Great post. I agree that the development certainly outweighs keeping the neighborhood exactly as is. Some sort of compromise really needs to be finalized so that something can move forward. Nothing irks me more that seeing projects stagnating because of red tape and bureaucratic bs.

Right On and Hallelujah!

Isn't the real issue a matter of defering over to anyone (George Steinbrenner and the NY Yankees, CU, a developer) eminent domain? There is a lot of available open space farther up Manhattan.

CU wants it both ways, Expansion and immediately adjacent Expension, envoking eminent domain. Lots of Universities have extension campuses, major extension campuses several miles away from the main campus. Why cannot CU employ a similar model? They can create a great campus in Riverdale for example accessible via subway.

Eminent domain sits with me as only a last option when none other exist for CU, and others exist, CU just wants convenience and the luxury of adjacent expansion, hence they play the eminent domain card.

It's not even an issue of the current condition or state of the area CU wants to expand or the amount of money and jobs CU wants to pour in the area. It's an issue of the basis and threshold of when eminent domain is given to an entity.

CU fails here because lots of universities have extension research centers and whole campuses spread 5, 10 + miles apart. Not unusual at all. If they can do it, why can't CU? That's the real question.

CU wants its cake and wants to eat it too, they want the luxury and convenience of adjacent expansion, on an island with finite space - some of which is not theirs nor can they buy. That's called "tough titty".

For extending this luxury and convenience they should be taxed in many ways, for example a free lifetime education to everyone who will be discplaced in any way. That's a small price for CU to pay and I would think they would say okay. I would then have them fund a hundreds of schools in Harlem, not just the couple they do, I mean hundreds. In sum I would make them offer cradle to grave education services free to a very very large section of Harlem.

Pointing to the amount of investment, state of the area, jobs is all efforts of taking your eye off the ball. Justify why CU can't do what dozens of other Universities to with campuses and research centers 5, 10, 20 miles + away? Why can't CU do the same thing?

The Eminent Domain card can only be played when that is not possible. CU wants the convenience and luxury of adjacent expansion. Okay, for that they must pay, the community at large dearly in many ways forever.

Finally some sense! Columbia's plan far from perfect is an amazing opportunity that we in Harlem have been waiting for years!!!! The job opportunities alone will give our families a decent living.

The fact that science research facilities will also give humanity hope for cures to diseases that are currently uncurable.

Columbia is offering scholarship and after school programs for our school children. COLUMBIA! Folks, it is a competitive market out there and if my kid can show Columbia University on his credentials or resume he or she is off on the right foot.

No, Columbia isn't the most loving, fluffy creation - they are a corporation. But there is no other entity that I would trust to redevelop this land than an Ivy League University. And yes - the are needs redevelopment - in order to create jobs for our community!

We should be thanking Columbia, not trashing them.

Thank you Columbia!

stupid post. no mention here of why the residents are opposing this plan; lack of understanding of the historical context of why there is long-standing distrust of columbia in the community; no knowledge of the overwhelming disapproval by a majority of columbia's own faculty and students and the reasons for this; no mention of rezoning plans 197a & 197c and the pros/cons of each plan; no apparent knowledge of what columbia already owns and has bought...

go back and do your homework before you do your pro-gentrification posts. you might actually sound like you know something beyond the surface level of this fur blog thingy.

thanks

To hmmmmm.... "overwhelming disapproval by a majority of columbia's own faculty and students"?!?!?!??!.....I would love to see some actual data to support your assertions. As a Columbia student, I am thrilled to see this development, so please stop speaking for me. Your post sounds like the "stupid post" to me.

to "please build it"... i am not trying to speak for you and have no desire to do so.

it's very well documented that columbia has tried and is having a very real problem rallying any real numbers of students and faculty to their cause.

as no more than a curious observer of the process and attendee of hearings and listener of what the community and students and faculty are saying over the past several months, i've been struck by the lack of support from within that columbia has for its plan. they have as well, which is why they're having a real problem getting approval for their plan.

these are just the facts of the matter.

you anti-gentrifiers spew as many lies as what you are accusing columbia supporters of. what i hate about anti-gentrifiers is the fact that most of them are blanketing their opposition in racism. yes. racism. they are anti-white. period. even the white gentrificator are anti-white and self-loathing racists. they don't read any documents, they only relate columbia with whites and are against it. get real ya'll. pick another more worthwhile fight and don't bring gentrification into this.

