More than 150 people packed inside Manhattanville’s Floridita Tapas Bar & Restaurant Saturday afternoon to make their voices heard over the clatter of the 1 train rumbling along the elevated subway trestle outside.
The crowd at Floridita, a Cuban restaurant on 125th Street and Broadway, included Columbia students, local activists, and casual drop-ins. The restaurant, whose seating capacity is 174, was standing-room only.
The event was organized by Floridita owner Ramon Diaz and members of Columbia’s Student Coalition on Expansion and Gentrification. SCEG is best known for the hunger strike it organized in November 2007 to draw administrative attention to a series of demands, including that the University rethink its Manhattanville campus expansion plan. Saturday’s protest came after several months of limited visibility for the coalition.
“Activism at Columbia tends to be very theoretical and abstract, and this is a very material issue,” Paco Martin del Campo, CC ’11 and a member of SCEG and Lucha, said. “I really believe it’s an important thing for Columbia students to be aware of and to take on.”
According to organizers, Floridita’s popularity among students could make the broader issue of Manhattanville hit closer to home. “A lot of people from Columbia know this restaurant,” Margo Kulkarni, SEAS ’10, said. “It’s a really concrete way to get people to realize what will be changing.”
Attendees gave various reasons for sacrificing part of Valentine’s Day to turn out on behalf of Floridita.
“People believe you’re for it [the expansion] because you go to Columbia,” Samantha Jackson, GS and a member of the Columbia University College Democrats, said. “I want to put my face to this forum to show the people I’m fighting this oppression.”
Fellow CU Dems member Greer Feick, CC ’11, said she wasn’t familiar with Floridita’s history, and had come “for educational purposes.”
Lindsey Cornum, CC ’11, echoed Feick’s sentiment. “I’ve been concerned about Columbia’s expansion, and the promise of free Cuban food didn’t hurt,” she said.
Organizers gave brief speeches during the meal and then about 50 people joined West Harlem Local Development Corporation member Vicky Gholson and Harlem Tenants Council president Nellie Bailey for a walking tour of Manhattanville.
As the group wound its way past the Singh family gas stations, the Cotton Club, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, and other neighborhood staples, organizers held up banners reading “Columbia is in Harlem—Harlem is not in Columbia,” “Hasta La Floridita Siempre,” and “Platanos + Harlem not CU + Bulldozers.”
“It’s really important that Columbia knows where students stand,” Jamie Chen, CC ’09 and a former SCEG member, said.
Last winter, University officials touted Diaz as a model business owner in terms of Manhattanville property negotiations. But last spring’s dispute over thousands of dollars in rent and other charges that Columbia claimed Diaz owed led to a temporary suspension of negotiations. Talks resumed in October but tensions remain.
The buildings are owned by Columbia, but Diaz’s lease on the restaurant property does not expire until 2015. The tapas bar next door operates under a separate lease, which must be renewed yearly. In December, the Empire State Development Corporation released a “statement of determinations and findings” that designated the Floridita properties as candidates for eminent domain, which could effectively terminate Diaz’s lease early.
University officials maintain that negotiations with Diaz are ongoing.
“We have met with Mr. Diaz on numerous occasions since October 2008,” University spokesperson Victoria Benitez wrote in an e-mail. “When the long-term plan for this former industrial area requires the space we will engage in discussions regarding relocations. ... That conversation seems premature at this stage, but we are certainly prepared to have that conversation in time as well.”
According to Columbia’s Manhattanville planning Web site, Diaz’s properties are included in Phase I of the expansion plan, which is expected to be completed by 2015.
Many criticized protesters’ efforts as ineffective because Columbia has obtained all necessary approvals and the Empire State Development Corporation approved the use of eminent domain in the project zone in December. Yet SCEG member Victoria Ruiz, CC ‘09, insisted that such actions are not futile, alluding to student efforts that halted Columbia’s attempts to build a gym in Morningside Park in 1968. “They had that shovel in the ground, and it wasn’t built,” Ruiz said. “Keep those hopes up.”
Ruiz suggested a more novel approach to getting the University’s attention, in addition to traditional methods such as a petition addressed to University officials LaVerna Fountain and Phil Silverman.
“Let’s start a poking campaign of LaVerna Fountain,” Ruiz said, referring to Columbia’s associate vice president of facilities. “Facebook friend her and then poke her like crazy.”