Special-Interest-Community

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.

Students living in Hartley Hall received an email from Cristen Kromm, the dean of undergraduate student life, and Dr. Melanie Bernitz, the senior vice president of Columbia Health, last week notifying them that several Hartley residents had tested positive for COVID-19 and that a potential building-wide lockdown was being considered.

April Tyler, a prominent community leader in West Harlem who was known for her advocacy for affordable housing, died on Feb. 16. She was 60 years old. Her unexpected death has impacted many residents in West Harlem, as friends and colleagues mourn her death and reflect on her decades of service to the community.

As I return to Columbia from a semester off, I am confronted with the same jarring culture shock I experienced my first year—the experience of existing in a predominately white and wealthy institution while coming from a predominantly Black and poor community. Unlike many of my peers and many Black students who attend Columbia and other elite institutions, I didn’t attend a wealthy and white school nor was I raised in white picket-fenced suburbia. After spending my summer and fall in the predominantly Black and lower-income community of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, I return to Columbia with the same anxiety and feeling of foreignness.

Due to the developments driven by Columbia, West Harlem has piqued the interest of investors and developers in recent years. However, much of the neighborhood’s original architecture remains intact. In an effort to curtail rapid change in the neighborhood and preserve its history, local organizations are working to designate the West Harlem Historic District.

Once a lively hub for music and dance, the RKO Hamilton Theater, an ornately decorated building located on the corner of 146th Street and Broadway now lies vacant. Recently, local residents have begun to discuss plans to purchase and repurpose the site for the benefit of the community, with many hoping to redevelop the site into affordable housing and a community arts center. However, the theater’s historical and cultural significance has sparked debate on how to balance the need for development and preserving the site’s historic integrity.

Dear fellow members of the Columbia community,

I had just finished packing my bags and was ready to board a plane to New York City. It was mid-August, and I was scrolling through my social media feed, filled with fresh faces that I had followed from the class of 2024 Instagram page. I remember telling myself, “Some of these people might even become your closest friends,” which made me feel excited and nauseated at the same time. Overall, however, I was looking forward to being able to meet these people on campus—in real life—even if it was going to be socially-distanced.

Community leaders and West Harlem residents huddled in front of an empty lot on Amsterdam Avenue for a press conference to protest the proposed construction of a homeless shelter at 1763-1771 Amsterdam Avenue. Knowing that the building is likely to be converted into market-rate apartments after the seven-year lease, they instead called on the city to build permanent, affordable housing at the site.

Thousands of Columbia and Barnard students are returning to New York after Columbia partially reopened on-campus housing this semester. For the majority of these students, it has been almost a year since they’ve lived at Columbia, and for some, it will be their first time stepping foot on campus. While students are eager to return to a “normal” college experience, some Morningside Heights and West Harlem residents worry that Columbia’s reopening plan may put Morningside Heights residents at higher risk for COVID-19.