 UC Berkeley students have been camping out here at People's Park for over a week now. You can see right here they're handing out food and water to the unhoused individuals that actually live here and one organizer tells me that they don't plan on stopping anytime soon. There should be a People's Park in every city in America. It's not the first time that people have fought for People's Park. From anti-war movements in the 70s to the free speech movement, People's Park has been a place to organize and rally, but now a new movement is growing, one to save the park itself. UC Berkeley wants to turn People's Park into a housing complex. The plan is to have one building that can house up to 1,200 low-income students, another building with 75 to 125 apartments for formerly homeless people and a green space that commemorates the park's legacy. But community organizers like Aiden Hill say People's Park is historic and the university should build somewhere else. They think they're doing a public service by kicking all these homeless people out here and making a homeless resource center, but the reality is that the people here right now, they don't want any of that. They want to keep open green space. Hill acknowledges the negative stereotypes that surround the park but says organizers have started rehabilitation efforts. We are actively trying to make sure the crime rates go down, the drug use goes down. We're trying to build those mutual aid networks. Organizers hope to stop the development by staying at the park, but city leaders like council member Raigel Robinson say this project is just too important. The folks protesting right now are concerned for the future of the current residents of the park and I share their concern. What this project is about is creating more beds and transitional housing to get people off of the streets and into housing of their own. Living on the streets isn't a safe solution for anyone. But sleeping at People's Park is just one tactic. Weekly rallies and donations from the community are helping organizers make sure that their movement is long term. Hill says the past week has shown that People's Park isn't just a park, but a community space for students and Berkeley residents. Honestly, I've fallen in love with the park in this past week. There's such a sense of community in this park and you can really tell that the history is still alive.