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January 11, 2008
Pushing Back as Columbia Moves to Spread Out
Public Lives
The New York Times
By Robin Finn
The Times, in this Public Lives profile, does its best to make West Harlem businessman Nick Sprayregen, the biggest of the little guys fighting against Columbia University's massive land grab, appear unsympathetic.
Mr. Sprayregen, 44, is a multimillionaire thanks to Tuck-It-Away Self-Storage, the family business he took over in 1990. What was once a hulking orange-and-black brick building on an unattractive stretch of Broadway at 131st Street (it now bears a banner with the message “Stop Eminent Domain Abuse”) has morphed into five storage warehouses. It’s hard to work up a tear for a fellow who owns one million square feet of commercial properties in New York and New Jersey, has acquired 18 choice parcels in the heart of Yonkers, and last year diversified himself further by purchasing Westchester’s largest chain of weekly newspapers.
Never mind that the City ignored the local community board's 197-a plan for the neighborhood, which didn't involve the use of eminent domain, and that Columbia is a private entity, not a public university, with much deeper pockets and far more political clout than even Mr. Sprayregen.
But then again, isn't an eminent domain blindspot what what we've come to expect from The Times?
Posted by lumi at January 11, 2008 1:50 PM