CB9

Kofi Boateng, the first executive director of the West Harlem Development Corporation, is leaving the organization, according to a statement released by the WHDC on Nov. 20. WHDC board member and treasurer Zead Ramadan will serve as the interim executive director while the board searches for a permanent one.

Local community members voiced their support of Columbia’s Mobilized African Diaspora demands calling for University action against anti-Blackness at a board meeting Thursday.

As more and more New Yorkers find themselves unemployed or desperately seeking funding to make ends meet amid the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City has struggled to support its rich arts and culture scene. As clubs, galleries, and music venues close across the city, artists and small businesses in Upper Manhattan lack access to resources, with self-employed artists and gig workers struggling the most.

Struggling business owners discussed ways to rebrand Manhattanville, including proposals for a name change, in order to help address the economic pains faced by businesses on the campus’ 12th Avenue border at a meeting on Tuesday.

Residents and city officials heavily scrutinized Columbia’s plan to erect a 34-story high-rise on the former McDonald’s site at a Community Board 9 meeting last Thursday.

The West Harlem Development Corporation invested $2 million this summer to develop 169 affordable housing units in Harlem, the first substantial investment made of the $10 million in funding received from Columbia five years ago.

Community members of Morningside Heights and surrounding neighborhoods ranked housing as one of their biggest neighborhood concerns for the following fiscal year at a public hearing on Monday.

Francia Fernandez emerges from the underlit, green-tiled foyer of the Grant Houses public housing complex on Broadway as a subway train rumbles overhead. In a baby pink headband and grey sweatpants, she is stepping out just to run some errands. We converse outside the building, her dyed-blond ponytail swishing, the cadence of her Spanish musical. Although she currently holds a cleaning job, she is seeking new employment. I point to the Columbia Employment Information Center, the boxy one-story building directly next door, and Fernandez tells me she has never heard of it. She seems surprised. “Do they have cleaning work?” she inquires, knitting her eyebrows. I nod. “Okay, I’m going to go tomorrow and apply for a cleaning job at Columbia,” Fernandez replies with determination, as if she has already marked it into her calendar. As we part ways and she walks to the 125th Street subway station to continue her day, Fernandez passes within arm’s length of the CEIC’s all-glass exterior.

It's 6:30 on a Friday, and it's already dark outside. Six people sit around a long table—not a bad turnout for a muggy day like today. They have gathered at the West Harlem Skills Training Center, a little black awning on the corner of 134th and Amsterdam, for a workshop about obtaining street vendor permits.