Lydia Wileden

After more than a day during which her whereabouts were unknown, Christina Fernandez, a 12-year-old resident of 235 W 109th Street, returned home Saturday afternoon, Paula Diamond Roman, Democratic Leader for the 69th Assembly District, said in an email Monday.

For many students, their college major exists as a point of abstract—but not practical—interest. But for Ruthzee Louijeune, political science has become a way of life.

“Well, you don’t meet a ton of Columbians that have worked at Starbucks,” Kelsey Price jokes, her laugh infectious even over the phone. “So I guess that’s one thing that sets me apart.”

Residents of the Upper West Side development between 97th and 100th Streets along Columbus Avenue crowded into Second Presbyterian Church to strike back against the continued construction of Columbus Village, a commercial undertaking that locals say could permanently alter PWV’s landscape. It was the first official meeting of Westsiders for Public Participation, a group established to increase community involvement in the raising—and the prevention—of the commercial structures at Columbus Village.

Following pressure from student groups, Health Services at Columbia announced Tuesday that it would reduce the cost of the NuvaRing and other birth control methods for students. The announcement comes two months after a resolution drafted by a coalition of campus groups urged Columbia to alleviate the rising cost of birth control.

Entering the Second Presbyterian Church, Anne Wangh immediately stood out from the stark white, ornately carved plaster walls. A red parka cloaked her petite frame, quiet alertness emanated from behind her gold-rimmed glasses. Wangh, like many of her neighbors, had been drawn to the church Monday night by the promise of change, though the events that would pass there would prove to be more of a beginning than a means to an end.

After vocally opposing the continued construction of Columbus Village—a commercial and residential development being built amid the affordable housing complex, Park West Village—PWV resident Paul Bunten filed a lawsuit Friday that would force the developer to comply with land regulations. Columbus Village, which is currently being constructed along both sides of Columbus Avenue between 97th and 100th Streets, would include over 320,000 feet of retail space and five residential towers, some as tall as 29 stories. Many PWV residents and other community members feel the construction is both unattractive and detrimental to the neighborhood.

When commercial tenants of Park West Village were issued 30-day notices to vacate their stores in September 2005, the reasons behind these evictions were a mystery. Today, almost three years later, the constant construction spanning Columbus Avenue from 97th to 100th Streets confirms what many businesses, tenants, and community members all feared: the neighborhood is changing and time may be running out to reverse the trend.

After more than a year of lobbying by tenants and tenant advocates, Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed an anti-landlord harassment bill into law on March 13. The bill, called Intro 627-A, was proposed by New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn in her 2007 State of the City address, passed City Council on Feb. 28.

“This weekend I noticed someone had urinated in the elevator,” said an exasperated Hortense Bermudez. “There was no attempt to clean it up. You can still smell it. There are strangers coming in all the time. This is a very, very disturbing situation that’s going on.”

While City Council Speaker Christine Quinn may have been speaking in jest when she said during her State of the City address that “if we don’t do something soon, public toilets ... may well be the only new housing available to the average working family,” the implication was quite clear—the state of city housing has reached a critical point.

A look at the 36 passages that served as the basis of Teachers College’s determination last week that Professor Madonna Constantine was guilty of academic plagiarism illustrates the similarities between her writing and that of her students. But Constantine and her lawyer continue to maintain that she had authored the passages in question.

In the midst of a citywide housing crisis, a notorious Harlem landlord has put 22 buildings on W. 109th Street up for sale. According to the listing on real estate information provider Eastern Consolidate’s Web site, Pinnacle is seeking a single buyer for the group of buildings, and “only offers for the entire portfolio are being considered at this time.”

Embattled Teachers College Professor Madonna Constantine denied charges of plagiarism Wednesday and announced plans to fight sanctions imposed by the TC administration, a day after a memo detailing the allegations became public.

Read the official statements made by Constantine and Teachers College.

Professor Madonna Constantine has been sanctioned by Teachers College for plagiarism, according to a memo obtained by Spectator Tuesday evening. The memo, dated Feb. 18, was hand-delivered to professors on the Office of the President’s stationery. Read the official statements made by Constantine and Teachers College.

Professor Madonna Constantine has been sanctioned by Teachers College for plagiarism, according to an official memo obtained by Spectator Tuesday evening. The memo, dated Feb. 18, was hand delivered to professors on the Office of the President’s stationery.

From the cultural texture of a city block in Greenwich Village to the solace of Washington Square Park, there are few places within New York City that don’t bear the mark of Jane Jacobs.

When Harold Dickson began to notice the disrepair in his building on West 94th Street, he made several complaints to his landlord. Irritated by weeks of no action, Dickson decided to take the issue to court. Now, months after a judge’s prompt dismissal of Dickson’s complaint at the hearing, the landlord still has made no effort to fix the problems.

In Harlem, a husband and wife clash over candidate preferences. Typical of those in the area, they anticipate that in a diverse and left-leaning neighborhood, the implications of today’s historic Democratic primary will signify more than just the selection of a candidate.

Gathering around a TV with snacks and politically inclined friends, members of the Broadway Democrats crowded into an Upper West Side apartment Thursday night in the hope of choosing their nominee.

While the position of Barnard College president remains unfilled with scant information available about the progress of the search, officials say they have had a large response to the position, and that the process is continuing as expected.

A graduate student was assaulted and robbed Tuesday afternoon in Morningside Park, near West 121st Street.

A recent upsurge in the white population of New York City, reflected in statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau, signifies what some analysts are calling the end of white flight.

Four years into Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan, considerable progress has been made toward creating affordable housing that will allow many New Yorkers to remain city residents, according to a new report by the Independent Budget Office.

Despite statistics showing that two out of three people today earn higher incomes than their parents, a report from the Economic Mobility Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts reveals that African-American baby-boomers are more likely to have slipped down the socioeconomic ladder than their white counterparts.

At a Community Principles Initiative Committee summit on Friday, students used role-playing to discuss recent bias incidents and University protocols.

Food pantries city-wide are reporting extreme food and funds shortages and many worry that unless emergency funds are received, pantries could be forced to close their doors before the end of the year.

State Senator Jeff Klein, D-Bronx and Westchester, has proposed a bill that would hold the makers and vendors of fake IDs accountable for minors’ access to alcohol and for the consequences of underage drinking.

As the demand for housing grows on the Upper West Side, a new luxury apartment building named The Columbia House is being built on West 108th Street.

Public school classrooms citywide are exceeding United Federation of Teachers class-size limits, states a report from the New York City Independent Budget Office released at the end of September.

The city of New York has been granted an injuction that would prevent single-room-occupancy affordable housing buildings from being used as illegal hotels. City officials celebrated this Thursday morning when elected officials, tenants, and tenant advocates held a press conference outside an SRO on the Upper West Side.