Amid Protests, Columbia U. Clears a Hurdle to Move into West Harlem

The City Planning Commission in New York overwhelmingly approved Columbia University’s plan to expand into West Harlem amid raucous protests from residents, Newsday reports.

The university is planning to construct an arts, business, and science campus in the area, and may use eminent domain to acquire properties it doesn’t already own in the area. Residents and preservationists, who are worried that the expansion will gentrify the neighborhood, sang protest songs at the meeting.

“The record of this commission is that their allegiance is only to other wealthy people,” Michael Henry Adams, an architectural historian, told Newsday. “I guess the rest of us can just go to hell and die.”

The plan now goes to the City Council. The protesters vowed to continue to fight.