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The People’s Park Advisory Committee will be announcing the names of Gianna Ranuzzi and Christine Dixon as its newest board members during a meeting Monday. 

Ranuzzi—who has served as board member and vice president of the Telegraph Area Association (TAA) through 2003—told the Planet that she was honored by the selection. 

She was also hired by TAA to organize special projects on Telegraph, the most recent being the hugely successful Berkeley World Music Festival. 

“Working with the community over the years has helped me learn a lot,” she said. “I am pleased to be on the board of People’s Park and hope I can be of service to Berkeley.” 

Ranuzzi and Dixon’s appointment to the board comes at an important juncture for the future of People’s Park.  

The board recently appointed San Francisco-based consultant MKThink for a community-based needs assessment plan to improve the park.  

MKThink is currently on its very first phase—“Discovery”—which involves exhaustive research into the history of the park, digging up relevant archives and newspaper clippings, interviewing park users and student groups and visiting the park itself. 

“The most important thing is to get people to frequent the park,” stressed Ranuzzi. “My duty is to get a comprehensive idea about what people want. I want different people to talk to me so that we can come up with the best solution. I want the best for MKThink.” 

Ranuzzi urged people to visit the World Music Festival, which would be held on the first weekend of June at People’s Park. 

“As a sneak preview, I want everyone to know about the excellent lineup we have for the Amoeba Music Presents concert. Brass Menazerie, a nine-piece Balkan brass band will be there, as will the Moroccan music of Yassir Chadley, the Congolese music of Samba Ngo and many, many others,” she said. “Music is something that brings people together, and I want people to come and enjoy this exciting array of music at People’s Park.” 

MKThink will also be presenting board members with an update on community outreach and needs assessment Monday. 

Joe Halperin, People’s Park advisory committee member, told the Planet that the firm was in the process of interviewing a lot of individuals. 

“The advisory board has created of list of stakeholders for the park from whom MKThink will get a broader input about what users or future users of the park want. I personally have no preconceived notions, I am waiting to hear what everybody wants.” 

Halperin said that most people wanted the park to change. “People want to feel comfortable using it,” he said. 

Park frequenters, such as mental health commissioner Michael Diehl and naturalist Terri Compost, had mixed responses toward the outreach process. 

While Diehl said he had been contacted for his opinion, Compost said she had no idea about what was happening with the outreach efforts. 

“MKThink is supposedly in their ‘discovery phase’ about the Park this spring but I haven’t heard a peep about any kind of public meeting or workshops,” she told the Planet in an e-mail. 

“I know there are many people concerned about the Park and rightfully suspicious of $100,000 architects and their distant planning. The firm’s rhetoric of trying to get broad input sounded good, but aside from speaking with a few individuals, I see no evidence of the work that would be required to create a forum that would allow all voices at the table, never mind what I was hoping for, which would be for them to facilitate a community process that would promote understanding and healing between differing opinions,” she wrote. 

Diehl told the Daily Planet that he preferred the park in its present stage. 

“I know a lot of people make it out to be a scary place, but it’s not really that bad right now,” he said over a telephone interview Wednesday.  

“I am sitting at the park right now and people are laughing out loud and having a good time. Last year there was some gang activity, but since people started responding to it, things are fine.” 

Diehl said that he wanted to see help in the form of needle-exchange boxes and healthcare for the homeless at the park. 

“I hope MKThink talks to the people for whom the park is a refuge—the one place where they can rest and get some peace. It’s important they be included in any discussion,” said advisory committee member Lydia Gans, who is also active with Food not Bombs, the group that provides fresh food to the park’s homeless population. 

“This planning process takes place every two years, but nothing really happens. I hope, for the sake of those to whom the park is a lifesaver, something positive happens this time. The university is trying to bring some diversity, which is good.” 

The discovery phase has been scheduled to last through May and MKThink is expected to wrap up its work in fall. 

Ionas Porges-Kiriakou, a UC Berkeley student who also serves as an advisory committee member, said that a mixed student body at UCB meant diverse opinions. 

“As far as I or my peers go, no one has been asked anything yet, but I am waiting to find out more at the next meeting,” he said. “I know that students would definitely like to see more students at the park. It would be nice if the history of the park and its actual state was presented to students. Otherwise, a lot of their feedback will be based on second-hand opinion.”