People's Park

University of California acquired property for long-term space needs at Cal Berkeley and demolished existing homes. While they vacillated about the use of the land and waited to acquire development funds, students and Berkeley residents turned the muddy lot into a park for the people. Read the rest of the story, casts of thousands including Ronald Reagan, cops, free speech, state of emergency, flowers in rifle muzzles at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Park_%28Berkeley%29. A former judge I worked for was an undergrad at Berkeley at the time. She said every shop on Telegraph had a big bucket of water sitting in the corner, so you could rush in after you got gassed and stick your head in the bucket.