Columbia Spectator: Neighbors Voice Concerns About Columbia Expansion

[Neighbors Voice Concerns About Columbia Expansion]

Community residents and activists expressed vocal opposition to Columbia University's expansion plans and aired concerns about the effects of gentrification on their neighborhoods at a meeting of the Coalition to Preserve Community, a local organization dedicated to countering university expansion.

The meeting, which was attended by about 100 residents of Manhattanville and Morningside Heights last night, signals growing grassroots resistance to the massive expansion into southwest Harlem that Columbia has already initiated and highlighted the racial and socio-economic tendencies that continue to strain town-gown relations.

Community activists, public interest lawyers, and others who spoke addressed concerns ranging from potential displacement of residents in buildings purchased by the University, to rising costs of living in the area, to controversial plans to construct two towers on the site of St. John's Cathedral.

The meeting also detailed ways that citizens could begin to fight back against the University, whether by participating in a demonstration on Friday, or fighting for a list of demands from the school.

Columbia has been purchasing properties from 100th Street to 168th Street, concentrating on a mainly industrial zone in West Harlem from 125th to 133rd Streets. The property, if all goes according to plan, will provide a setting for a new 17-acre campus.

The purchases are part of a broader effort to "expand significantly over the next decade," as University President Lee Bollinger said in his inaugural address last year. Bollinger has described it as a necessary step to perpetuate the quality of a great but space-constrained university.

Cynthia Doty, a coalition activist who described the details of the expansion, had a less favorable view of the plan. "They're just gobbling up everything they can," she said.

According to Jack Lester, an attorney who deals with community housing issues, the University is lobbying the city government to change zoning laws in Manhattanville so that it may proceed with redevelopment of the area.

Currently, most of the properties it has purchased are zoned as manufacturing properties. Columbia wants to change the zoning to "mixed use," allowing it to construct residential high rises and other buildings suited to university use. He urged concerned citizens to organize their own lobbying campaign directed at local community boards, the mayor's office, and the City Planning Commission, where, he said, "the [zoning] battle will be won or lost."

"Forced displacement" was a phrase that came up often during the meeting.

"People are worried about displacements, they're worried about the rents going up, they're worried about [the lack of] affordable businesses," said Tom DeMott, an organizer with the Coalition to Preserve Community.

His attitude reflected the spirit of local residents, many of whom have unfavorable opinions toward the university.

Jorge Rivera, who has lived in the same Riverside Drive apartment for years alongside Columbia students, commented that his experiences with the University administration have been mostly negative.

"Columbia could be a positive influence on the community," he said. "But everything Columbia is doing is for Columbia." He added that any benefits for the community are mere "tokens."

Satrina Boyce grew up in Manhattanville, where her mother and friends still reside. "People who live here love the community," she said. "But it's going to be hard for them." She expressed concern that her mother will be displaced if Columbia purchases and redevelops the building in which she lives.

The meeting also linked Columbia's unpopular plans with increasing gentrification in Morningside Heights and Harlem. Rising housing and living costs have become a major concern for local residents, and many who were present predicted that the University would only exacerbate that problem if residents were displaced or endured rent hikes as a result.

"This community is white-hot with fear of being displaced," said Carmen Perez, who lives in Morningside Heights. She said that she does not feel expansion is necessary and that Columbia could limit gentrification if it really wanted to.

In response to community concerns about the project, Bollinger has created a special committee on which community representatives sit, and administrators, especially Emily Lloyd, executive vice president for government and community affairs, work full-time to preserve positive relations with the neighborhood.

But these efforts have failed to eliminate many of the bitter feelings emanating from many local residents, some of whom still see the University as a domineering, elitist institution.

Nellie Bailey of the Harlem Tenants Council said Columbia is "more powerful than ever before. ... Just look at the backdoor manipulative intrigue." She later said the University is "using its might, power, and prestige to acquire land and buildings as if its academic mission is second to its empire-building."

Bailey urged members of the coalition to oppose what she called a "company town development agenda," and her call to "Resist, fight back!" elicited enthusiastic applause from the audience.

Among the coalition's other demands that were discussed are a "permanent moratorium on Columbia University's conversion of rent-regulated apartments," a plan to designate half of newly constructed apartments to "low and moderate income housing to offset the current crisis in affordable housing," and "full disclosure of both short and long-term plans for acquisition and development," according to a coalition memo.

The group also announced a public demonstration against expansion to be held Friday, Oct. 17, at the gates on 116th Street and Broadway.

The coalition will continue their regular meetings at St. Mary's Church on 126th Street. The date of the next meeting is to be announced.

As the University's expansion plan unfolds, Columbia officials and local opponents will continue to clash.

"We may not have the billions of dollars Columbia University has, but we have the bodies, we have the numbers, we have the unity," DeMott said.