Boring Glory in Morningside

It usually takes only a few months for Columbia students to figure out that it’s hip to whine about our neighborhood. The complaints bounce around the dorms every Friday night: “I’m so sick of these bars,” and “If I weren’t so lazy I’d go downtown and get away from these dull restaurants.” Is Morningside Heights really that boring?

It’s a question worth asking. The number one reason many people choose Columbia is for New York City. What prospective students don’t realize is that, when they choose Columbia, they are not choosing Midtown Manhattan or the Statue of Liberty or the hip clubs downtown.

For better or worse, they are choosing Morningside Heights. This is where Columbians spend the vast majority of their time. Some hardly ever leave the neighborhood. If Morningside Heights is no more exciting than Hanover or Ithaca, maybe Columbia should revise its admission brochures.

The superficial response to that question is that, compared to the locations of Dartmouth, Cornell, and a thousand other schools, our neighborhood is not at all boring. If you’re skeptical, go upstate for just one weekend of the Cornell Community Theatre or “Beers Over Ithaca.” Or bring your rural friends here and see the look on their faces as they discover that virtually every possible ethnicity of food is available within 10 blocks. You’ll see.

That is a little too obvious, though. Most who complain about the Heights are not comparing it to the typical American campus. They mean other urban neighborhoods. And here, they have a point. Morningside Heights is not in any way a trendy place.

Every time a faux-Asian restaurant is opened or a new condominium complex is constructed, Morningside Heights becomes more and more gentrified. And the area along Broadway, around which Columbians spend almost all of their time (when was the last time you were at 119th and Riverside, or 104th and Amsterdam?) is, without question, very much gentrified, especially compared to what used to be here.

This can be taken too far, of course: the rich heritage of Morningside Heights is still here, so clear that it is often ignored. Two of the country’s most remarkable religious institutions—St. John’s Cathedral and Riverside Church—still tower over the other buildings, though only a tiny percentage of students have actually attended a service at either of these places.

Also in this neighborhood is Grant’s Tomb, the Seinfeld restaurant, and an extraordinary view of the Hudson River from an easily accessible Riverside Park. There is plenty to get excited about.

The progression, though, is toward dull middle-class sensibilities. But even as we complain, we must remember that gentrification is a double-edged sword: even if it sucks out excitement, it creates comfort. The most gentrified places in the world--—Times Square and Walt Disney World spring immediately to mind—are also the safest (and, it’s probably worth mentioning, two of the most popular). Without question, one’s safety is hardly ever in question around Columbia. Even at 3 o’clock in the morning, students can comfortably walk by themselves to get food or go to the drug store.

The area’s security is unusual and remarkable, especially considering the number of places one can frequent so late. It’s easy to take for granted the neighborhood’s 24-hour stores and the ease with which we access them, but where else can you find this?

This love of convenience is the reason so many of our parents decided to raise their children in the suburbs. Functionally, that’s where we go to school: in a suburb of New York, comfortable and safe and antiseptic. We don’t have to go far to get away from these suburbs—a 10 minute walk is enough—but most of us don’t go far. Of course, there are some students who do not spend most of their time in the neighborhood, but they are the minority. The rest of us love the convenience and comfort of Morningside Heights and do not want it any other way, regardless of the occasional complaint.

During an open-house weekend, I remember a professor saying that the special thing about Columbia is that it attracts the type of student who isn’t afraid to take risks: we were all willing to study in New York, after all. Thirty years ago, that was probably true. And for those who never set foot in a city before visiting Columbia, or who are attracted to a romantic version of a Columbia that once was, that might still be true.

For most of us, however, I don’t think it is. Much attracts us to Columbia: the school’s academic prestige, the market value of a Columbia degree, and, yes, the fact that we are only a few subway stops away from a lot of excitement. But that’s where we spend most of our college lives: a few subway stops away from the excitement.