« Die Another Day | Main | ‘A war for space’ »
June 1, 2007
Rage building in Harlem
The Daily News
By Juan Gonzalez
Columbia University is giving Bruce Ratner a run for the money in more ways than one.
Columbia and Ratner: eminent domain abusers
The man from Columbia University's real estate division refused to take no for an answer, says Ann Whitman, owner of Hudson Moving and Storage Co. in West Harlem.
"Each time he called me on the phone, I told him the same thing: My building is not for sale," Whitman recalled yesterday.
...
Whitman has some crazy notion that in America a property owner can refuse to sell to a private buyer.Not any longer.
Not since real estate titans started using their money and influence to get local governments to condemn properties they want for their private projects.
...
"Columbia told me to sell now or face the government and eminent domain later," Whitman said.
Both are "ruthless developers."
Whitman never expected that the great Columbia University, a private Ivy League institution that proudly trumpets its liberal values, would resort to the tactics of ruthless developers.
Will Columbia win the money race?
The trustees of Columbia, after all, are some of the biggest movers and shakers in New York. Bollinger is spending more money on lobbyists than Forest City Ratner spent to win approval of the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.
Just like Columbia, Ratner has "history" in the community.
Many in Harlem haven't forgotten Columbia's dark history of evicting thousands of low-income black and Hispanic tenants from Morningside Heights from the 1960s to the 1980s to make way for more student dormitories and new classroom and research buildings.
Those were the bad old days, say university officials. The new Columbia is enlightened and sensitive to the community.
If you've got a controversial plan, review it over the summer; Ratner did.
By starting the 60-day clock for local review, the Bloomberg administration is ignoring the pleas of the local community board not to do so during the summer.
Most community boards have trouble making quorum during the vacation months of July and August. Even though city officials know that, they are moving forward with a review of both the Columbia plan and a competing plan from the community board.
It's a naked attempt to "slip a fast one by the community," said Jordi Reyes-Montblanc, chairman of Community Board 9.
NoLandGrab: Manhattanville property owners and Manhattan Community Board 9 have been watching the Atlantic Yards controversy very closely. Now that we've stepped into the looking glass, things are getting curiouser.
Posted by lumi at June 1, 2007 8:02 AM