Rent

In the face of luxury real estate development and rising rent prices, the Morningside Heights Community Coalition sent a memorandum to University President Lee Bollinger and several Columbia officials on Feb. 1, calling for the institution to preserve the rent-regulated units in its residential buildings as a source of affordable housing for the community. Local residents feel that the preservation of rent-regulated units is vital not only to provide much-needed affordable housing but also to maintain the neighborhood’s diversity and sense of community.

Every college student is familiar with the struggles of having to set up a new home base every year. Most of us find ourselves at Target, on Amazon, or on Facebook Marketplace, scouring the shops every time we switch dorms for a suitable mini-fridge and decorative lamp to make our room comfortable and livable. But at some point, thanks to ridiculous storage prices and limited suitcase space, we find ourselves having to prematurely part ways with items that work just fine. This problem of temporary ownership is one that plagues all college campuses; on Columbia’s campus alone, more than 80,000 pounds of reusable items are abandoned every year. Across the country, over 200 million tons of these items fill landfills annually.

Creating affordable housing in the community has become increasingly difficult as the economy plummets into a recession during the COVID-19 crisis. Affordable housing developers have faced a number of economic challenges—at a time when low-income housing has become even more essential.

With Barnard already sending out housing applications, students are starting to think about their living options for the upcoming semester. If you’re considering moving off campus next spring, then you’re better off starting your apartment search as early as possible, as apartment hunting in New York is notoriously difficult.

Student Financial Services started issuing registration holds for graduate student tenants on July 21, which barred them from registering for academic classes in the fall term until they paid their outstanding rent.

When Columbia switched to online instruction in March, Eduardo Vergara Torres’ computer died. His aging laptop could not handle the bombardment of videoconferencing, and he could not afford to fix or replace it. Normally, this would be a major inconvenience for a Spanish instructor and second-year Ph.D. candidate in Latin American and Iberian cultures—but in a world transformed by COVID-19, a broken computer spelled catastrophe.

Tamara Hache was supposed to spend her summer researching 19th-century literature in Argentina. The third-year Ph.D. candidate in Latin American and Iberian cultures had secured a research grant and planned on subletting her Columbia-owned apartment, hopping on a plane to her hometown of Buenos Aires, and working on her dissertation while spending time with friends and family.

Hundreds of workers in Morningside Heights and Manhattanville were laid off in the last two weeks following orders to close all nonessential businesses and limit restaurants to offering takeout and delivery only.

Home Sweet Harlem feels like chef and owner Donna Lewis’s home. The brick walls are lined with modern artwork by black artists, while the pale yellow backroom showcases old framed photographs. Lewis’ menu—which offers Southern food like homemade pancakes, fresh buttermilk biscuits, and salmon croquettes—exudes a similar sense of comfort.

Jennifer Hyman, co-founder and CEO of Rent The Runway, shared stories of the sexual harassment she faced while breaking into the male-dominated world of start-ups during a talk at Columbia on Wednesday.