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Major Issues for District 7




Columbia Expansion and Eminent Domain

December 9, 2005

By Joshua Brustein

Anne Whitman runs her moving company from a building on Broadway and 129th Street that her family has owned for 33 years. Of her five siblings, four also work in the moving industry, and her brother has his own business in a building about a block north.

The location in Manhattanville, said Whitman, is perfect for moving companies because it has easy access to the West Side Highway and, consequently, to areas in all five boroughs. This advantage has allowed her to carve out a niche as an expert in transporting fragile works of art.

But ever since Whitman received a letter from Columbia University last summer, she has been fighting to not have to move herself. The university told her of its plans to build a biotech research center where her business now stands. It would be impossible, the letter said, for her to keep her business where it was. As an alternative, the university offered to help Whitman and her brother find a single-floor building outside of Manhattan.

Whitman rejected the offer. “Since then,” she said, “it has been all out war.”

Whitman is not the only one in Manhattanville who objects to Columbia’s plan to spend $5 billion and 25 years building a new campus here. The district currently consists largely of older warehouses that once served the city’s milk pasteurization and distribution industry; Whitman’s building was built in the early 1900s as a stable for milk delivery horses. The area appears rundown, but local business owners say that bustling businesses like Whitman’s, a local contingent of artists, and recent additions like popular restaurant Dinosaur Barbeque are a testament that there is more to the area than it seems.

Columbia’s view of the area’s future certainly is different. An 18-acre complex would stretch from West 125th Street to West 133rd Street between 12th Avenue and Broadway, and would include biotech research facilities, a building for its art school, student and faculty housing, and administrative buildings.

The university says the campus will create 14,500 permanent jobs in the area. Construction will generate tax revenues of $122 million for the city and $94 million for the state, said Columbia. After that, it estimates that operating expenses will generate tax revenue of $33 million for the city and $29 million for the state every year.

Manhattanville, as seen from the 125th Street Subway station

Columbia wants help with this project in several ways. It already owns about 60 percent of the property in the area – including the buildings on either side of Whitman’s – but cannot follow through with its plans unless the area is rezoned.

The university’s second request involves an underground complex it intends to build under the new campus. This complex would include parking, loading and unloading facilities, and an “energy center’ that would provide the campus buildings with heating and cooling. To do so, Columbia wants the city to cede control of the streets and the area below.

But the land is not the city’s to give. For the city to even consider Columbia’s request, private property owners must be removed from the picture. Columbia says it hopes to negotiate with the holdouts to find a mutually acceptable resolution. Failing that, it wants the state to use eminent domain to transfer control of these properties.

For some of the area’s landowners, the talk of eminent domain has poisoned the talks about Columbia’s expansion, eliminating the possibility for compromise.

“They say ‘deal with us now or deal with the state later,’” said Whitman, who also sits on Community Board Nine. “It’s like having a gun to your head.”

She and the other members of the community board have their own plan for the area. In October, the Department of City Planning gave initial approval to this plan (such community-based plans are known as 197-a plans), which the board has been developing since 1991.

The community board’s plan recommends zoning changes to encourage residential and commercial development without displacing the industrial businesses that currently exist. It also calls for the establishment of a set of environmentally friendly construction guidelines, seeks to make the area more pedestrian friendly, and focuses on integrating into the community a park along the Hudson River that is currently in early stages of construction. It specifically calls for a ban on eminent domain.

"There are major differences between the two plans,” said Rachaele Raynoff of the Department of City Planning. Because of these conflicts between the two plans, the city has taken the unusual step of considering them simultaneously, and telling the two sides they must find common ground. According to Raynoff, no one in the city planning department knows of a case where this has been tried in the past.

Both Columbia and the community board have agreed in principle to work together. But unless Columbia can earn the trust of many in the community, collaboration will not come easily.

Over the last year, Columbia has alienated its neighbors with its quiet pursuit of eminent domain.

This spring, the Columbia Spectator reported that Columbia had privately requested that the state consider condemning property in the area. The university agreed to pay $300,000 to the Empire State Development Corporation to cover the state’s costs in doing so. Such an agreement is the first step towards eminent domain and, to many, it indicated that the university was not being open with the community.

Columbia defended the move, saying it was a necessary step in any development of such scope, and pointing out that it was consistent with its public position of keeping the option of eminent domain on the table. The university continues to pursue private talks with the state.

