The baby blue of Columbia versus the flamboyant purple of NYU. Or, if you’re NBC New York, the forest green of Columbia vs. the baby blue of NYU.  Color issues aside, the station is hosting a collegiate version of its “Golden Local” series. The results of the poll decide which school will theoretically receive the honor of “the world’s first human trophy” (NBC’s version of a local, as seen above wearing a golden blazer and matching golden Converse sneakers).

Columbia is currently in the lead, but there’s no time to waste, folks. Past polls have dethroned such institutions as Grey’s Papaya (loser in the “best hot dogs” category) and McSorely’s (“best old bars”), so the inherent obviousness of the decision may not survive the internet.  Get voting, make sure to find the “Skip this ad” button in the upper left corner afterward, and bring some of that local, authentic, ski-hat-with-aviators flavor up to Morningside. He’s sure to be the hottest thing on campus since Sir Michael’s mixtapes.

Image via morningside-heights.net

The poor, defenseless buildings of Morningside are under siege from the ravenous monster that is Columbia University.

Or so local residents would have us believe.  More than a decade ago, locals petitioned the Landmarks Preservation Commission to protect Morningside Heights (which includes a large number of older buildings with their original architectural styles) as a historical district; a “sustained, exuberant, cogent expression of the American Renaissance,” they wrote, obviously for some kind of coursework.

The New York Times has an update as to the status of that battle, fluffed with some fascinating local history.  Somewhere in city offices, the 200-plus-page document is sitting in a dusty corner next to your thesis, a “Pending” stamp across the cover.  The article begs for your pity with pictures of dilapidated, soon-to-be-demolished buildings labeled “threatened brownstones.”

Columbia of course did not respond to the heartstring tugs: though PrezBo declined to comment, spokesman Robert Hornsby said that a designation is “unnecessary” because Columbia has been a “steward” of preservation. Far more importantly, though, in Bwog’s view, it might set back dorm renovations, and that just can’t happen.

Two years ago, we at Bwog lost the U.S. News and World Report‘s “Paper Trail” blog’s Best [Campus] Alternative Media Outlet poll to Wesleyan after some crotchety commenters lampooned their granola-eating ways and they retaliated en masse. We lost last year, too.

This year, we have another foe: Yale. That’s right, now you have the chance to reject them.

What makes this battle even more worth fighting is that the Yale blog is based out of one single residential college. That’s like a blog for Wien (albeit a beautiful, wonderful Wien with its own library and cafeteria) winning this whole contest. Egregious. And while we lower our lances at Yale, we also set our sights at Penn State. You may have an undergrad population of six million, but we have the fervor to best you.

Vote now, vote on multiple computers, whatever it takes. You have until midnight on February 17th. Do it for Bwog, because we’d do it for you.

Despite Zuckerberg’s victory earlier today with the cancellation of the BandW Bwog Facebook profile, the Blue and White/the Bwog has triumphantly returned to Zuckerberg’s fiefdom in the guise of Verily Veritas. Befriend away, good soldiers. 

UPDATE 11:15 PM: Zuckerberg’s empire strikes back! Veritas killed in battle! Bwog is gathering its forces, and storm clouds are setting in. The time has come for the dominion of men! A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight!

OK not really. But LOTR looks almost fitting at 11:30 on a Sunday.