oh pretty please Mr. Mamdani

Oh Big Columbia,

Won’t you pretty please open up our once decorative gates

For the nurses at Mount Sinai

For the oldheads in the neighborhood who just have to cut through to the Subway station

For the family gatherings upon our lawns

For the baby chains which would bring me to tears as a freshman

For the dogs who will still remember the routes of their old walks

For the freshman, sophomores, and juniors, who have never known Columbia as anything but an exclusive city on a hill, a swipe-in, a forced engagement with surveillence

For the prospective student who happens to be in New York City, who seeks to walk through, but must instead take sad photos from behind looming, black gates

The Columbia I first fell in love with at 16 hasn’t felt right and open since I was 18. I am 21 now, a senior

The class of 2027 would dearly appreciate the permanent re-opening of the gates. It just makes sense. It is just. It is right. We have operated as a gated city within a city for three long years now, to the detriment of our integrity and reputation amongst our neighbors. For all that is good,

Open

The

Gates.

Header via Bwog Archives