kkRemember when to gather signatures for a petition you had to stand around with a clipboard accosting strangers on the street? Web-based petitions have done away with all the discomfort, and now rallying support for a cause is as easy as setting up a letter on one of the several petition sites and watching the number grow.

The latest one we’re aware of (after these two) urges the City Council to deny the University’s 197-C plan (the one with lots of big shiny buildings) for Manhattanville until it satisfactorily reflects the Community Board’s 197-A plan (the one with affordable housing and light manufacturing). At last count, it’s up to 188 signatures, although the whole “student petition” moniker may be slightly inaccurate. That’s the problem with online activism–harder to keep the wackos out.

Read our midsummer Manhattanville roundup here, and relatively jargon-free testimony on the 197-A plan here.

– LBD