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Nick Sprayregen may be the loudest Manhattanville holdout, but he’s not the only one.
Meet Gurnam Singh, owner of two gas stations on 125th Street. He’s the other holdout to Columbia in Manhattanville, though he’s declined to speak publicly about the wrangling until this month.
In an exclusive with the New York Times published Sunday, Singh finally shares his side of the story after years of unsuccessful negotiations with Columbia. It’s a tale of immigrant success mixed with recent woe—Singh bought the stations in the 1980s after immigrating to the United States from India, but the past year has brought his family frustration, exhaustion, and one case of stress-induced shingles blisters.
Read the story for the full details. Also keep an eye out for a surprise cameo by Sprayregen, who Bwog speculates may possess a hotline phone to the NYT Metro desk.
– JYH
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@Huh Where’s the reaction? I was expecting apoplectic anti-manhattanville reactions to this post…
Overall it’s a great hit piece by the Times.
Sprayregen is a millionaire, but this family is just trying to make it in America. Columbia looks like absolute shit. Forget the residents who expect Columbia to bow to their every whim, here’s a guy who bought a business in the neighborhood when people got shot (in fact his brother was shot and killed at a gas station they owned in Queens). This is a PR disaster… if any of you bothered to notice.
Lastly I leave with this prescient observation from a 2004 Spec Column: “I am sure that Columbia has been completely inept in dealing with its neighbors, because it’s inept in dealing with most of its students.” http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/42777