21 Comments
The Student Coalition on Expansion and Gentrification, which held a rally against stimulus bill money for the expansion this past Saturday, just unveiled their new blog. Now you can protest the expansion without leaving your computer. Just in time for finals procrastination!
On the site, you can sign their “no-dough” petition, pledging not to donate to the University until the expansion is made “ethical.” Bwog does not know if those among us too poor to donate (also known as students) can still take the pledge. The blog also offers an expansion timeline, an outline of the University’s plan and a section on living wage.
Welcome to the Bwogroll, SCEG! We add you to the lower right hand corner of our website with pride.
-DJB
Loading …
21 Comments
@Hey! Fair enough. It would have given Columbia over 50%, The 197 A Flex that is (see revised general project plan which you can find a link to on Columbia’s Manhattanville website, and to which Columbia HAS to adhere, so it’s pretty legit) which is why I said the majority. See, now you’ve done your homework, so we can agree to disagree. Anyone else want to try?
@... sure. in the not-too-distant future when the cost of living plummets, yet the cost of materials for construction skyrockets, and all our buildings really are actually crumbling, we’ll all be laughing about how we used to argue with each other over whether or not to preserve some shitty warehouses or build new, lasting infrastructure.
@look no offense, but i just looked at 197-a. it’s a sim-city study, which is funny because the picture mentioned by 16 looks sim city.
197-a would give columbia a third (or half?), not sure, of the space it wants. Columbia also already owns significant portions of the parts devoted to “mixed light manufacturing” in the plan. what wait??? 197-a wants to put light manufacturing in manhattan?? if you studied economics, you would know that the opportunity cost of doing light, or any, manufacturing on an island is just huge. sorry, 197-a was ignored for a reason; it certainly looked donated, and it didnt seem like a decade’s worth of work. what else did they want to put there… green collar jobs? if anything manhattan would be a second- or third-best place to locate more green jobs. consider the relocations a company would need to make in order to come to manhattan. First, we would be stealing those jobs from other places like Denver or Silicon Valley. Second, manhattan would need to create its own modus operandi in order to justify existence here because of the high costs, limited land, complicated bureaucracy, high taxes. Third, if the 197a plan wanted green industry, why not allow universities to come up with the research to spur on new techs? AH but it was columbia that needed the space in the first place.
i’m not accusing you of anything. you have the right to your views. but certainly you have no right to impose that view on others by framing a conversation one way, and one way only.
just because im in favor of expansion does not mean that i do not care any less about the income inequality in our nation, or in manhattanville nonetheless (with regard to gentrification). it also doesn’t mean i don’t care about income inequality across the globe, where the disparities are truly head-twisting. just because i happen to favor expansion shouldn’t mean that i should face demonization and/or infantilization.
in addition, i think columbia is doing an admirable job including mixed use space into the manhattanville plan. parkspace, expanded sidewalks, and basically the entirety of the plan’s street-levels devoted to community and retail space? or what about the 150m that the community board voted against? or what about the community school? what about job retraining? HONESTLY this is unheard of at harvard, penn, fordham, or any other urban university expansion project.
and thank you for making me realize that i really do care quite a lot about urban planning.
@13. we’re talking Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” here, come on, Contemporary Civ! basic stuff.
@... wow neat, second in a series of photos of morningside heights on bwog with the 45 degree angle perspective that makes the scene look like something out of sim city. (1st was nussbaum + firetrucks)
@One last try There was a plan that was community approved called the 197 a plan that would have allowed columbia to meet the majority of its space needs, but they ignored it and the decades of work the community board and the Pratt institute donated to its creation. Their logic, according to Bollinger, is that this is a local issue, and we’re a Gloabal University. Well, surely he’s consistent with that position, and surely you echo his sentiments in your post. But please don’t tell me that acting local to affect the plight of at least 1000 soon-to-be displaced residents of Manhattanville means that I think any less globally or long-term than you do.
@and more what do the scegs think will happen to manhattan after 2030 anyways? its 2030!
at that time, most of us will have had a more than 7 jobs/a marriage or three/2.5 kids including the step kid/an electric hydrogen fuel cell volvo station wagon/and a greenified, efficient, solarpaneled suburban mcmansion. others will have taught internationally, done peace corps, lived in a commune, and discovered a solution to our energy crisis. seriously sceg, this is the way you want to spend your college years. obama didnt start community organizing by tearing down and standing in front of big institutions but rather helped to get schoolchildren what they needed, and better conditions for those mired in PUBLIC housing.
