Robert Moses may be dead, but his legacy lives on here in New York City. Eminent domain has been increasingly and severely abused by local and state governments to help their favored private interests gain certain properties. We've seen it in the failed attempt to build Atlantic Yards and in Uptown Manhattan. While Bruce Ratner and Frank Gehry's hopes of the reshaping Brooklyn go down the tubes, the battle to expand Columbia University into Manhattanville is raging.
From The BWOG:
At a news conference this morning, the Empire State Development Corporation unanimously voted to use the power of eminent domain to seize the remaining commercial holdouts in Columbia's Manhattanville expansion zone. That's bad news for the two property owners who have still refused to sell: storage space owner Nick Sprayregen and gas station owner Gurnam Singh, who can now legally be forced to sell their property to the state, which would then let Columbia take over the land.
Sprayregen, the far more vocal of the pair, has vowed to fight the eminent domain decision in court, having already entered several different lawsuits challenging whether Columbia's acquisition of the land will actually help the "public good." "I don't want to have to sue you," said Sprayregen's lawyer, Norman Siegel, to the staid ESDC board members. "You leave us no choice but to litigate." He said he felt sure the case would reach the Supreme Court, where ESDC's awkward history with AKRF and previous allegations it was colluding with Columbia would be weighted heavily.[...]Though Columbia already owns over 80% of the property in its proposed expansion zone, it says it needs the land under the Singh and Sprayregen properties to construct a 7-story underground structure that will house a bus depot, parking, loading docks, and utilities.
The decision comes seven months after the ESDC approved Columbia's expansion plan and declared the area "blighted," and a year after the city's Land Use Committee approved the plan. Check out our past coverage for more background on Manhattanville.
That, in a nutshell, is what is going on in the quest for a larger Columbia campus. Now eminent domain is a practice that was initially allowed to give the government the power to help the community with public works projects. Examples include building ports, train stations, parks, things like that.
Now in this case, a for-profit University wants to increase their ability to make money by opening more facilities. In no way does it help the residents of Manhattanville (the ones they haven't already forced from their homes).
Thankfully Norman Siegel is on board to fight the ESDC and Columbia from finishing the job on these two victims of "eminent domain." Mr. Siegel is well known as the city's public advocate, even if Betsy Gotbaum beat him in an election for the official title. He isn't the best campaigner, but his legal skills are exemplary. The odds are against the store owners but that doesn't mean the fight is a lost cause, not even close.
|