The Eminent Domain

West Harlem’s community plan might have a fighting chance after all.

You’ll recall that in late November, the City Planning Commission approved the Community Board 9’s 197-a plan for the area, but without, well, the heart of it all: recommendations for how to incorporate Columbia University’s planned expansion into the fabric of Manhattanville’s existing buildings, preserving small businesses and the industrial activity amid a rising new campus.

At a Wednesday morning hearing, the Council’s subcommittees on Zoning and Franchises and Planning, Dispositions & Concessions came face to face with two starkly different visions for Manhattanville: Community Board 9’s 197-a plan and Columbia University’s own proposal to build a self-contained academic campus on 17 square blocks.

To judge from the comments of the councilmembers, they were paying careful attention to some of the community board’s key recommendations rejected by City Planning — above all, its call to prohibit the use of eminent domain to acquire property for development in Manhattanvillle.

Zoning & Franchises Committee Chair Tony Avella of Queens set the tone following the presentation of Columbia President Lee Bollinger and colleagues. Avella warned them that he would not support using government muscle to aid private entities in securing property. “I don’t think I’ve heard anything that’s changed my mind about that issue or the way I’ll vote on it,” said Avella. Fellow Queens Councilmember Melinda Katz followed in turn, rebuking Columbia officials for dodging hard questions about how they would aquire property in West Harlem by alluding to community benefits they planned to deliver, which are beyond the scope of the plans the council is to vote on.

With a boost from a raucous array of activists from Coalition to Preserve Community and other West Harlem groups, other councilmembers went even further to take shots at the university. “Don’t trust Columbia!” Councilmember Charles Barron shouted at the crowd. “Be vigilant in this process! Harlem has been gentrified and Harlem is in trouble.”

Councilmember Larry Seabrook followed by pointing out that 51 percent of black men in New York City are unemployed, and saying that the promise of union construction on Columbia buildings is not enough to ensure that black men are included in the workforce. Looking at the Columbia table, he challenged those testifying not to stick to the F.B.I. — “Family, Brother, and In-Law” — hiring model when moving forward with development in West Harlem.

Columbia official Robert Kasdin responded that the university has a long-standing practice of hiring at least 40 percent minorities, women, and locals on its construction projects.

And West Harlem Councilmember Robert Jackson, whose deal with Borough President Scott Stringer doomed Community Board 9’s prospects for reshaping Columbia’s plans? He ingratiated himself to Community Board 9’s Pat Jones, one of the architects of the 197-a plan: “I’ve told Pat that she is a hero.”