Special-Interest-Community

It is undeniable that one of the most attractive features of Columbia is its location. New York City is a metropolis often referred to as the greatest of its kind. Songs, TV shows, movies, and most significantly in this context, Columbia’s admissions literature, suggest that New York City is a melting pot of people. So, that begs the question: Why does it seem that for a good portion of Columbia students, New York City begins and ends with Manhattan—and if we’re feeling particularly adventurous, downtown Brooklyn? It seems to be lost to the Columbia community that New York is comprised of five very distinct boroughs that should be individually recognized and respected.

“Can I be your legacy?” Queen asks. Slim replies, “You already are.”

In response to New York State’s $6 billion budget shortfall, Community Board 9 passed a motion opposing projected spending cuts to Medicaid and insufficient increases to education, which were outlined in the New York state midyear financial report.

The Manhattanville Community Center temporarily closed several rooms where its after-school programs were hosted due to unsafe lead levels in areas of the building, a move that incited community concern over disrupted services for children and health of visitors, following an inspection from the New York City Housing Authority earlier this month.

City officials declined to give money to Community Board 9 based on the group’s preliminary budget recommendations for housing and park renovations for the next fiscal year. However, the mayor’s office agreed to allocate money for youth education, which was a financial priority for CB9, a local advisory board representing Morningside Heights and surrounding areas.

I live near Central Park North, not far from where Tessa Majors was murdered. A college student killed by a stranger in a street crime is the worst fear of a million mothers. I am the mother of a 21-year-old daughter. I am white. My daughter and I argue about a lot of things, but one thing that we agree on is that no 14-year-old should be tried as an adult.

Last February, Mayor de Blasio gave up on his signature three-quarters of a billion-dollar initiative to turn around New York City’s worst-performing schools by providing access to additional financial and human resources. Functionally, what he really did was give up on finding a solution for New York’s children who are chronically underserved by the city’s public school system, both inside of the classroom and out. Ten months later, one of our own, beloved Tess Majors, was killed in a horrific way that was beyond words. The outrage and shock of the crime were exacerbated by the ages of its alleged-perpetrators—kids who should have been engaging in after-school programming or playing a sport, not lurking in the shadows of Morningside Park.

Just through the front door of the brownstone at 542 West 114th Street, strings of lights run along the walls of the room on the right, casting a warm glow through the windows and onto the sidewalk below. A print of a Gustav Klimt painting is tacked up above the fireplace, and the room is full of a hodge-podge of furniture. In this front room and throughout the brownstone, residents host club meetings and Friendsgivings, cook alongside each other in the kitchen, and chat over homework. Here, Columbia’s transfer student community has found a home. The residents trade in corridor-style living for a living room shared with neighbors who can relate to their path at Columbia. On a campus where almost every inch of space is claimed before they arrive, here is a house that has been set aside for them—but only for this year.

Behind the powerful protest pictures, moving speeches, and glamorous social media posts, social justice work is actually hard. Without the right balance, social justice work can get downright ugly and result in sleepless nights, tension among organizers, anxiety from traumatic issues, and burn out. It is a give and take relationship, in which the work can easily take more than it gives.