by the way, why would students and faculty be against growing the university, increase its endowment and research facilities? get real - did you even go to college? probably not.

hey move on... you should instead ask yourself the question: "why would students and faculty be against growing the university, increase its endowment and reserach facilities?" i think it's a good one to consider.

also, you making the incorrect assumption that somehow one did not attend college seems very mean spirited and smacks of the racism you speak of.

maybe *you* should read more and do more research, because you're obviously very mis-informed about what's going on in w. harlem and the history of the situation.

and yep, i did attend college though that is no indicator, positive or negative, of whether i'm qualified to voice my opinion on this matter. hmmmm, is this what you think... that anyone in opposition to columbia's plan is uneducated?

wow, you guys need more help than i even first suspected.

Columbia students and faculty don't support it because doing so would be supporting "The Man" in their eyes. I went to CU undergrad, and I know how those obnoxious kids can be. They are desperate to find something to protest and don't have any real concern for the future of the university and the city. To the poster questioning why CU would choose Manhattanville -- um... do you know Manhattan and the adjoining boroughs at all? First, CU already has a satellite campus in Washington Heights. Expanding there would push a lot more people out than in Manhattanville as they are zoned differently. That's why that area of West Harlem is attractive -- it's virtually void of residential buildings. CU has also already guaranteed they would not use ED for residences. They have to have the option of ED for people like Ann Whitman and Sprayg (or whatever his name is) who are either greedy (the latter) or simply refusing to sell because of emotional attachment. Should the university, the city, and yes, if I do say so, the country suffer simply because a couple moving companies in a desolate warehouse district won't be reasonable?

To paraphrase Bollinger from NY1 the other night, ED is used in situations where private entities are preventing public good. If you think that CU building a world-class science campus, public high school, and creating thousands of jobs is not for the public good, then you simply have your "gentrification is always bad" blinders on.

Look at the situation objectively. We are not talking about putting people out on the streets or cheating business owners. Be reasonable.

And by the way, Bollinger was AT Columbia Law in the 60s during their debacle to try to expand into Morningside. He is well aware of how NOT to do things in terms of working with the community. And if anyone wants to suggest racism, look at Bollinger's past record. He fought all the way to the Supreme court to uphold Affirmative Action at UMich AND WON.

Another reason you do not see a lot of people (students, faculty, or other community members) at the public hearings standing up to show their support for Columbia's expansion is that the climate of these meetings is so anti-Columbia that it is basically hostile to any opinion in support of the expansion. They will get booed off the stage (eg. Dinkins) or unfairly labeled as racists.

Contributing to this intolerant climate is the attitude of the CB9 chair (see his blog if you don't believe me - he only posts anti-Columbia articles - http://cb9m.blogspot.com/ ). No one wants to deal with getting up in front of a group of angry people with a mob mentality and being unfairly labeled a racist.

No one answers why CU can't create an extension campus just up the 1 / 9 line in Riversale where there is plenty of land?

Also is funny as hell that Columbia and Bollinger are WELCOMING the Iranian Ruler to Columbia next Monday. He says the Holocaust never happend and calls for the destruction of Israel. This guy is not welcome anywhere in America, except CU.

Gotta love CU !

Haha, bullshit!

For one thing, the University already owns all but six (give or take two, I forget) of the buildings in the expansion zone. They're not levelling a neighborhood -- they're talking about removing a few warehouses and auto shops, most of which are owned by random greedy bastards trying to up the asking price by 30% (see Nick Sprayregen).

Most Columbia students do support the expansion. While we don't bother to say it (hi there, I'm an undergrad, BTW), that's because there's no real need for advocacy on our part. The University already owns it all. Even the most virulent anti-expansion protests have drawn no more than a handful of students.

