Occupiers Return to UC Lot in Albany – Police Watch

About 50 urban-farming activists from Occupy the Farm today, Saturday, re-entered the UC lot in Albany from they were evicted Monday and began planting crops again.

Police issued warnings over a bullhorn that the protesters faced possible arrest for trespassing and took close-up video as the urban-farming advocates pulled weeds, broke ground and planted seeds.

About a half dozen counter-protesters stood on the sidewalk with signs opposing the occupation and supporting a UC Berkeley proposal to build a Sprouts Farmers Market on the site, located on the northwest corner of San Pablo Avenue and Monroe Street next to University Village graduate student family housing.

Occupy spokeswoman Lesley Haddock said the occupiers did not intend to stay overnight. Last weekend, they camped on the site for two nights before being evicted with four arrested by UC Berkeley police Monday morning. The crops they planted at that time were plowed under by the university.

"This is publicly owned land, and the best use for it is a farm," said Eric Husted, one of the Occupy supporters. "We have a stake in what happens."

Across Monroe Street, near where UC police stood watching, Albany Mayor Peggy Thomsen said she's an organic gardener herself but expressed disapproval of the protesters' strategy.

"I want people to use the democratic process," she said.

"We had lots of meetings and still have meetings (to come)," she said, referring to the past years of planning involving the City of Albany and UC Berkeley. The City Council last year gave its approval to UC's plan to turn the lot over to commercial development, along with building senior housing on the next-door lot across Monroe Street.

Most of the occupiers spent their time in the warm sun digging the ground and planting seeds for kale, amaranth, echinacea and other crops. At one point, they sang the Woody Guthrie song, "This Land Is Your Land."

UC Berkeley Associate Vice Chancellor Claire Holmes visited the site around noon. "We're not going to stop them right now," she said. "We have a small police presence and we're continuing to monitor."

Albany Vice Mayor Joanne Wile also stood by watching. "I think it's just a shame that people have such a narrow idea of what needs to be done on this land and the Gill Tract," she said.

She said university's College of Natural Resources, which oversees a nearby crop-growing field that is also part of the so-called "Gill Tract" property acquired by the university in 1928, has pledged to establish a center for urban agriculture on the acreage under its control.

Occupy the Farm staged a three-week occupation and crop-planting a year ago on the Gill Tract agricultural research field, which is near the site occupied the past two weekends. They were eventually evicted by campus authorities.

Occasionally tempers grew warm Saturday as a few occupiers and some counter-protesters engaged in heated exchanges. One point, a police officer stepped in to separate Zachary Running Wolf – a former Berkeley mayor candidate and familiar face in Berkeley protests – from one of the opponents of the occupation.

A young man with long hair and a beard and wearing a plaid shirt, jeans and sandals approached some police officers, shaking a small potted plant in their faces and shouting angrily, "Shame on you! Shame on You!"

Extra UC police were on hand to at the nearby Albany Little League baseball diamonds next to University Village to reassure families attending Saturday games, said UC Berkeley police Lt. Lee Harris. They provided UC Berkeley information flyers at the diamonds titled, "The Facts about the University Village Senior Housing and Grocery Site." A copy of the flyer is attached.

The Occupy group planned to meet at the site again the next day, Sunday, at 11 a.m.

Correction: This article originally incorrectly identified the Albany mayor. It has been corrected.

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