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February 15, 2007
Mr. Bollinger's Battle
The NY Observer
By Matthew Schuerman
Columbia University is planning to expand into West Harlem, but community groups want assurances that the plan would benefit the community (you know, the community not cleared away by eminent domain).
Reporter Matthew Schuerman, who has been staying on top of the issue of Community Benefits Agreements (CBA) throughout the city, sits down with some of the players to try to get the story of how a Columbia University-West Harlem CBA might take shape:
Finally, after months of preparation, the negotiations for the community-benefits agreement began last month. Once completed, the C.B.A. may set a precedent for all other large real-estate projects in New York City, a precedent which, based on the way it has evolved so far, would be much more rigorous than those already established in the Bronx or Brooklyn.
Or it could provide more evidence that negotiations like this, outside the halls of government, come to no good.
Would Bruce Ratner's "historic" CBA in Brooklyn serve as a role model?
WHEN THE COMMUNITY BOARD STARTED TO FORM an entity that would negotiate on West Harlem’s behalf, one thing was certain: Harlem didn’t think much of the community-benefits agreement for Atlantic Yards, in which developer Forest City Ratner negotiated directly with nonprofits that would end up making money from the agreement.
“Ratner and the city got together with one big, national not-for-profit and a set of local sycophants and put something together which doesn’t seem to have satisfied too many people, except for those who are benefiting directly from it,” Mr. Reyes-Montblanc, the chairman of Community Board 9, said.
What about eminent domain?
The community board is struggling to maintain a united front against the use of eminent domain—the government’s right to take private property, with compensation for the owner, so long as it goes to some sort of public use, with “public use” being variously defined. Tom DeMott, a former post-office employee who is a tenants’ representative on the development corporation’s board, fears that the involvement of elected officials may dilute that resolve, even though they profess solidarity.
Posted by lumi at February 15, 2007 7:31 AM