 2006
For Immediate Release
Police Detain Oak Grove Tree-Sitter on UCB campus
Breaking News: Police Converging on Grove Wednesday Afternoon
Berkeley, Calif.-In the early morning hours on Wednesday, UC Berkeley campus police detained Native American activist Zachary Running Wolf as he was temporarily down from his perch high in a redwood tree in an imperiled grove of trees slated for cutting by UC Berkeley. The campus police then surrounded the redwood tree, ostensibly to prevent Running Wolf from returning to his platform, where he has been maintaining a presence since December 2. They ordered him to stay off UCB property for 7 days. Police had arrived this morning and rousted support people who were staffing an information table under tarps through the rain. Two other oaks and a cedar tree in the threatened grove have platforms in their branches where activists, one per tree, have been holding 24-hour a day vigils to protect them.
UC is planning destroy this majestic grove in order to build a sports gym covered by a concrete patio. This unique eco-system, the last grove of coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) in the Berkeley lowlands, is protected by municipal code. However, UC, the largest landowner in Berkeley, says they are not obliged to obey city laws and codes.
This tree-sit action was taken after the university ignored the concerns of residents, students, scientists, the Berkeley City Council and many others. A lawsuit has been filed by the Panoramic Hills Neighborhood Association to get the university to consider alternatives, and a lawsuit has been approved by the City of Berkeley. Community members have, for years, been frustrated by the University's apparent disdain for citizen input and local opinion.
Attorney for Save the Oaks Stephan C. Volker expressed concern for the tree-sitters and other activists maintaining a protective presence in the grove. He said of the activists, "They seek only to exercise their Constitutionally-protected right to engage in free speech, to peacefully assemble, and to seek judicial redress for they what they view as an unlawful and ill-conceived and [ill]-designed project."
The planned cutting of the oaks has brought hundreds of alarmed local residents and university students to speak out against this destruction and degradation of this . After exhausting many other avenues, Running Wolf and other activists decided to take direct action because UC is stonewalling community, student and even City of Berkeley efforts to find workable solutions
The tree occupation is ongoing, located between Piedmont Avenue and Memorial Stadium on the UC campus just north of the International House and Bancroft Way.
###
--
Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters (BACH)
2530 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94702
phone: 510 548 3113
email: bach [at] headwaterspreserve.org
http://www.HeadwatersPreserve.org
For Immediate Release
Police Detain Oak Grove Tree-Sitter on UCB campus
Breaking News: Police Converging on Grove Wednesday Afternoon
Berkeley, Calif.-In the early morning hours on Wednesday, UC Berkeley campus police detained Native American activist Zachary Running Wolf as he was temporarily down from his perch high in a redwood tree in an imperiled grove of trees slated for cutting by UC Berkeley. The campus police then surrounded the redwood tree, ostensibly to prevent Running Wolf from returning to his platform, where he has been maintaining a presence since December 2. They ordered him to stay off UCB property for 7 days. Police had arrived this morning and rousted support people who were staffing an information table under tarps through the rain. Two other oaks and a cedar tree in the threatened grove have platforms in their branches where activists, one per tree, have been holding 24-hour a day vigils to protect them.
UC is planning destroy this majestic grove in order to build a sports gym covered by a concrete patio. This unique eco-system, the last grove of coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) in the Berkeley lowlands, is protected by municipal code. However, UC, the largest landowner in Berkeley, says they are not obliged to obey city laws and codes.
This tree-sit action was taken after the university ignored the concerns of residents, students, scientists, the Berkeley City Council and many others. A lawsuit has been filed by the Panoramic Hills Neighborhood Association to get the university to consider alternatives, and a lawsuit has been approved by the City of Berkeley. Community members have, for years, been frustrated by the University's apparent disdain for citizen input and local opinion.
Attorney for Save the Oaks Stephan C. Volker expressed concern for the tree-sitters and other activists maintaining a protective presence in the grove. He said of the activists, "They seek only to exercise their Constitutionally-protected right to engage in free speech, to peacefully assemble, and to seek judicial redress for they what they view as an unlawful and ill-conceived and [ill]-designed project."
The planned cutting of the oaks has brought hundreds of alarmed local residents and university students to speak out against this destruction and degradation of this . After exhausting many other avenues, Running Wolf and other activists decided to take direct action because UC is stonewalling community, student and even City of Berkeley efforts to find workable solutions
The tree occupation is ongoing, located between Piedmont Avenue and Memorial Stadium on the UC campus just north of the International House and Bancroft Way.
###
--
Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters (BACH)
2530 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94702
phone: 510 548 3113
email: bach [at] headwaterspreserve.org
http://www.HeadwatersPreserve.org
For more information:
http://www.HeadwatersPreserve.org
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1- The article speaks several times about student concern, yet the overwhelming majority of students at Berkeley are actually STRONGLY IN FAVOR of the stadium renovation project.
