From the CU Senate minutes proposed January 29, 2010:
[President Bollinger] recalled that Community Board 9 ultimately voted in favor of the project, and Columbia worked out an extensive community benefits agreement, committing itself over the life of the development to an extraordinary array of helpful projects
How easily Bollinger forgets. Not only did CB9 actually vote down the project 32-2, they booed Bollinger for nearly two minutes straight! See the video clip below.
It’s worth noting that CB9 also unanimously voted down the community benefits agreement he says is so wonderful.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Credit: The Columbia Spectator
From the Spec:
State Senator Bill Perkins (D-West Harlem) likened the threat of eminent domain to “using a gun in a mugging. … You don’t always have to use the gun. People say, ‘Here, take my money.”
Holding up a sign that read “Harlem is not for sale, it’s our home,” Perkins said to laughter from the crowd, “There’s not much more to say.”
Many attendees compared the court victory—which came as a surprise to many—as a modern-day David and Goliath story, and credited it to strong community mobilization.
…
“The lesson here is about struggle, that if a community struggles against seemingly gigantic, David and Goliath odds, you will prevail,” said Nellie Bailey, Harlem Tenants Council president and a member of the Coalition to Preserve Community, adding, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.”
In response, CU officials said they aren’t actually listed as litigants in the case or appeal. Whether or not they put their name on it doesn’t change their actions in West Harlem or their continued desire to use eminent domain against the Harlem community despite that the court ruled such actions unconstitutional.
There’s also video coverage from NY1 here.
Filed under: In the Media | Tags: appeal, eminent domain, Patterson, Perkins
From the Spec:
Perkins urged Paterson not to appeal the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division’s ruling, writing Tuesday that eminent domain is “part of an insidious form of discrimination and civil rights violations that must not stand.”
Filed under: In the Media, Info, Update | Tags: Bollinger, constitution, eminent domain, spectator
University President Bollinger quoted in the Spec:
The Empire State Development Corporation will appeal the decision to New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, and Bollinger said in his Freedom of Speech and Press course on Monday that the outcome will “determine whether or not we have a new campus.”
After offering limited statements in the days following last Thursday’s court ruling, Bollinger responded to questions from students in his class, saying, “Eminent domain is crucial to the campus as conceived of and as approved by the city and the city rezoning process. The consequences of not having eminent domain for Columbia’s future in this area are really inextricably tied together, and we will not have the campus that was envisioned.”
This quote comes from his constitutional law class. And yes, his expansion was ruled unconstitutional!
However, the expansion is still moving forward with “preconstruction” to harass the remaining local businesses and the university still controls 90% of the land that they plan to move forward with:
Pre-construction is already underway because the ESDC approved eminent domain last December. But it is in the earliest stages, with utility work on gas, water, and electrical lines taking place on sections of Broadway, 129th Street, and 12th Avenue. Demolition is scheduled in the near future for certain buildings in the block bounded by Broadway, 12th Avenue, 129th Street, and 130th Street.
The $250 million Mind, Brain, and Behavior building, one of the first scheduled to go up—though not for several years—can proceed for now without eminent domain, Bollinger said.
Tell Bollinger to stop this unconstitutional expansion!!! HARLEM NOT FOR SALE!!
Filed under: In the Media, Info, Update | Tags: court, eminent domain, esdc
The Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court ruled against Columbia’s use of eminent domain!
From Bwog:
The 3-to-2 decision found that “the record makes plain that rather than the identity of the ultimate private beneficiary being unknown at the time that the redevelopment scheme was initially contemplated, the ultimate private beneficiary of the scheme for the private annexation of Manhattanville was the progenitor of its own benefit…The record overwhelmingly establishes that the true beneficiary of the scheme to redevelop Manhattanville is not the community that is supposedly blighted, but rather Columbia University, a private elite education institution,” thus violating the Kelo precedent.
Find the text of the ruling here.
The ESDC (the defendant and group hired by CU) has stated they will appeal.
For a quick run down on Columbia’s abuse of eminent domain, click on the Issue Overview link in the left hand column.
More to come!
Filed under: Uncategorized
Check out this video of NYC’s homeless population building a tent city in East Harlem to take back the land!
Picture The Homeless and Allies Occupied a Vacant Lot and Builds a Tent City in East Harlem. As the foreclosure crisis festers, Bloomberg and the banks fail us. While the homeless population continues to escalate, landlords and the city continue to keep buildings empty. In fact, the total volume of potential apartments in vacant buildings and lots in Manhattan alone exceeds the number of homeless households in shelter and on the street citywide!
Filed under: Uncategorized
From the Movement for Justice in El Barrio / El Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio via ReclaimNYC:
The echo of this rebel voice transforming itself and renewing itself in other voices.
An echo that turns itself into many voices, into a network of voices that, before the deafness of the Power, opts to speak to itself, knowing itself to be one and many, acknowledging itself to be equal in its desire to listen and be listened to, recognizing itself as different in the tonalities and levels of voices forming it.
A network of voices that resist the war that the Power wages on them.
A network of voices that not only speak, but also struggle and resist for humanity and against neoliberalism.
- -The Zapatista’s Second Declaration of La Realidad, read at the First Intercontinental Encuentro for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism.
Saludos,
The Second NYC Encuentro for Dignity and Against Displacement is this Sunday!!
SECOND NYC ENCUENTRO FOR DIGNITY AND AGAINST DISPLACEMENT
SUNDAY, JUNE 7th, 4:30 PMWe hope everyone is excited and ready to make history in what we know will be an inspirational and extraordinary gathering of groups struggling against gentrification, displacement and neoliberalism on the local level from all over NYC.
Thirty organizations will come together. People will be in attendance from all over the region including Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, to listen and learn from the ways that we organize our struggles against displacement in NYC.
There will be film crews and media coverage to record this historic event!
Please arrive at 4:30 pm sharp!! There are many groups who will be sharing and we want to make sure that we have time for everything!
Everyone should have their tickets by now, if you have not received your ticket yet please send us an email at movementforjusticeinelbarrio@yahoo.com.
Thank you all!
We’ll see you on Sunday!!Sincerely,
Movement for Justice in El Barrio
Filed under: Uncategorized
Check out the chart from this article at The Real Deal called “New York City’s Future Ghost Towers.” It tracks one of the many results of greedy, unaffordable development: ghost towers. Thanks to Not An Alternative for bringing this to our attention via the ReclaimNYC listserv.
In many of America’s most popular destinations, from the beaches of South Florida to the Las Vegas strip, “ghost towers” — empty or near empty buildings — mark the skyline, mere shells of their developers’ failed ambitions….
To determine which buildings in New York City are the most likely future ghost towers, The Real Deal turned to sources in the real estate, finance and legal industries who identified 23 residential condo and rental projects as among the most at risk of remaining empty for years to come.
These towers, along with brief synopses of their circumstances, are listed in the accompanying chart.
Go to chart: A look at vacant or largely unsold NYC residential projects
Picture the Homeless has an important interpretation to put things into perspective:
The city’s best hope for reducing and preventing homelessness is a commitment to addressing the skyrocketing rents and general housing shortage that plagues New York and drives New Yorkers by the thousands into homelessness. Yet at the same time as the homeless population continues to escalate, landlords and the city continue to keep buildings empty! In fact, the total volume of potential apartments in vacant buildings and lots IN MANHATTAN ALONE exceeds the number of homeless households in shelter and on the street CITYWIDE!