Local businesses, community board members, and students at Columbia University continue to oppose Columbia’s plan and criticize its approach to the negotiations with the community. A recent public hearing stretched for over four hours, as more than 70 people, Whitman among them, voiced their opposition to the university’s designs on the area.

Whitman said her goal was not to keep Columbia from the neighborhood. In fact, she believes that a Columbia expansion would help her business and the area as a whole. But she hopes that the university will expand by developing the area it already owns, leaving her and her family to do the same on their own property.

“They would bring new life, a mix of new use,” she said of the university. “But we don’t want to welcome them so much that they push us out.”





Running Against All Odds in Washington Heights

June 4, 2004

By Reginald Constant

Republicans represent a distinct minority virtually everywhere in New York City, but they are particularly scarce in northern Manhattan communities such as Washington Heights, Inwood and West Harlem. Despite that, in the last two City Council elections, Republican candidates have taken the trouble to get on the ballot and court the district's voters.

Democrats and Republicans alike acknowledge that a Republican's chances of winning any Upper Manhattan City Council seats are low. George De Martino, the 2001 Republican City Council candidate in District 8 in nearby East Harlem, recognized that his chance of winning was "a miracle of God." And Greg Draves Republican Gregory Draves, who ran in 2003, garnered only 8 percent of the vote in his City Council election bid.

So why bother?

Republicans believe that a formidable Republican presence is vital to reform New York's virtual one-party system.

And despite low vote totals, they see reasons for hope. They point to the increase in the number of independent voters in the state, Republican Governor George Pataki's three terms in office, and the election of Republicans Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg as mayor. This proves, they say, that New Yorkers will cross party lines to vote for a qualified candidate.

The Republicans running for council in District 7 hope to transplant this trend to upper Manhattan. They are particularly focused on Hispanics, who were crucial to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's election and who make up about half of District 7's population. Many of the residents are immigrants from the Dominican Republic.

About a third of the district is black.

With their medium household income ranking putting District 7 among the poorest 25 percent of council districts, residents of these neighborhoods must deal with inadequate healthcare and a shortage of affordable housing. A main focus of the community - and its councilmember - has been funding for public education. In 1992, current District 7 Councilmember Robert Jackson spearheaded a successful lawsuit accusing the state of denying New York City school children their constitutional right to a sound, basic education.

During City Council campaigns in District 7, Republican and Democratic candidates alike have promised to work for educational equality, affordable housing for newly arrived immigrants and current residents, AIDS prevention programs and decent wages. Unlike their counterparts elsewhere in the country, New York Republicans tend to focus less on social issues than on financial matters, including economic revitalization and tax policy.

Draves believes Republican economic policies can help communities such as Washington Heights. "Employment is bouncing back," he said. "But New York must do more to stimulate jobs by promoting lower taxes and investing back in the community by businesses."

As evidence of how business ownership can help financially depressed neighborhoods, Republicans point to the economic booms in Harlem and Washington Heights in the 1990s, which. they say, were brought about by private investment. And so while Democrats promise to expand social amenities for poor and immigrant neighborhoods, Republicans are seeking to establish a foothold among Hispanics by appealing to potential and current small business owners.

"I think that the idea of business ownership is one of the best messages our party has for the community," Draves said.

But such arguments may have little appeal for those residents who feel left out of the economic improvement and threatened by the influx of middle-income professionals that is increasing rents and the cost of living.

Geoffrey Eaton, a staff member for the office of three-term East Harlem Democratic Councilmember Philip Reed who represents District 8, said Republican policies are detrimental to most people of color in New York. "Republicans run for office in . . . Democratic districts not to be in office but to carry their agendas under the ballot, to promote the issues of the Republican Party," said Eaton.

In an attempt to increase his chances of winning in 2005, Draves plans to form an alliance with Felix Figueroa, the Republican contender for District 8. Though such a move may make Draves more visible to Hispanic voters, he will still face an uphill battle among poor and working class – and predominantly Democratic - voters of Washington Heights.






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ALL DISTRICT 7 MAJOR ISSUES
Columbia Expansion and Eminent Domain
(Dec 09, 2005)

Running Against All Odds in Washington Heights
(Jun 04, 2004)

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