Columbia's Community Benefits Agreement—part of the University's campus expansion project in Manhattanville—was approved Friday evening by the West Harlem Local Development Corporation, a group of neighborhood representatives.
Of the 20 LDC members, 15 voted in favor of the CBA, two against, and three abstained. A super-majority of 13 ayes was necessary for the agreement to pass. At around $150 million, the benefits agreement has been developed over the past several years, and designates Columbia funding for affordable housing, building a public school, and other local programs.
Drafted along with LDC members, the CBA drew criticism from members of West Harlem's Community Board 9, who criticized the amount of money Columbia was willing to spend and how the University proposed spending it. On Monday evening, the executive committee of CB9 voted unanimously for its two delegates on the local development corporation to turn the agreement down.
Still, “We negotiated a very good agreement—in fact, it’s an outstanding agreement,” Susan Russell, chief of staff for New York City Council member Robert Jackson—who represents West Harlem and Washington Heights—said earlier this week. “Council member Jackson is supportive of the agreement. He’s been wanting to see this situation resolved and the community benefit from the upcoming project.”
The agreement ensures “the University’s advice and guidance in supporting community priorities,” Columbia spokesperson Victoria Benitez wrote in an e-mail following the vote.
She added that the plan is “an opportunity for the University and our local community to enhance our collective work on wide range of existing educational, health care, cultural and other civic programs and partnerships—while helping local citizens and businesses be full participants in the new economic opportunities created by Columbia’s commitment to local growth.”
The decision came Friday night after having been delayed since Tuesday evening, when it was supposed to have taken place. The meeting and vote were restricted to LDC members, as police kept members of the public from entering the Department of Housing Preservation and Development building on Old Broadway and 133rd Street.
About 30 people—primarily members of neighborhood activist group the Coalition to Preserve Community, West Harlem community organization the Mirabal Sisters, and Columbia's Student Coalition on Expansion and Gentrification—held an impromptu protest outside after NYPD officers were called to bar their entrance.
LDC President Julio Batista and members Donald Notice and Cecil Corbin-Mark—who emerged briefly from the building shortly after 7 p.m.—defended the closing of the meeting and the involvement of the police, casting those actions largely as the result of the disturbance protesters created at Tuesday’s meeting.
“We have rules and regulations for the space we’re in,” Notice said.
Batista added that a 15-minute public session was allowed on Tuesday, and that since Friday’s meeting was a continuation of Tuesday’s, an additional public session was not necessary or appropriate.
“We have taken into consideration your comments,” Batista said, promising that he would come downstairs after the vote to announce the result. But by the time the meeting adjourned—shortly before 8 p.m.—all the protesters had left.
“We adjourned the meeting [on Tuesday] based on some of their comments,” Batista said after the vote. “But they came into the building when they were told not to. The HPD said it would not be possible [on Friday] for a group to come up and be unruly.”
“We were invited by Julio Batista,” Harlem Tenants Council president Nellie Bailey said. “He did indicate that there would be a public session.”
After Tuesday’s meeting, when Batista announced that the vote had been postponed, he had said he would speak to the HPD—which owns the building in which the meeting took place—to see if Friday’s meeting could include a public session. Officials said Friday that the HPD had categorically refused.
“I tried,” Russell told Bailey and CPC member Tom DeMott as she entered the building. “HPD said absolutely not.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, “You started yelling,” Russell said. “HPD was upset.”
But protesters questioned the allegations of unruliness.
“We were told it would be public,” Tom Reed, CC ’11 and a member of SCEG, said. “It’s not our incentive to go up and cause a ruckus. We aren’t looking to do anything disruptive—we just want to be part of the process.”
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