Private development could promote the public good, according to a guest commentator for the Center for an Urban Future think tank.
In a policy brief released Thursday, David Hochman, an expert in technology-based economic development, called on the University to increase the economic benefits of its 17-acre Manhattanville expansion by focusing more on commercial components.
As West Harlem residents and University officials wait for the New York State Court of Appeals to determine the fate of the project, Hochman argued that the expansion plans should include more emphasis on private-sector jobs, as opposed to jobs exclusively within the University.
In the policy brief, Hochman wrote that while the new campus is “unquestionably a project of transformative scope ... the Manhattanville plan has included no discernible emphasis on jobs other than in the university itself and in retail or service businesses that mostly offer low wages and limited advancement potential.” He compared Columbia’s plan to the expansion models of other universities—such as Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—in which, he said, commercial researchers “operate cheek-by-jowl with new academic space, sparking the growth of a sustainable regional technology cluster and the creation of jobs that pay relatively well.”
Additional private-sector development, Hochman argued, would result not only in “a larger campus for Columbia, but a range of positive economic outcomes for the surrounding community. The university’s own investments could prompt private companies based on advanced science and engineering technologies to set up shop nearby, boosting the city’s long-faltering innovation economy while creating a range of high-value, fair-wage jobs for local residents.”
University spokesperson Victoria Benitez said that Hochman’s suggestions have merit, but added that the decision to make the new campus primarily academic rather than commercial was intentional, and officials intend to stand by it.
“While we believe the expansion of basic and applied research on the new campus will also lead to the kind of innovative new businesses and job creation we’ve noted … our core nonprofit mission remains education, academic research, and patient care rather than commercial technology development,” Benitez said. “As he acknowledges, the West Harlem neighborhoods surrounding the post-industrial blocks of Manhattanville are largely residential. The University strongly supports maintaining their residential character.” Last month, the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division dealt a harsh blow to Columbia’s plans—which depend on the use of eminent domain to acquire properties from two landowners who have refused to sell, in exchange for market-rate compensation—when it ruled in a 3-2 vote that the use of eminent domain in Manhattanville was illegal. The Empire State Development Corporation, which approved eminent domain for the project in December 2008, appealed to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, which will hear the case in the spring. University President Lee Bollinger has said that without eminent domain, the expansion might not go forward.
But “while the courts will ultimately rule on the eminent domain question … city and state officials should now work to ensure that the university’s new campus triggers additional economic development for New York and the community,” Jonathan Bowles, director of the Center for an Urban Future, wrote in a press release.
“Even if the state [ESDC] prevails, the battle over eminent domain should not be the final word on this project,” Hochman wrote. “To keep the focus on the public purpose of the eminent domain procedure—the very point on which project opponents have challenged the state’s powers of eminent domain—Columbia ironically ignored the greater private-sector potential of its plans, choosing instead to emphasize jobs in the institution itself and in retail/service operations.”
The public benefits of the expansion are a central issue in the court cases, as eminent domain can only be invoked to put “blighted” land to “public use.” Columbia officials argue that the project will create thousands of jobs and facilitate scientific research with public benefits, but the Appellate Division ruled that the expansion of an “elite private university” could not constitute a public use.
Hochman in fact argued that increased commercial components in the plan would create more public benefits. “Carefully planned private-sector job development should now be revisited as an opportunity for West Harlem, not a threat to it,” he wrote. “West Harlem residents have fought hard to ensure themselves an appropriate share of the prosperity that will result from Columbia’s Manhattanville expansion. At this late point, however, their focus should turn to how best to partner with the university and city government in pursuit of the quality jobs that ultimately will do the most good for the community.”
Benitez noted that historically, Columbia researchers have been responsible for a number of crucial scientific developments, including radar, FM radios, lasers, MP3 audio equipment, the gynecological PAP smear, and the Apgar test for newborns. Today, she said, the University manages 600 patents and 250 license agreements that have aided 70 startup companies, all of which generate a total of $1.75 billion per year. “This kind of intellectual capital is clearly creating many new jobs,” she said, adding, “Columbia and our peer institutions have worked closely with New York City’s Economic Development Corporation to encourage local high-tech development.”
While Hochman “has certainly raised some exciting and provocative ideas,” Benitez said, “he seems to be proposing far more commercial development in and around this area than would be welcome by the local community or contemplated in the plans approved by the city and state.”
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