Thursday, February 1, 2007

Columbia to Loot West Harlem

So...a private university wants more land to expand, they hire a firm to determine that the area they seek to acquire is blighted, then the state uses eminent domain to take people's homes and businesses and hands the land over to the school:

Blight Study May Pave Way For Columbia Expansion

Yes, this is happening in the Unites States of America.

Photo from apple.com

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Columbia to Loot West Harlem, NYU to Loot West Village, and Everyone is Looting Queens.

Do we see a pattern developing here?

Time for different groups in the city to sit down and compare notes.

Anonymous said...

Oh, you mean like a City Planning Meeting, only this time it's run by the people with their interests in mind?

I bet you suggest not doing it behind closed doors!

Anonymous said...

Columbia and NYU have been absorbing their surrounding communities for decades.

The pattern is always the same. There is a proposal, public outcry, they back off, and next year pop up somewhere else.

Like an amoeba, no brain, no feelings, and all gut.

Anonymous said...

"Like an amoeba, no brain, no feelings, and all gut."

Sounds like the secret promises you make to get financed when mounting a re-election bid.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like an absentee landlord.

Anonymous said...

Right, those schools mentioned are completely useless to the city. Better to leave low rent housing...

Anonymous said...

Low rent housing is as important to this city as high rent housing.

Anonymous said...

It's that same old "area-is- blighted" bullshit! Why is it that studies (paid for by our tax dollars) always seem to come to the conclusion that a neighborhood is blighted and that whatever is going to be built upon its bones will be an improvement. I remember the use of the same mythical phrase applied to my neighborhood, "Flushing has become blighted". This gave the builders "007 status", a license to kill a community! Take a look around Flushing today. Now it's really blighted! Don't worry, Columbia University will, no doubt, increase its Black Studies programs to compensate the people of color they'll be displacing from this Harlem neighborhood! Columbia may not be using the "N" word, but that's probably how they view the people that will be thrown out of their homes and community! This represents ivory tower elitism in its lowest form!

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