Coalition Develops Response to Expansion

The Coalition to Preserve Community assembled last night to continue making plans to hold the expanding Columbia University accountable to the concerns of Harlem residents and workers.

Although last night's meeting was not advertised to the public, over fifty people filled the front rows of St. Mary's Church on 126th Street. Such crowds are becoming increasingly familiar to the nascent grassroots Coalition, which has drawn large and diverse membership from Harlem, Northern Manhattan, and Morningside Heights since its formation earlier this year.

Attendees spent much of last night's meeting solidifying plans for specific projects, discussing possible collaborations with other groups, and planning out how best to shape the University's expansion into West Harlem / Manhattanville.

Putting priorities on paper

Tom Kappner, a member of the Coalition's steering committee, read from a list of demands that the Coalition plans to submit to Columbia University President Lee Bollinger.

In its current draft form, the list asks the University to make its expansion planning processes more transparent, stop converting rent-stabilized apartments to University housing, ensure that community members gain and not lose jobs, and encourage the landmarking of the entire Close of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

It also asks that the University preserve public spaces and provide for necessary amenities such as inexpensive supermarkets and hardware stores.

Maritta Dunn--second vice chair of Community Board 9, executive director of Harlem Valley Heights Community Development Corp, and a member of the University's Community Advisory Board--suggested that the list also forbid Columbia from forcing out existing Manhattanville businesses that wish to stay in their current locations.

"Why aren't those businesses being grandfathered into the plan?" Dunn said. "These businesses--who have been here for decades, who hired in this community when nobody else was [hiring]--should be able to remain here."

If the University does not accommodate those businesses, Dunn said, "That's the beginning of eminent domain."

The Coalition also discussed several other written documents that are currently in the works, including a letter to Bollinger, a "Broken Promises List" outlining the ways in which the Coalition believes Columbia University has disappointed the community, and a letter to the chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission regarding the recalendaring of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine and its grounds.

Meeting with Columbia

Coalition members spent much of the evening discussing how best to meet with Columbia officials.

Over the past month, the University has held several "town hall" meetings at residences such as the Ulysses S. Grant Houses and the Morningside Gardens cooperative apartment complex. But some residents who have attended those meetings reported last night that they were too short and more informational than based on real dialogue.

University officials "want to be able to catalogue that they met however many times with community groups," said Cynthia Doty, a member of the Coalition. "And then they'll be able to say that they've done their jobs."

One Coalition member suggested, "We have to ask them: 'Do you want to hear from us or do you want to just lecture at us?'"

Tom DeMott, a Coalition steering committee member and the meeting's facilitator, said that the Coalition will not be satisfied with the meetings until the University sends representation beyond its usual town-gown liaisons.

"We don't want to meet with Larry Dais and Emily Lloyd," DeMott said. "We want to meet with the people who are in power."

Coalition members were more optimistic about the possibility of further collaboration with the Columbia students that who organized last month's "Ethics of Expansion" teach-in and are now organizing to help hold the University accountable to community concerns.

Nellie Bailey, a Coalition steering committee member and the president of the Harlem Tenants Council, suggested that the events like the teach-in could be taken into Central Harlem and Northern Manhattan--"kind of like a travelling road show"--to build support for the accountability movement in those areas.

Collaborating with CB9

Coalition members also discussed several potential collaborations with CB9, the governmental advisory board which has jurisdiction over much of Harlem and whose membership overlaps somewhat with the Coalition's.

One potential area for collaboration is creating a master plan for West Harlem. Many area activists who are critical of Columbia's expansion plans believe that Harlem residents should give the city government an alternative development plan to counter the urban design plan that Columbia will submit at the end of the year.

One of CB9's largest current projects is developing the board's own such master plan, called a 197-A plan. The board hopes to complete its 197-A plan before Columbia submits its own urban design proposal to the city at the end of this year.

The Coalition is currently deciding whether to collaborate with CB9 on the 197-A or to come up with a third master plan.

Doty pointed out the benefits of working with Community Board 9. The board has made some progress on its plan, she said, and has obtained some funding from the city government to defray the necessary $248,000 in design fees.

"I think we should make sure the 197-A plan has everything we want in it," Doty said. "CB9 is a little bit further along, and we can really push them."

The 197-A plan will be discussed at a CB9 Land Use Committee meeting this Wednesday, and the Coalition will decide at a later date whether to collaborate with the Board on the project.

Other collaborations are already underway. The Coalition recently proposed a Housing Resolution to CB9. If adopted, the resolution would be a message that the Board would send to Columbia asking the University to take action against the housing shortage in Harlem.

"We want the University to stop converting rent-stabilized and rent-controlled units into student housing," DeMott said. He read from the resolution, which charges Columbia with being the "single largest factor" in causing a dire housing shortage in Upper Manhattan and asks it to "adopt a rental policy that reflects the existing diversity of the community."

The housing resolution will come up for discussion at a Community Board 9 housing committee meeting next Tuesday, Nov. 18, and the whole board will take a final vote on it on Thursday, Nov. 20.

DeMott expressed hope that the Board and the Coalition would continue to work together in positive and productive ways. "The Community Board is not particularly eager to take on Columbia," he said. "So we need to let them know how much support there is for this."