California In Brief : BERKELEY : Berkeley’s Radical People’s Park Celebrates Its 21st Birthday
- Share via
Business was brisk, the music loud and the sunny scene spicy with the fumes of marijuana and broiling polish sausage Saturday at the 21st birthday of Berkeley’s top radical symbol, People’s Park.
It was a far cry from the dawn of May 15, 1969, when this vacant lot three blocks from the University of California campus erupted in a screaming, club-swinging riot in which one person died and more than 100 injured.
For more than a generation, People’s Park has represented to Berkeley’s assorted street people and longhairs a lasting victory over usually sacrosanct American private property rights.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
John Orr was a renowned fire investigator who was also a prolific arsonist, and whose thinly veiled novel helped to convict him. In this episode we hear from the fire captain who first suspected him—and from Orr himself.
Madison McGhee is joined by legendary Dateline host Josh Mankiewicz and esteemed L.A. Times Reporter Richard Winton as the three of them dive into all-things Menendez Brothers, the good, the bad, and the still unknown.
NPR climate editor Sadie Babits talks about why the media has long overlooked the climate crisis, and how that’s starting to change.