As well, one point that rarely get mentioned in relation to this project is that right now, there are a lot of student-athletes and UC staff that uses very seismically unsafe facilities inside the stadium. Their lives are in grave danger should the big one hit Hayward Fault. The new gym will provide a safe alternative and will SAVE LIVES!
2- This grove is not the "last grove of coast live oak in the Berkeley lowlands". There are other groves on the lower part of campus, such as the one between Valley Life and Strawberry Creek. There also are several other groves in Berkeley proper, like at Live Oak Park. And of course the hills just east of the stadium have hundreds of acres of oak groves.
To portray this grove and tree as somehow endangered is a gross mischaracterisation. It also diminishes legitimate critical environmental causes in California such as the Headwaters.
3- the Panoramic Hills Association, which is trying to block the project, is not at all concerned with the trees themselves. They just want to have the whole stadium removed and would prefer the University were shut down and turned into a park for their gated community of million-dollar homes. They would have blocked the project regardless of the 40 oak trees and are just using the environmental protestors to further their NIMBY cause. In fact they are planning on suing the University every step of the way, even for parts of the project that will actually ADD green space and trees to the area.
As well, one point that rarely get mentioned in relation to this project is that right now, there are a lot of student-athletes and UC staff that uses very seismically unsafe facilities inside the stadium. Their lives are in grave danger should the big one hit Hayward Fault. The new gym will provide a safe alternative and will SAVE LIVES!
2- This grove is not the "last grove of coast live oak in the Berkeley lowlands". There are other groves on the lower part of campus, such as the one between Valley Life and Strawberry Creek. There also are several other groves in Berkeley proper, like at Live Oak Park. And of course the hills just east of the stadium have hundreds of acres of oak groves.
To portray this grove and tree as somehow endangered is a gross mischaracterisation. It also diminishes legitimate critical environmental causes in California such as the Headwaters.
3- the Panoramic Hills Association, which is trying to block the project, is not at all concerned with the trees themselves. They just want to have the whole stadium removed and would prefer the University were shut down and turned into a park for their gated community of million-dollar homes. They would have blocked the project regardless of the 40 oak trees and are just using the environmental protestors to further their NIMBY cause. In fact they are planning on suing the University every step of the way, even for parts of the project that will actually ADD green space and trees to the area.
Berkeley is not a sports focused or party school its mainly science and engineering and in most of my classes people dont care much about anything outside of just passing tests (since we dont have much time for much else). Politics on campus is relegated to rich freshmen who dont relaize yet they have to start running and working like hell if they want to get out and get a reasonable job, hence there isnt much radicalism on campus and there is a large presence of college lRepublicans (who either are roo rich or too stupid to care about studying).
A lot of students to go to games but I think its different than saying they want the schools money to go into sports. You go to games for the same reason you go to movies on campus. If people were given the irght to vote between more money for a stadium or more money for other entertainment options people enjoy more (concerts, video games, sci fi convenstions?) I dont think sports would win out. If you actually got a moment of every students time and presented the options in this case I dont know which way they would vote on the stadium but its far from obvious to me that they woudl support it.
A lot of students to go to games but I think its different than saying they want the schools money to go into sports. You go to games for the same reason you go to movies on campus. If people were given the irght to vote between more money for a stadium or more money for other entertainment options people enjoy more (concerts, video games, sci fi convenstions?) I dont think sports would win out. If you actually got a moment of every students time and presented the options in this case I dont know which way they would vote on the stadium but its far from obvious to me that they woudl support it.
Berkeley is not *mainly* a science and engineering school, it is a fairly balanced large university. Unlike say, MIT or Cal Tech, Berkeley has strong arts and social sci depts like English, Psych, History, Architecture etc.
9,000 Cal students are season ticket holders. Thousands of others do attend games.
Money for entertainment is there, through ASUC. Video games and sci-fi conventions, are activities one can easily engage in outside of campus. I don't think any sci-fi convention would ever draw 10,000 Cal students though...
Note however that the Panoramic Hills Association has impeded the recreation avenues of the campus and broader communities by limiting the use of the Greek Theater for concerts and eliminating altogether the use of the stadium for such activities. It is not their love of trees that this NIMBYist association is suing the renovation project, the trees are only a pretext and the opportunity to use a powerful coalition for their anti-social NIMBYist purposes.
The "vote" here is not between football and sci-fi conventions, it is between bulding a new gym for football and 14 other teams OR preserving 40 mature trees. Failure to do this would (1)endanger the lives of hundreds of students and staff who currently work in the most seismically unsafe structure on campus, and (2) result in a huge decline in the football program, and a big loss of revenue for the university and eventually a loss of scholarships for student-athletes as programs like baseball or soccer would have to be cut. I think that given THAT choice, the overwhelming majority of students would indeed support renovations.
