43 CommentsThis morning, CU Pub Safe sent out email and text notifications that a man was shot in the leg on Amsterdam between 119th and 120th late last night at around 3 am. The man was not affiliated with Columbia and was taken to St. Luke’s with non-life-threatening injuries. The shooter fled into Morningside Park. NYPD is investigating.
We’ll update this spot if any more information becomes available, but at this time this is all that’s available. Stay safe and stay cool.
Update, 4:45 pm: A woman who lives in the neighborhood emailed Public Safety to complain about Amsterdam Lounge, which is in the area of the shooting. James McShane, the head of Public Safety, replied to her email from his iPad and accidentally cc’d everyone at Columbia. This is why you should never reply-all.
Dear Alice,
Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding the Amsterdam Tavern. I am forwarding your e-mail to the appropriate persons in the Facilities organization.
All the best,
Jim McShane
Sent from my iPad
On Jul 20, 2013, at 2:46 PM, “Alice Bednarchik” [email redacted] wrote:
Dear Sir or Madam,
Did this incident take place anywhere near the nightclub located in the “Amsterdam Restaurant and Tapas Lounge” located at 1207 Amsterdam Avenue between W. 119th Street and W. 120th Street? If so, may we reiterate that this nightclub continues to be a sore point in the Columbia community. Those of us at [address redacted] as well as other residential buildings in the immediate neighborhood are subjected to loud raucous behavior until 3:00 or 4:00 and sometimes later in the morning on nights the nightclub is in operation. Many of us are roused out of a deep sleep by this noise and many of us cannot get back to sleep as a result.
Bottom line, how does Columbia University intend to deal with this serious situation and take care of its community in this matter?
Sincerely yours,
Alice M. Bednarchik
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43 Comments
@Anonymous <script>console.log(“i’m vulnerable to script injection”)</script>
@comp sci TA incorrect, 5 points off
@Anonymous console.log(‘I’m vulerable to script injection’);
@Anonymous Bwog, please update this site. You posted like two stories since May. Even Spec puts up a few stories a week.
@wtf Is up with all these ads on the sidebars? Really fucking annoying
@huh Is she affiliated with Columbia whatsoever? How did she even get this email?
@Anonymous She emailed the great and powerful Columbia to solve all of her personal problems. She probably also complained that Columbia is taking over the neighborhood.
@Anonymous Please change “shot” to “grazed in the foot.”
@if we send an email to that list... … do we email everyone at Columbia? That would be cool.
@Anonymous Bars and restaurants are allowed to stay open until 4 am in New York City.
@Alum That’s the legal limit. A lease can require an earlier closing time. Many do.
@Anonymous is she married to Michael Tuts (“phillip michael tuts”) the physics professor? her email address makes me wonder that
@Anonymous Altho I agree with her, why is she emailing Columbia about a private neighborhood club that has absolutely nothing to do with Columbia University? Does she want Columbia to police the neighborhood and choose what estabishments should be there?
@Alum It’s in a building Columbia owns. The lease may include limits on operating hours and/or noise.
@Anonymous I am not sure that is a Columbia building. And, Columbia cannot restrict tennents businesses.
@Alum Commercial leases routinely restrict what the business can and cannot do. If the lease says the business has to close by a particular time, then it has to close by a particular time. If it doesn’t state a closing time but gives Columbia authority to impose one, the Columbia can impose one. That’s how leases work. The tenant agreed to its terms, so making it honor those terms is fair.
Maybe this particular lease doesn’t limit the restaurant’s hours. I don’t know one way or the other. But your claim that landlords can never do such things is quite mistaken.
@I feel good That Jim McShane handles public safety business from his iPad. I’m not even being sarcastic, and I know it’s weird, but it just makes me feel happy!
@dear sir or madam what?? How could she possibly think “James” is a woman’s name?
This along with the tone of her email –
She seems very strange…
@actually original email was signed “CU Public Safety”
@SEAS '15 Alice hears about a shooting via email. First reaction? Complain about her beauty sleep. What.
@aw, that's a little unfair some of us aren’t nocturnal, and only have the hours between midnight and 7 or 8 am to sleep. I lived under a frat and next to a sorority last year and I eventually had to stop sleeping in my own room because they made so much noise.
@uhmmm have you heard of ear-plugs?
@seriously i hate the people that complain about frat houses.. you chose to live next to a frat in return for cheaper rent. deal with it or live somewhere else
@Anonymous 1. No I did not choose to live next to a frat for cheaper housing. I lived in a dorm, and found out only once I moved in that I’d be living under a group of assholes who’d turn the music on 3 and 4 in the morning on full blast and walk out. I know this because my suitemate knocked on their door to ask them to turn it down, the door was open and no one was home and she turned the music off herself.
And even if I had, that wouldn’t absolve anyone of a sense of social responsibility. Party till 12 , 1 or 2, fine, but beyond that, be considerate and turn it the fuck down a little.
2. There is only so much ear plugs will shut out. Music, yes, Stomping, not so much.
@Anonymous Can we just note for a moment that she was complaining to Columbia about a club unrelated to the school and asking when Columbia is going to do something about lowering crime rates in the neighborhood?
I mean, I know we’ve got money, but I didn’t know we owned the police department.
@Anonymous but Columbia probably does own the building, hence they are sort of responsible
@Alum Columbia owns that building. Aside from the old pump house, it owns all the buildings from 118th to 120th, between Amsterdam and Morningside. And I believe it has an option on the pump house.
@Anonymous Columbia does NOT own all the buildings on Amsterdam. It does not own the building right on the corner of 119th and Amsterdam.
@Alum Columbia does own the building on the north side of the street. The one on the south is the pump house. I already said Columbia doesn’t own that one. It owns all the other buildings on both of those blocks.
Here’s a map of the buildings Columbia owns in Morningside Heights, which supports what I said earlier. http://www.manhattan-institute.org/email/assets/images/0404_06L.jpg (The map is several years old. Columbia has acquired some more property since then. But it hasn’t sold any.)
@Alum There are two buildings at that intersection. The one on the south side is the pump house, which I’ve already said Columbia doesn’t own. Columbia does own the apartment building on the north side of the intersection.
@Oops Next thing we know, James McShane will start vandalizing statues to justify his campus-wide surveillance program. Or something like that.
@Anonymous THE GREATER GOOD
@ugh Bwog, you’re so hip with your fancy abbreviations like Pub Safe. Are you sure you don’t want to have a contest for idiotic nicknames of every campus organization for future coverage?
@kill yourself
@ugh I’m glad that you’re working to elevate the level of the discourse in Bwog comments.
@kill you’re saying this sarcastically, i get you
@Her Signature Had her address and apartment number in it.
Let’s just hope she doesn’t have any Columbia affiliated enemies…
@Al Roker The original email had everything on Alice.
her address
her phone number
her age 57
and hell even her social
@Anonymous Bwog can you report on how James McShane forwarded a noise complaint from a resident to the entire university?
@Anonymous @Anonymous:
Dude chill. Email is hard when you’re stoned.
@sure that the person is not affiliated with the university?
@Yes Did anyone else feel that their use of “non affiliate” implied something?
@Anonymous yes actually, “not a student or professor at columbia”