by Owen Harkness The Empire State Development Corporation began the public portion process of enforcing eminent domain to allow the 17 acre development of a West Harlem expansion of Columbia University. The development of the 7 billion dollar plan has been in the works for some time and the announcement of the second blight study of the area took many by surprise, including State Senator Bill Perkins, the main opponent of the project. Avi Schick, the ESDC President, unveiled another piece of critical information in the debate on the new expansion. In addition to the blight study, conducted by Earth Tech, Inc Mr Schick also announced a new set of concessions that Columbia is making in order to ease the process. Columbia has informed the ESDC that it will make 20 million dollars available to the community for “development initiatives” and a further 1 million dollar award to CUNY. A mobile dental health center and an endowment for increased undergrad scholarships was made available, as well. The concessions made by Columbia are, in the words of Mr. Schick, “...to make sure this was one neighborhood, once community.” These concessions, along with the second blight study, caught many by surprise, and created a firestorm among board meeting attendees. Senator Perkins claims that this is the first he has heard of the second blight study, and seemed rather offended that he had made comments to the Sun about needing a second study, after the results were already in. Senator Perkins read Mr. Schick the riot act about his alleged failure to provide the necessary information to the Senator. President Schick defended his actions, claiming that in meetings between the two, the issue had been discussed. Of course, this comes after the failed attempt by the ESDC to appeal the issuance of a second study, done by AKRF, and the ESDC claimed a conflict of interest, since AKRF has been retained by Columbia to provide an environmental study of the area.
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