Mythsmasher: Columbia University Obtains Eminent Domain Land Grab in Harlem By Richard Cooper

First published by GroundReport and reprinted with express permission. 

As reported in my alma mater Columbia University's newspaper, Columbia Daily Spectator, the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) unanimously voted to authorize seizure by eminent domain of two commercial properties in New York City's Manhattanville section (also known as West Harlem). As a Libertarian activist for property rights and a Columbia alumnus, I find this doubly disheartening but not surprising. To see the ESDC side with powerful businesses and institutions is to see the norm.

Gas stations owned by the Singh family and a storage facility owned by Nick Sprayregen (pictured), also owner of Rising Publications' Yonkers-based Home News & Times weekly newspaper, will be taken by legalized theft at the expense of the taxpayer. The ESDC was politically smart in leaving out the residential properties. Businesses as such do not vote.


The Columbia Daily Spectator article above quotes Harlem politician Bill Perkins who correctly describes the issue "'If I give you my money after you put a gun to my head, that doesn’t mean I voluntarily gave you the money,' State Senator Bill Perkins said, implying that residents would leave the area against their will due to the effects of the expansion. “The word voluntary is perhaps not the appropriate way to ask that question.'" I wish he would be consistent about this when it comes to coercing the taxpayer into funding the welfare state measures he supports. But if you want consistency, vote Libertarian.


Quite aside from the troubled relationship the university has had with its neighbors, the land grab shows the notions that Libertarians regard as fallacious: legalized theft by eminent domain; the state as an initiator or facilitator of economic development; state economic and urban planning; and the entanglement of the state with education. 


Previously, I was joined by other Columbia Libertarian alumni in condemning Columbia's deceitful policy of land condemnation in Harlem. As is usual with such schemers, they denied they intended to use eminent domain, "except as a last resort." 


"Columbia University Eminent Domain In Harlem Condemned By Libertarian Alumni"


In New York we saw the New York Times grab an entire city block for its headquarters in the eminent domain scheme I called "Time$cam: New York Times Building Climbers Protest Wrong." 


 New York City is moving to hand over property from one owner to another in Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards and Queen's Willets Point sections. Across upstate New York is the NYRI, New York Regional Interconnect electric power transmission line. This is a a worldwide phenomenon with widespread abuse in China. "Female Chinese Land Seizure Protesters Stripped Naked and Jailed ."


The philosophy of Columbia's President Lee Bollinger and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, like that of their minions and cronies must be confronted and exposed in the schools, the election campaigns and the media. What is needed is to embrace the philosophy of individual liberty, personal responsibility, free markets and private property rights. Only then can the residents and businesses of Harlem, New York, America and the world be truly safe from legalized theft.

Richard Cooper is a international trade executive with a manufacturing firm on Long Island, New York, USA. He is active in the Libertarian Party  on eminent domain and other issues. He was chair of the Libertarian Party of New York.

Comments

this is funny....the topic here about CU taking over and entire area of Harlem about 17 acrea large. Who Just bought 18 plus properties in the downtown of Yonkers which is has begun redeloping about 16 acrea of its own waterfront? Who is fighting "BLIGHT" designations in Harlem by CU in order to keep his business? Who has bought 18 plus properties which remain BLIGHTED in all appearences like the properties on 12 ave & 125th st and and cause for them to be knowcked down is that they ar not meeting the Highest & best use for them? The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife on this one...I gueess passing the buck in Yonkers is the norm and what else would I expect from this place. Eventhough I dont agree with emminent domain, I definitly don't agree with Nick Spreyregan walzting into Yonkers downtown in & around Main st, the main thorough far of the redevelopment & the city just ALLOWS this to happen with an open ended time frame and pretty much addmittedly No Plan whatsoever for the properties.

Great, lets just sit on all the prime RE for the next 20 yrs and in the mean time let's invite the hookers, the drugs dealers & drug addicts back to the HOOD for some entertainment at least....I I forgot, the Sharing community can provide us with that already.

Thank Yonks

I don't have a problem with Mr Sprayegen buying up real estate. It's a free country. He's making his deals fair and square. When it comes time for him to do something, he has to submit plans like everybody else for community review and approvals.

whoops, I mispelled his name, it's Sprayregen

Condem city hall!!!

To the first Poster:
Everyone in Downtown Yonkers knows its been a hostage situation for years and this so called development has brought little or no value-- except to developers.

But hey-- let’s dance on Main Street!!!

Businesses need to have good business plans and not rely on potential development. If it comes, it comes, but in the meantime, don't put all your eggs in one basket, if a business survives in this economy whether on Central Avenue, Downtown, or on South Broadway, it has to have a good plan, good food, or a good product and good warmth and personality with customers, if you don't have it your doomed to failure from the start and are delusional.

No major operator has wanted or will come to downtown untill the thret's of blight and condemnation are removed.

[CU Alum]

Calling this "legalized theft" glosses over the fact that the owners will be paid market value for their properties. There are legitimate arguments that this should not be permitted, so there is no need to call the process something it isn't.

Worse yet, the claim that this transaction will come "at the expense of the taxpayer" is simply false. Columbia will buy the properties from the state at the same price the state pays to get them. The university is also reimbursing the state for its expenses in the transaction and in considering the use of eminent domain. The taxpayers will thus get all their money back.

Business plans don't plan for an open ended time frame. Yonkers simply doesn't know how to get things done. It never has. Why is Yonkers not developed at this point in time and why are people not irate about it? In this day knocking on 2009, Yonkers has never ___ever___ EVER planned for much of a future. City planners, I didn't even know we had them here. What have they planned that is in the "fruition" period?
Yonkers roads, road systems,,schools, open spaces & parks, and the Epi-center of the city is a Pee Pee laden-do do factory. Our for-fathers left us with a bag of crap and we sit with it in our laps like its ok.
Our politcal system needs planning, our beurocracy needs overhauling and cleansing.
We Do business like it's 1970 and that's shameful...If we judge our own friends & family by the same standards of expectations and being able to create a good enough future for themselves, why is A city any different?
We have no expectations of Yonkers becaseue they have dissapointed us time & time again.
Planning takes proactive minds and thinkers. Not hacks with politcal aspirations & close ties to the politcal elite.

Who decides market value. Whats it worth after the city condems it? The value is decided after it is already devalued by the city takeing it!! If an owner doesn't want to sell his property who the hell are these polititions to decide that your friends project is worth more than the OWNERS! These projects are not hospitals roads or PUBLIC anything, the TAX argument is a joke most of the time there are so many "rebates" the city never see's any money. The only one who benefits are the developers! The people hurt are the ones who were there first and worked there whole lives to have it taken away!!!

Sprayregan is hoarding real estate in the downtown with no plan to build. He is killing Yonkers, and he doesn't care. He puts a paper out to provide positive PR, but allows the downtown building he owns to remain stagnant. Don't be fooled by him. He is a opportunist who cares nothing about the future of Yonkers.

640 got it right
No business plan is worth the paper it is written on when the political system is full of open ended promises, untold agendas, and back door deals. It’s the same as standing on quicksand. City hall needs a complete overhaul or to be shut down.

Obviously shut down is not an option, I think if this politicians really saw the people of this city had some teeth and come fight in them, they would be shit scared. The peeople are disorganized and not coordinated and politicians love that....divide & conquer is the easiest way to set agendas that wont work for anyone but their own. WE the people of the united states...remember that one?

The divisions in Yonkers are generated by disenfranchising the majority of the population and the power base is generated by patronage and unions.

The declaration of independence is more appropriate :)

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