The football facilities aren't syphoning money out of the University, they are actually BRINGING money and supporting hundreds if not thousands of student-athletes in ~30 teams. The football team brings a net revenue of about $15,000,000 per year, and the money raised to build the facility is mostly through alumni donations.
9,000 Cal students are season ticket holders. Thousands of others do attend games.
Money for entertainment is there, through ASUC. Video games and sci-fi conventions, are activities one can easily engage in outside of campus. I don't think any sci-fi convention would ever draw 10,000 Cal students though...
Note however that the Panoramic Hills Association has impeded the recreation avenues of the campus and broader communities by limiting the use of the Greek Theater for concerts and eliminating altogether the use of the stadium for such activities. It is not their love of trees that this NIMBYist association is suing the renovation project, the trees are only a pretext and the opportunity to use a powerful coalition for their anti-social NIMBYist purposes.
The "vote" here is not between football and sci-fi conventions, it is between bulding a new gym for football and 14 other teams OR preserving 40 mature trees. Failure to do this would (1)endanger the lives of hundreds of students and staff who currently work in the most seismically unsafe structure on campus, and (2) result in a huge decline in the football program, and a big loss of revenue for the university and eventually a loss of scholarships for student-athletes as programs like baseball or soccer would have to be cut. I think that given THAT choice, the overwhelming majority of students would indeed support renovations.
The football facilities aren't syphoning money out of the University, they are actually BRINGING money and supporting hundreds if not thousands of student-athletes in ~30 teams. The football team brings a net revenue of about $15,000,000 per year, and the money raised to build the facility is mostly through alumni donations.
This is an official DOGSPOT opinion.
Too many studies have been done on the West Coast, that prove the cost of football always escalates beyond the money brought in or donted by alums. This is especially true when alums donate. They expect more money to be thrown in on top of theirs.
How much DOES football cost a school now compared to 1975? QED.
And has the price of tickets gone down at schools that recieve profuse "donations".
I might well ask you how many students in California have be able to go to college for free since Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of Kalifornia. I was there long enough to see exactly how things work. Robocop would not last 2 days in Iowa before being dismantled and sold for scrap. Your Universities are run by Bechtel, and by aloowing that you are complicit with the Nazis you alleg to depsise.
So sorry to hear about the loss of your beautiful trees. Why didn't you get a f--- clue before it was too late.
DOGSPOT
Too many studies have been done on the West Coast, that prove the cost of football always escalates beyond the money brought in or donted by alums. This is especially true when alums donate. They expect more money to be thrown in on top of theirs.
How much DOES football cost a school now compared to 1975? QED.
And has the price of tickets gone down at schools that recieve profuse "donations".
I might well ask you how many students in California have be able to go to college for free since Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of Kalifornia. I was there long enough to see exactly how things work. Robocop would not last 2 days in Iowa before being dismantled and sold for scrap. Your Universities are run by Bechtel, and by aloowing that you are complicit with the Nazis you alleg to depsise.
So sorry to hear about the loss of your beautiful trees. Why didn't you get a f--- clue before it was too late.
DOGSPOT
For more information:
http://electromagnet.us/dogspot/
as far as Berkeley is concerned, it's quite clear that revenues from football have skyrocketed, along with the team's performance under its current coach.
Ticket prices have gone up, but they remain far less expensive than those at professional sports. College football and Cal football is a great value for Bay Area families and fans. It's also a great experience for tens of thousands of fans every year. The spectator headcount for this year was nearly half a million. mI think the safety of these people matters.
This is the main impetus to the project actually. The lives of 100 people is more important than 40 mature trees (of course though more trees will actually be replanted.)
How many students have been able to go for free at Cal since the 1960s? About 100,000 I would guess, between those who were on a full academic ride and the student-athletes on a full scholarship.
Ticket prices have gone up, but they remain far less expensive than those at professional sports. College football and Cal football is a great value for Bay Area families and fans. It's also a great experience for tens of thousands of fans every year. The spectator headcount for this year was nearly half a million. mI think the safety of these people matters.
This is the main impetus to the project actually. The lives of 100 people is more important than 40 mature trees (of course though more trees will actually be replanted.)
How many students have been able to go for free at Cal since the 1960s? About 100,000 I would guess, between those who were on a full academic ride and the student-athletes on a full scholarship.
One thing I do despise is sophism: those trees are not going to chop anyone down:
Reagan put an end to the correct use of the California subsidy for public education.
And education in your state has gone right to hell since then.
Being a football star is not the same as pursuing one's highest education goals.
Go build yourself another atom bomb, sit right atop it and just watch the world go to hell,
what a great deal you've got for your spoiled rotten ass.
Reagan put an end to the correct use of the California subsidy for public education.
And education in your state has gone right to hell since then.
Being a football star is not the same as pursuing one's highest education goals.
Go build yourself another atom bomb, sit right atop it and just watch the world go to hell,
what a great deal you've got for your spoiled rotten ass.
For more information:
http://electromagnet.us/dogspot
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