[This speech was delivered at the November 15th, 2005 scoping hearing on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Columbia expansion proposal]

Good evening. My name is Robert Rosello. I represent 3289 Broadway right here on 133rd Street and Broadway. Our building is part of a program called the Tenant Interim Lease Program, a program with an ultimate goal of helping tenants put together cooperative, affordable housing in this community. Our building isn't filled with simply eunuchs. It's filled with families, families who work here, who attend school, the public school here, and who are part of this community, who make this community what it is.

I grew up in this community. I was born and raised here. I graduated from this building--actually from the junior high school that we are in right now. I attended elementary school in this community. And I continue to work in this community.

The reason I'm here is because I want to express my opposition to this plan as it stands right now. I want to emphasize that this would never happen in a community in Midtown, the Upper East Side, or any other affluent community in the City. But it happens here. And it's happening here for one reason. It's happening because the tenants in our building, the tenants in buildings that are surrounding this area are being deemed a blight. We are [considered] a blight by people who do not even live here, who have no interest in this community and the heart and soul that lives here. We are being deemed a blight because we don't have the same income level. We are being deemed a blight because we don't have the same resources. And not because we don't deserve them, but simply because we can't afford them.
 
I'm saying this because it's happening here because Columbia University as it stands right now seems to only care about their biotech industry, their interest in that industry. They all seem to care about their community, not ours.

Today I'm here with everyone from my building. I'm here with everyone from my building so that everyone knows that we are here united. We are here together. We are educated and we are informed. We are here to fight this plan as it stands as long as it threatens our homes,
our businesses and our community.

The people who are here tonight are here because there is an interest beyond what Columbia has proposed. And I would like the City as well as Columbia University to seriously consider what these people who have spoken tonight, these people who are here, represent.

Robert Rosello

3289 Broadway Tenants' Association