New-York-City

Community Board 9 members Marti Cummings and Dan Cohen have emerged as early frontrunners in a competitive West Harlem City Council race. In a post-pandemic city, council members will face unprecedented challenges—including a $9 billion revenue shortfall—making their role, which includes negotiating the city’s budget, a crucial one.

While the world remains captivated by the now-famous fly that spotted Pence as the perfect matter of decay to feed on, I pose this question: Can we as Black and Indigenous families, whose lives depend upon policy change, truly expect to see legal justice, neighborhood development, and real community sustainability from either the Republican or Democratic presidential candidates? While close attention must be placed on the 2020 presidential election, our communities need change today. Our attention should be equally focused on opportunities for change at the federal, state, and local levels by electing leaders who prioritize full participatory policymaking, a foundation for social and economic sustainability for communities such as Harlem and the greater New York City, and will not continue to promote performative change without real solutions.

My first Rosh Hashanah away from home and family was supposed to be unremarkable. I planned to be with friends, make some semblance of a holiday dinner, braid my first challah, and FaceTime my parents and brother to wish them a sweet and happy new year. Yet, it was only minutes after hearing the blast of the shofar—the signal that a new year has begun—that I heard the sounds of incoming texts, tweets, and Apple News alerts that would signal the end of an era. All these electronic blasts brought the same news: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court justice whose shoulders bore the weight of our country’s democracy, had died.

Columbia needs to address the housing affordability crisis facing Morningside Heights and West Harlem, and it has the ability to do so. In May 2016, a group of neighborhood activists founded the Morningside Heights Community Coalition in response to the uncontrolled development of luxury housing. We have held well-attended workshops and conducted surveys of residents that have confirmed the desperate need of our neighbors for retaining and expanding affordable housing. Our September 2020 survey revealed that affordable housing is one of the top concerns of our community members.

I love my hometown—I think. In the summers, townies and tourists mill around Brunswick, Maine like fish in a stream. The locals are shiny, broad-backed trout; they’re tanned and wear Red Sox caps and tee shirts from local breweries; they drive trucks with immaculate exteriors and crushed Budweiser cans under the seats.

I love cooking dinner. The supernatural smell that emanates when fusing spice, starch, greens, and protein is whimsical; it’s liberating. Ever since the pandemic started, cooking has been my sensory escape from the anxiety that comes with all of our uncertainty.

As academic institutions in Morningside Heights plan to allow students back to campus during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are concerned about the effects on the health of local residents in the surrounding Morningside Heights and West Harlem neighborhoods.

Are you a Columbia student seeking off-campus housing for any part of the upcoming 2020-21 school year? Are you planning on living at home for part of or all of the school year?

Phillip Le, CC ’24, is moving across the country for the first time without his family, but he does not know when to book his ticket from Lawndale, California to New York City.