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People’s Park has a new freebox and this one, say supporters, has been built to last. 

Following the destruction of two previous incarnations of the freebox earlier this year, volunteers gathered on Saturday to put together the support rods and sheets of steel that now make up a new eight-by-four-foot free-item exchange bin. 

Billed as the “Freebox Fashion Show,” the event drew more than 100 people to the park for an afternoon of live music, protest and a street theater dition of The Three Little Pigs, complete with a big, bad (Cal) bear—all in support of keeping the freebox up and running.  

In February, fire damaged a pre-existing, straw-made freebox, which in some form has been a part of the park since long-time activist Bob Sparks started the tradition in 1989. UC Berkeley police finished the job in September by tearing up the box’s foundation after volunteers attempted to build a more permanent structure, which is located near the basketball courts at the park.  

A few days later UC police also dismantled two wooden crates put up to replace the burned box. Given the history of contention with the university, park and homeless rights activists are now holding their breath to see if the new structure will last longer than its predecessor. 

“It’s something that ties the community together,” said Dan McMullan, a volunteer from Friends of Peoples Park, a group that advocates for the park. “It offers the chance for an act of giving from people that have to people that don’t have that makes both parties feel good.” 

When asked if he thought campus police would dismantle the freebox McMullan responded cheerfully, “Probably, but we’ll just build another one.” 

In fact, freebox supporters have reason to worry. UC officials have expressed their disdain for the box, claiming that the freebox is a nuisance, and that its users often fight over items and leave them strewn about the park. Others, they say, take what they can from the box of donated items to stores where they can sell the items for profit. 

In an interview last September, Irene Hegarty, UC Berkeley director of community relations, told the Berkeley Daily Planet that it would block freebox advocates from rebuilding at the park. As of press time, however, no action had been taken to dismantle it. 

Perhaps one sign to suggest better future cooperation between the university and park advocates is the recent decision to reinstate the People’s Park Community Advisory Board, which had operated since the mid-1990s, but was shutdown by the university last year. Comprised of community members, students and activists, the advisory board offered a line of communication between the two sides—both of whom claim ownership of the park. 

“It’s a bureaucratic dance,” said former advisory board member and local activist Terry Compost, who hopes to regain a seat on the university-appointed board. “But the real power struggle is going on right here [at the park].” 

“It used to be that the city and university did things together,” added Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington. “The university kicked the board out of the process.” 

Worthington points out that the park is virtually the only open space within the densest part of the city. He said it is therefore vital to continue to support park advocates and to recreate the lost line of communication offered by the advisory board. 

Volunteers from Friends of Peoples Park said they spent over $300 to purchase materials for the new freebox and that they received donations and words of support from all over the country once news broke of trouble with the preexisting freebox. 

“UC thought this would be a good opportunity to tear it down while people weren’t looking,” said McMullan, “but today proves that people are looking.”.”