COALITION TO PRESERVE COMMUNITY
Open Letter to Columbia University President June 2005
Dear President Bollinger:
As you know the Coalition to Preserve Community was formed in response to the University's obvious PR attempt to provide for the appearance of community input into its expansion plans for the West Harlem area. Two years ago we wrote you asking that the so-called Community Advisory Committee established by the University "hold open public meetings" and "be more inclusive and transparent." Since our call went unanswered, we went on to urge that you personally engage the community in a dialogue around the proposed expansion. After repeated attempts, CPC's Steering Committee finally succeeded in arranging a meeting with you on March 11, 2004 explicitly for the purpose of planning a series of Town Halls. In the afternoon of March 10th, we were informed that the agenda had to be altered. At the meeting itself, you made it clear that "community consultation" would not go beyond the process the University was legally required to follow with public agencies in addition to keeping the appropriate elected officials periodically informed. We believe the fruits of this minimalist approach are now abundantly clear. You have closed off any possibilities for genuine collaboration and moved the University into open confrontation in a collision course with the directly affected community. We believe that it is in our mutual self-interest to reevaluate this potentially disastrous course.
Columbia and the community are not well served by repeating the past patterns of achieving the aims of the University's administration at the expense of the scarce resources that remain available to the community, whether they have to do with physical space, affordable housing, or jobs. The community has wisely opted for an approach that seeks a development that is mutually beneficial through Community Board 9's 197A Plan. Instead of welcoming the potential benefits of such a collaborative arrangement, you have insisted that Columbia's need for space must prevail and your actions have made it clear that the University will resort to coercion through public agencies to deprive residents and businesses of their homes and property. Instead of sharing space and promoting uses that will strengthen Columbia's connections with the surrounding community as called for in the 197A, you have stated that Columbia must have every square inch and apparently you are quite willing to resort to the use of state power through eminent domain, much as your predecessors were willing to rely on the City's largesse in granting Columbia the use of public park land.
Mr. Bollinger it is time to abandon the negative patterns of separation and coercion. It is in the best interests of Columbia and the community that the University cease setting itself apart from the community and instead become an integral part of the extraordinarily diverse, ethnically and economically mixed neighborhood that still remains to the North of the campus. Instead of pursuing a homogeneous company town as it has in its past expansions, Columbia should welcome being part of this vibrant and diverse community.
Mr. Bollinger, the time for sophisticated PR and empty talk is over. It is time for a fresh start. A genuine partnership with the community Columbia is fortunate enough to have as its neighbors, will enhance both of our futures. Let us start now.
Mr. Bollinger, we call upon you to state publicly that Columbia will definitively rule out any forcible displacement of residents and businesses and that it will commit to a collaborative approach in addressing secondary displacement issues around housing, jobs and economic development, potentially harmful environmental practices, needed social services, and respect for the architectural and historical integrity of the surrounding area. With the University considerable material, political, and intellectual resources, we know we can find ways of addressing our mutual needs.
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