and what of the displaced residents of manhattanville? the kids that grew up there will have graduated college, or will have moved and gotten a future. the parents likely will have moved into somewhere more accessible (how many 70 year olds do you know live in 6 story walk-ups???). the young professionals will have had raises and moved out. and those people who could have moved out long ago, might have done so already. if you’re talking about displacement, its funny how the only people complaining truly are those with a capital/business stake in the area, Nick, or the Gas Station people.
manhattan is a dynamic city and with it comes continual change. manhattanville acutally had a shipping dock back in the day. no residents lived there!
and this urban jungle we call manhattan was once a leafy one still in the 1600’s.
if manhattanville’s land goes to educational institutions why not? and why is it that columbia gets so much more complaint than City College, or Fordham? is it because we represent more than education? rather SCEG is just an outcry against an elite university or privilege?
if it is about more than manhattanville, for sure there are better ways to protest privilege than by backing up Tuck it Away storage and The Hess Gas Station and Mart (Transporting Gas to an Island is impractical and a shortlived energy solution anyways).
augh. done procrastinating for finals.
@the silent majority I support the expansion. I don’t support oppression — but this isn’t oppression.
Look guys, change happens. The only constant in the world is change. Commenter #14 has got it.
@if i translate correctly, you’re saying that sceg is able to appear to be in the majority because of the absence of any pro-expansion group. I also hear you saying that SCEG is winning via some contagious mob-mentality. I suppose it follows that whether you are right or wrong will never be known unless said counter group is formed. I wouldn’t hold my breath though. The mob has spoken and they sre in fsvor of an eqqitable expansion. It’s no accident that a counter group hasn’t formed.
@actually I think a pro-expansion group would be beneficial for discourse.
If anything, these SCEG mobsters/communists are getting too much of a mob-mentality thing through. Their voices are heard, but not really representative of the–until a group forms, silent–majority
@I'm Positively Sure You’re right. Ivy league people who get together and talk about how much they hate poor people and say things like “who gives a rat’s ass about affordable housing” sound incredibly fun and friendly. I’m sure they would be able to organize a pro-expansion group if the wanted to. They just don’t have to… Except that it would go a long way to lending credibility to “their cause.” (term used loosely).
To wit: name one group besides the College Repubicans who you think would actually issue a statement in favor of the expansion.
@... for being part of the “fun and friendly” anti-expansionists, you’re quite bitter
@anonymous Almost all of us want the expansion. Because we all know, deep down, that the poor people who live in Harlem on our tax dollars (on mine at least – maybe most of you don’t pay taxes yet) are SCARY and we want to get rid of them.
@I'm pretty sure that the administration doesn’t need a student support group for its expansion. People can support actions without organizing– did we have a student group organized to support the new science building? Not that I recall.
There’s always a very vocal minority opinion on campus (see hunger strike) and a large majority that either doesn’t care enough or, in this case, accepts the university’s position.
… and I’m sure that the lack of an organized group in support is definitely NOT because the people opposed to SCEG et al. aren’t “fun and friendly.”
@really? I’m sick of hearing these socialist self-righteous pricks complain. The university needs to expand, the university has money. Whether you like it or not, it’s going to happen. This is the real world; people act selfishly. The university is just trying to do what’s in its best interests. Also… who gives a rat’s ass about affordable housing. Tell me one reason why it would make sense for the university to build housing that they could never recoup the cost of? SCEG essentially wants the university to build a slum in the middle of a campus (they want housing that is “affordable in the context of the community” i.e. new housing in what will be a good neighborhood at current piss poor rents.) Yeah. That makes sense.
@Obama seems pretty clear… either staynuetral-positive on the great work SCEG is doing, or join the ranks of this guy, who, in his own words, doesn’t give a rat’s ass about affordable housing. This is a perfect example of why there isn’t a single organized group on campus that supports the expansion; because, honestly, who could stand to be in the same room once a week with this guy? SCEG seems friendly and fun, and don’t seem to take themselves so seriously, which is probably why they continue to grow.
@designer Sigh, come on SCEG. Couldn’t you bother to spend $50 on a pretty website?
@Anonymous I have nothing relevant to say,I was just making sure that I am not colorblind.
@Hahah The people who oppose Manhattanville aren’t exactly the wealthiest members of the community. I think Columbia will get by without the annual pittance that one of its alumni who majored in ethnic studies would be able to donate.
Just another reason why these people should get real jobs… money=power, and the anti-manhattanville crowd has neither.
@pbk bwog! phi beta kappa!! please!!!
@Anonymous This is like the Boston Tea party, only instead of throwing tea into the harbor we’re not throwing money into Columbia. So, it’s more like a reverse Boston Tea party where the British want us to throw away our tea and we’re not as a sign of protest.
@We should send teabags to the administration to protest!
Teabag Bollinger!