A Community Coming Together

On Monday evening, I left my office building on W 72nd street and trekked to the subway where I took the train up to 125th street. From there, I walked the 8 blocks up to the Renaissance Housing Projects. Out in front of this housing community's heart, the community center, a line of people of all ages, colors, backgrounds and sizes was forming. The mass of people were all waiting to be let into a community hearing on the 197-A plan developed by Manhattanville Community Board 9. This plan is meant to serve as a framework to guide decisions about the way in which the community will grow and change in the coming future years. The 197-A plan has taken many years to develop and includes initiatives to promote business growth which is environmentally friendly, increase the amount of low-income housing available to residents, create conditions to generate more long term jobs, preserving historic buildings which are important to the culture of Harlem, and outlaw the use of eminent domain for private use of land (among other things). The 197-A plan is extremely important because it is being released just as Columbia (which developed a very different 197-C plan)is planning to utilize the power of eminent domain to seize ten blocks of residential area of Manhattanville to use to expand Columbia's campus and build the largest biotechnology facility in the world. The residents of Manhattanville came together and united in opposition to such a plan by strongly voicing their support of 197-A and requesting that Columbia change its plan to match up with the initiatives created by the people who live and work in Manhattanville. The residents act of uniting together signals that Harlem is sick of being infringed upon by powerful corporations and institutions. The people who live here (and desperately want to stay here) love their neighborhood and realize that if Columbia wins out and is able to seize the land for its personal use and expansion that even those living outside the immediate area will eventually be forced to leave as a result of soaring rent prices and overall exponential increases in cost of living. The community forum was one of the most moving experiences I have had to date in NYC because it illustrated the strength that can come from such a diverse community organizing together to present a united front.