I'm not sure i understand how going to riverdale is a solution? there is a ton of residential housing in riverdale, and all of those people would have to be displaced. The problem for colubmia is that they are located in one of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the WORLD....so where do you find space to expand without displacing a huge amount of residents?

this area is mostly industrial/commercial, and they already own most of the land, so it's the lesser of many evils.

bollinger and columbia challenged Ahmadinejad to a DEBATE at Columbia so they can rebut him with facts and figures, and he accepted .. not sure how that amounts to a welcome -- and, yes, Riverdale is residential and not famous for having lots of undeveloped land. The criticisms of Columbia here are so factually inaccurate that they're making the case FOR the school's expansion, not against it.....it does sound like people who object disapprove of Columbia's success, not its actual contribution to the neighborhood.

I am a student at CU and fully support the expansion. It seems to me that many of the student activists, who have no personal stake in the outcome, are similar in nature to the student 'socialists' who have never been to a 'socialist' country and have never had to work in their lives. It is fashionable, and easy, to be anti The Man when you are young. It is fashionable to be anti everything when you are young. It is more difficult to work in reality to better yourself and those around you.

3rd post you are wrong in some many ways it is not even funny.....

Where exactly is there "a lot of available open space farther up Manhattan?" If you can find 20 acres of land that is as underutilized as they propose please point it out.

Why should they move to Riverdale over an underutilized ex-maufacturing zone? Eminent domain is being used as a last option. They own 80% of the area already. This is exactly what eminent domain was created for.

Maybe your right with neighbors and politicians as dumb as you CU should find another location. They should take the whole university, the jobs and tax revenue they create and move to New Jersey. And then you can have the island as one big slum.

3rd post you are wrong in some many ways it is not even funny.....

Where exactly is there "a lot of available open space farther up Manhattan?" If you can find 20 acres of land that is as underutilized as they propose please point it out.

Why should they move to Riverdale over an underutilized ex-maufacturing zone? Eminent domain is being used as a last option. They own 80% of the area already. This is exactly what eminent domain was created for.

Maybe your right with neighbors and politicians as dumb as you CU should find another location. They should take the whole university, the jobs and tax revenue they create and move to New Jersey. And then you can have the island as one big slum.

oh diana grow the F up you idiot. EVERY JEWISH organization is against CU providing a forum, stage, and voice for Ahmadinejad. Every public servant, the mayor, council people, EVERYONE is against what CU is doing.

You can't clean up, legitimize, or justify CU giving Ahmadinejad a forum, stage, and voice.

That's what's pathetic about some of you CU idiots. You think you have higher thinking than the Jewish Defense Leauge for example. Diana, you DON'T!

You CU dopes are so bullshit, you want to "show him he's an idiot". No, you are the idiots. Your FURTHER NOTHING. Everyone knows Ahmadinejad is an idiot. You Add NOTHING to furthering that, you're just stupid idiots, really, just ask the JDL or any one on the City Counsel or anyone of the hundreds of organizations that refuse to even acknowledge the dope.

You Diana are part of the stupidity that is CU. Take your arguments on justifying CU providing Ahmadinejad a voice, stage, and forum to the Jewish Defense League. They will educate your dumb ass in short order how you are wrong (and an idiot).

Who is the Jewish Defense League? And since when are they this higher level of thinking? The fact that the university has guest speakers with different points aof views is why the Univerisity does have higher thinking than IDIOTS like youo.

Total Crap. Some "points of view" DO NOT merit the light of day. That's the point you CU idiots don't get. Here's a guy who:

1). Says the Holocaust never happened.
2). Calls for the destroying & destruction of the State of Israel.

We're not talking about legitimate "opinion" and "voice" being suppressed. You Columbia people are some real idiots for even trying to claim "free speech".

This is like welcoming Adolf Hitler to speak at Columbia in 1940 or so, a man committed to killing every Jew. Would you say the same thing about Hitler? Would you welcome Hitler to speak at Columbia? What about just before he cooked, baked, and steamed millions of Jews?

Seriously, when Hitler was still just "speech", would you argue a Columbia U. should and would welcome Hitler? There is no difference here, this is more than a holocaust denying perosn. He's stated he's 100% behind and committed to the destruction of Israel, and he's a head of state and might have the means to try out his ambition in our lifetimes.

This is not "opinion" or "diversity in view" you Columbia idiots. This is total, committed, determined HATE with the committed goal to destroy Israel.

Must be a bunch of self-hating Jews rallying around this, all pathetic. Hitler has no more ambition than this guy, you Columbia Jews are just dopes.