Defend Harlem and Columbia Students protest Columbia and gentrification

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The New York Interfaith Commission for Housing Equity and Columbia University students are continuing their partnership to protest the school’s expansion in Harlem and the resulting displacement of residents. Students held a rally on Monday in front of the university gates, calling out the university.

“More students than ever are ready to stand behind Harlem in this fight and target the university in whatever ways we can. We cannot claim to be in solidarity with Harlem unless we answer its call right now,” one protester proclaimed during the rally on Sept. 30.

Dozens of students with the Columbia student organization Housing Equity Project (HEP) led the protest with chants of “Columbia open your eyes, Harlem is not yours to buy” and “No more corporate greed, Harlem knows what Harlem needs.” They also called out the university for not following through with the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) signed in 2009 between the school and the West Harlem Local Development Corporation. The contract was a pledge to invest more in the local Harlem community.

The student leaders have been working alongside the commission, which held an emergency community action meeting last month at the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church to share updates with supporters. After having received multiple letters to the university, Columbia agreed to meet with the commission, leaders said. The letters outline how the university has been “endangering the existence of the West Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood communities.” The first letter was sent in February with no response and the follow-up went out in July.

The commission began in 2010 and has recently built substantial support through its Defend Harlem social media campaign.

“Defend Harlem and the New York Interfaith Commission for Housing Equality have finally brought Columbia to the table after it ignored their letters for months. We must show up to demand that the university stop gentrifying Harlem and negotiate with them and Harlem residents in good faith,” one Instagram post read.

A flyer from the group said its official demands are for Columbia to: end the expansion and instead create a satellite campus away from Harlem; return the 125th Street waterfront and the Fairway properties to create more housing and economic opportunities for the community; make university real estate and property acquisitions public; renegotiate and extend the existing CBA; and appoint a Harlem community member to the Columbia board.

The commission’s executive board includes Dr. Charles A. Curtis, Dr. Dedrick L. Blue, Bishop James I. Clark, and more, representing several ministries in the Harlem community.

In his remarks at the meeting, Blue said Columbia has actively attempted to ignore the commission and is now trying to back out of the planned meeting that they “promised” to take part in.

“For them to ignore the community—it’s an outrage,” Blue said. “They agreed to sit down and now they act like they are reneging on the deal. We will not let them renege on the deal.”

In 2008, the Empire State Development Corporation gave Columbia the power to use eminent domain to acquire 200,000 square feet per year through the Columbia Education Mixed Use Development Land Use plan. Since then, the school has acquired up to 400,000 square footage in Harlem and Washington Heights.

Organizers shared a video detailing the history of Columbia’s encroachment on the Harlem community. which also highlighted the university apparently going back on their word not to buy the 125th Street Fairway properties. The area had previously been used as an economic engine for the Harlem on the Hudson program, established by the Harlem Urban Development Corporation before being shut down by Governor George Pataki in 1995, “leaving the community defenseless against the university’s aggressive development activities.”

In 2021, the commission met with Columbia representatives who said they were not interested in the Fairway area. However, less than a year later, the university purchased the property for $84 million, leading to the closure of the Fairway Supermarket.

Phase 2 of Columbia’s expansion is positioned to begin in 2030, and would push the Manhattanville campus up to 134th Street and eventually up to 165th Street in Washington Heights with the medical center.

Harlem leaders New York State Senator Cordell Cleare and Assemblymember Al Taylor co-sponsored SB9028A, which would repeal Columbia’s mixed use plan and prevent further projects.

Rebecca Carter, 20, and Hagen Feeney, 19, two of the student leaders with HEP, told the Amsterdam News that they are doing their part to educate and energize students about the issues and are willing to assist the commission in whatever ways they can.

“There are thousands of families who lived in Harlem for generations who will obviously be priced out if gentrification continues, and a lot of Harlem residents, including Defend Harlem, recognize how urgent the situation is,” Feeney said.

The organization has initiatives including providing food and mutual aid to those dealing with housing insecurity in the community.

“We have both responsibility and a very useful positionality to be like, ‘Hey, we are Columbia students who are saying that this is not what we want, that this is not what should be done,’ and that can be very helpful to reach a university that is so often very closed off to people it considers outsiders,” Carter said.

Students who are part of other activist groups, such as the Coalition for Divestment from Apartheid at Columbia, see a correlation between the displacement of Harlem residents and the situation of Palestine. One of that group’s central demands is the end of gentrification in Harlem, according to Carter.

“There’s a recognition that although Columbia has had a very troubling and horrific past in Harlem, that it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way, and that Columbia can invest a lot in the community and be a good, conscientious neighbor,” Feeney said, highlighting ways the university can offer spaces like studios and other resources for community members.

The student protesters shared the petition. Feeney said that the demonstration on Monday is not the end and more action will come.

“We really want to emphasize to Columbia that we as students and we as community members are not going to [take] displacement lightly, and we want them to stop,” Feeney said.