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Following several months of community meetings and board discussions, the Telegraph Business Improvement District submitted a letter Aug. 9 to UC Berkeley Facility Services outlining several recommendations focused on improving People’s Park.

The park, which is under the jurisdiction of the UC, has been perceived by a number of community members — including merchants and property owners — as an ongoing concern due to the unapproved and sometimes illicit activities held there, according to the letter.

“In a lot of cities, most of their downtown central economic center has a park of some sort that is a community asset, but in the Southside it is a community liability,” said Roland Peterson, the district’s executive director. “We would like to see it as an asset rather than a liability.”

About four years ago, the UC consulted with MKThink, a San Francisco-based firm, to engineer a plan that would improve the park. Though MKThink gathered comprehensive community input, the result of the effort was a compilation of opinions about the park rather than a directional guidebook of where to go with it, Peterson added.

The letter follows up on the district’s April meeting with campus Vice Chancellor of Facility Services Ed Denton, where district leaders raised a number of complaints about the park. Peterson added that the letter was written as a response to Denton’s request to come up with steps to improve the park.

The district’s recommendations include changes to the current landscape, such as the leveling of uneven ground in order to increase visibility — thereby improving sight lines for UCPD patrolling officers — in the park.

Craig Becker, owner of Caffe Mediterraneum and co-author of the letter, said the four corners of the park, which serve as its entrances, should be developed in order to attract more members of the community to the park.

“Whatever affects the neighborhood affects the businesses as well,” Becker said. “So if customers don’t feel comfortable and safe walking around the area, then that affects us.”

According to Peterson, since Southside is largely populated by students, the park should be developed in order to make it more inviting for the student population.

“Why isn’t it as popular as Memorial Glade?” Peterson said. “If this park was somehow magically transported to the center of the campus, you wouldn’t tolerate (its current condition).”

While the district pushes for the end of unauthorized activities in the park, Zachary RunningWolf — a local activist and homeless advocate — voiced concerns that these changes would prevent food organizations from providing food in the park for the homeless.

“I grew up in this city since 1967, and we’ve had a sympathetic side to the less fortunate and those with different thoughts and beliefs,” he said. “Seeing the university and the economic depression clamp down on the less fortunate and their food service by the (district) is completely mean.”

Christine Shaff, communications director of the campus facilities services, said the UC has continued to pay attention to the park and that there are staff who continue to manage the park during the day.

“We’re waiting for the university to respond to our letter and have further talks and conversations,” Becker said. “We mention a lot of negative perceptions about People’s Park, but this is a positive document. This is what we want to do to make it a better area and ask others for feedback too.”

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