Letters To the Editor

Columbia Should not Allow Closing of Kim’s to Leave a Gap in the Community

To the Editor:

The closing of the local Kim’s, as reported in Scott Levi’s article “Higher Rent, Netflix Force Kim’s to Close Its Doors (Sep. 2),” is a disappointment. Has Columbia, as landlord, actually chosen to favor Ricky’s cosmetics franchise over Kim’s—a book, music, and video store? I wonder how much money is involved.

For me, Kim’s helped fill the gap left by the closing of The Movie Place in December 2006. In a move that demonstrated that the University valued access to a fine video collection, Butler Library purchased The Movie Place’s DVD’s. These DVD’s, however, do not seem to circulate. (Every DVD I’ve looked up on CLIO is non-circulating, available only for class screenings.)

I can understand that the University does not want to run a movie rental facility out of Butler. However, it seems to me that the University could, and should, support an independent local business that provides this cultural and educational service. As landlord to Kim’s, Columbia was well-placed to offer such support. Instead, it has apparently offered a rent increase. This choice has sad implications for both the University and the neighborhood.

Patricia Zybert
Teachers College
BC ’73, GSAS ’86
September 4, 2008

Volunteer Service Provides Students Personal Connection to Morningside Heights

To the Editor:

Jason Patinkin’s article, “Together We Can Make a Difference (Sep. 9),” addresses the obstacles that community service organizations can face with campus bureaucracy. My own community service began as a job—albeit an ideal one—but a job nonetheless. As a Jumpstart Corps member, I provide one-on-one support to local preschoolers in the most critical areas of early literacy and language development. Sometimes this entails singing songs. Other times it means repeating the letter “C” sound until they correlate the image and sound with “cat” or “coat.” Initially, I didn’t think of my position as a community service endeavor. After all, I was paid, and received a sizable grant at the end of my year’s efforts. However, I began to see the ramifications of all I did once I began to understand the nature of my place in the community.

In West Harlem, Columbia University isn’t often seen as a great progenitor of good will. Columbia’s current proposed acquisition will more than likely drive up another steely wall between the University community and the neighborhood, despite all good intentions. Jumpstart is my way of planting myself back into the soil of Morningside Heights—to feel like I am partaking of something bigger than the University and certainly bigger than myself. In some small and seemingly ordinary way, Jumpstart has enabled some couple dozen students from the Barnard and Columbia community to repair strained ties and thus stem that mounting and ever-looming stigma. We come to the preschool as resources for the children first, then as aides to the teachers and directors, and lastly as Columbia and Barnard students. They see our willingness to help and learn before they ever see our school affiliation. My community service means the preservation of ties to all in our community. Jumpstart has reminded me again and again that the littlest deeds can do the greatest good. It might just be singing songs, or reading Goodnight Moon for the eighth time, but it is pivotal to the children in our program and to the restoration of Columbia’s good name.

Whitney Brynn Plummer
CC ’11
September 9, 2008

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