At Columbia, resistance to 17-acre expansions

For over three years, Columbia University has been planning a 17-acre expansion into West Harlem’s Manhattanville, just north of its Morningside Heights campus. And for as long as they’ve been planning their project, the Harlem community has protested the plan.
 
Last December the New York City Council approved the university’s rezoning plan, which includes more than 6.8 million square feet of space for teaching, research and parking. It will also feature facilities for civic, recreational and commercial activity. According to a Columbia press release from the time, the city believes that the plan “preserves and enhances the vitality of the neighboring Harlem community, while providing new research, cultural and other benefits to the university.”
 
The Coalition to Preserve Community does not agree. The CPC is a protest group aimed at informing the public of the destruction they fear will result from the Columbia expansion. Their website, Stopcolumbia.org, presents what they believe to be effects of the expansion in an effort to halt the project.
 
Tom DeMott, a member of the CPC and a Manhattanville resident, is adamant about his group’s mission.
 
“There are a number of ways this will be stopped,” he said in an interview. “It’s not going to work. We’re not going to take it.”
 
 DeMott said that the CPC is convinced that Columbia cannot provide affordable housing units for the tenants in the immediate displacement zone. Despite promises by Columbia to house them in “equal or better affordable housing,” the CPC is angry at the fact that about 140 families — which amounts to more than 400 residents — would be displaced.
 
Members of the affected communities also expect to lose jobs. The CPC estimated that thousands of skilled-labor and manufacturing jobs will be lost, but Columbia says it has a solution for the supposed job drain.
 
“Columbia is currently working with area unions and community based organizations so that residents of the community will be able to participate in programs that will help them get into apprenticeship programs,” Victoria Benitez, a senior public affairs officer for Columbia University, said.
 
Columbia stated that at least 3,300 of the over 6,000 new university jobs would include groundskeepers, mechanics, lab technicians, cooks, cashiers and a number of other jobs that don’t require extensive education, all of which would come with health, educational and retirement benefits.
 
“Columbia’s plan is one that will help to create jobs for a wider diversity of people and career plans. With 6,000 new jobs anticipated by the end of this project, the future can and will be bright not only for the Manhattanville area, but also for the City of New York,” Benitez added.
 
Richard Sampson, a Columbia senior, thinks the good will outweigh the bad.
 
“As a Columbia student, it is easy to see that Columbia needs to expand somehow,” he said. “Things are beginning to get cramped on the small campus, leaving no room for new buildings and labs.”
 
Columbia freshman Leena Charlton also believes the expansion is necessary.
 
“The amount of students who go to college is rising, and the university needs to be able to sustain a larger population of workers and students,” she said. “I think it’s especially hard in New York City because expanding means taking already occupied or once occupied spaces, and I understand the problems that will occur because of it.”
 
Sampson believes the project will renovate the 17-acre area into a clean, park-like environment, one that would be open to the community, much like the Morningside campus.
 
“The area is very dirty and run down as it is now. Trips to Fairway are filled with the smell of garbage and sewage,” he said.
 
But despite these improvements, the CPC explains on their website that they are concerned the culture of Harlem will be lost with this expansion, with which Charlton agrees.
 
“There’s already a sense of gentrification felt by the people of Harlem. The rising market values bring in a different demographic of people,” she said. “I talked to a man in Harlem who owns a tour company, and he spoke about how the differences in cultural backgrounds between the old and new citizens clash and end up extinguishing the culture of Harlem past.”
 
Although the City Council has already approved the expansion, protesters are nevertheless hopeful that Columbia’s expansion will come to a halt with their effort.
 
Cecily Lynn is a contributing writer. E-mail her at citystate@nyunews.com.