Sure enough, just over half of the Columbia community benefits commitment, $76 million, will be devoted to “a flexible benefit fund to be overseen by a committee of community and Columbia representatives,” the New York Times reports this morning — a committee presumably not including tenant representatives Tom DeMott and Luisa Henriquez, storage company owner Nick Sprayregen, or Rev. Earl Kooperkamp of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, all of whom have recently resigned from the body negotiating with Columbia for community benefits, the West Harlem LDC.
Think about that $76 million for a moment. That’s equivalent to Yankee Stadium’s $800,000 annual “community” pledge to Bronx elected officials — for 95 years. We’ll have to wait to see the language of the agreement, of course, but unless the promised body overseeing this thing is a paragon of democracy, what we have here is essentially a long-term purchase of elected officials’ compliance, long after Borough President Scott Stringer, Councilmember Robert Jackson and other parties to this deal will have been term-limited out of office.
Read the rest of this entry 
Columbia and the West Harlem Local Development Corporation have reportedly reached an agreement on $150 million in unspecified community benefits.
We’ll get you the details as soon as we have them. But based on earlier reports, we can be fairly sure of two things: the deal will include substantial funds for housing, and it represents the interests of the elected officials whose staffs negotiated it — not the community in whose name it was executed. As a certain resident of Yankee Stadium used to say, “It’s deja vu all over again.”
For further enlightenment, check out Good Jobs New York’s excellent report on Yankee Stadium, which describes how the Yankees hired longtime political operative Stanley Schlein to broker a “community benefits agreement” with the City Council — giving Bronx members $800,000 a year in cash to spend — in order to win the Council’s support for the stadium plan. The community had nothing to do with it.
Columbia can’t do any worse. Or can it?
Earlier today, the City Council’s subcommittees on Zoning & Franchises and Planning, Dispositions & Concessions approved Columbia’s rezoning plan for Manhattanville as well as Community Board 9’s own plan for the surrounding area. The plans both now go to the full Council for a vote, with no further public hearing. The Columbia Spectator has the story.
Crains reports that two more members of the West Harlem Local Development Corporation have resigned as negotiations with Columbia for community benefits — including a housing fund — hurtle forward. As we’ve noted, three other members who resigned last week reported that community representatives had been excluded from negotiations with the university.
Things are heating up in West Harlem. According to the Campaign for Community Based Planning, City Council may be voting as early as tomorrow on Columbia’s expansion plan — even though they have until January to do so. The Columbia Spectator reports that rumors have been circulating to this effect since yesterday, and traces them back to an email sent out by The Coalition to Preserve Community encouraging Manhattanville residents to protest the early decision, which they believe will take place at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.
In other news, we’re still waiting to hear about the Sprayregen Swap, back on the table since Thursday…
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. Read the rest of this entry
Fresh off its 6-to-1 anointment by the City Planning Commission, Columbia University’s application to rezone 17 square blocks of Manhattanville now goes to a hearing on Wednesday morning with a joint pairing of City Council subcommittees, Zoning & Franchises (chaired by Tony Avella) and Planning, Dispositions and Concessions (headed by Dan Garodnick).
Councilmember Robert Jackson, who sits on Avella’s committee, can expect to take some heat at the hearing from constituents over his role in the West Harlem Local Development Corporation, which Community Board 9 created as a vehicle for residents and business owners to negotiate a community benefits agreement but which Jackson, Rep. Charles Rangel and other West Harlem elected officials insisted on having their own representatives join.
Last week, three LDC members resigned, complaining that they were effectively locked out of community benefits negotiations controlled by the elected officials’ representatives.
Jackson was a key supporter of Borough President Scott Stringer’s agreement with Columbia, which paved the way for the university expansion’s approval and doomed prospects for Community Board 9’s own plan for the zone.
The Columbia expansion plan will be heard at a joint meeting of City Council’s “Zoning & Franchises” and “Planning, Dispositions & Concessions” sub-committees.
Wednesday, December 12 at 10 a.m.
City Hall Chamber