Can People's Park Change?

[aamusedinatx]

People's Park is a social puzzle that has defied nearly 40 years of attempts by UC Berkeley to solve it, largely because the university and many neighbors see it as a problem but the park's most loyal users treasure it as one of the city's most vibrant open spaces.

Now the university as owner of the land is trying a new approach, using a consulting firm to patiently confer with park lovers and shunners in hopes of reaching a consensus on the park's future.

The work is as much therapy as planning -- that's how deep the divisions run over a nearly 3-acre urban rectangle that embodies Berkeley's role in the anti-war and free speech movements of the 1960s and '70s.