Cal’s Construction Conundrums

Posted on June 18, 2008
Filed Under News, The Daily Prereq | By Nikki Martinez

After 18 months of protests, tree-sitters near UC Berkeley’s campus have been booted from their branches. The university has hired climbers to remove ropes, platforms, tarps, and buckets of human excrement the sitters had stored and hurled from their perches. Officials say the occupation of Berkeley Grove had become a sanitary and safety issue (I’m guessing there was no toilet paper). The shrub-squatters began their occupation when they got word of the school’s plan to build a $125 million athletic training center.

But Berkeley’s building problems don’t end at tree-level. Cal is also facing a consolidated lawsuit from the city of Berkeley, the Panoramic Hill Association, and the California Oak Foundation. All have concerns about the noise the construction would generate, as well as serious safety questions of their own. The training facility would be right by the Hayward earthquake fault, a potentially destructive zone. The Alameda Superior Court is expected to rule sometime today whether construction can go forward.

(Source: The Mercury News)

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5 Responses to “Cal’s Construction Conundrums”

  1. Max Baumgarten on June 18th, 2008 1:28 pm

    berkeley is weird……and stuff

  2. UPDATE: Berkeley Construction Verdict : theprereq.com on June 19th, 2008 11:29 am

    […] verdict is in on the UC Berkeley v. Tree Huggers R’ Us trial and the victor is… everyone? An Alameda Superior Court judge made a complicated ruling […]

  3. More Tree-Sitters Abandon Berkeley Oaks : theprereq.com on July 3rd, 2008 11:13 am

    […] looks like UC Berkeley’s tree troubles are climbing their way down. Four more tree-sitters have come down from the oak groves this week, […]

  4. Judge Gives UC Berkeley the Oak-ay : theprereq.com on July 24th, 2008 11:25 am

    […] the Berkeley Oaks/athletic facility saga - it looks like the end is near. After more than a year of protesting tree-sitters, lawsuits, angry students and 40,000 pages of documentation, a judge has ruled to lift the […]

  5. Berkeley Oaks Have Been Cut, Tree-Sitters Continue Occupation : theprereq.com on September 9th, 2008 4:51 pm

    […] to the construction site would have to be destroyed. Months of back-and-forth negotiations and a bucket load of crap (literally) later, a judge gave Cal the green light to resume construction. You’d think after the oaks […]

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