Columbia has overstayed its welcome in Harlem

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Universities tend to overstep their place in the communities they occupy with little regard for the people. This results in the redevelopment and overpricing of houses, and overall degradation of an environment that held valuable history and culture.

Harlem is experiencing this — the socioeconomic makeup of the city is changing at a rapid pace and Columbia University is complicit. The historic cultural capital of Black America looks much different today than in previous decades and as a Columbia University senior, I’ve witnessed those changes.

The recent move by Columbia students and tenant organization The United Front Against Displacement to protest the gentrification of their city and implementation of the university’s Co-Designing Smart Cities course — referred to as Re-designing Harlem — is testimonial to the institution’s continuous disregard for its surrounding Black communities. This course’s initiative is to transform the Harlem community to an environment more suitable for wealthy capitalists where students are taught to employ “smart” surveillance technologies on Harlem residents. This course includes few students or professors from the Harlem community and lacks real input from the common people of Harlem.

It is ironic for an institution like Columbia to claim to have so much support for people who come from similar communities they displace and destroy. Even with Columbia’s Global Core requirement, which mandates classes on non-Western cultures and civilization, there is a sense of erasure and white supremacy being shoved down our throats.

Although many would consider the redevelopment of the Harlem community to be beneficial, the question of which groups benefit at the expense of local residents and a historically developed culture remains.

In a statement, Columbia University’s spokesperson stated that the course is where students work within the district to research community challenges, develop strategies to address them and suggest recommendations to stakeholders.

“Being adaptive and responsive to community needs is an important part of public policy and students work alongside the Harlem community as partners and collaborators. We think this direct engagement is mutually beneficial to both our students and the Harlem community,” the spokesperson said.

Stephanie Zaso | Design Editor

But the once crumbling housing complexes of Harlem are being replaced by luxurious new condominiums with price points far too high for the average resident. Even though there has been an increase in available rental units across all four sections of Harlem, the median asking rent rose between the first and second quarters of 2022, leaving residents unable to afford any sort of local housing. The number of condo developments has increased significantly — one does not even have to walk along all of Harlem to notice this. Along the infamous 125th street and towards the East side, the strip of stores that used to be primarily mom and pop shops owned by locals in the area are being replaced by large corporations like H&M and Starbucks. This only grows as Columbia expands with no regard for its consequences on residents.

This is evident in my hometown of Syracuse, NY. Syracuse’s infamous I-81 viaduct is a perfect example of Syracuse’s history of displacing Black residents. The highway was built straight through the 15th Ward to allow fast travel to the residential areas, causing approximately 1,300 families to be moved to make room for its construction. A once thriving community existed was disturbed for an interstate who’s necessity is once again being debated.

And in Jan. 2022, the city planned to invest $800 million towards “ending public housing” and transforming the 15th ward, a predominantly Black neighborhood which houses over 4,000 residents. The city has offered to relocate residents to another public housing unit in the city or provide Section 8 vouchers anywhere across the country.

The issue of resident displacement in Syracuse is not new. Kennedy Square, located on the eastside, was a low-income housing project building that was demolished for the sake of “redevelopment”. Residents are very skeptical of this project, especially given the history of the city’s plans to redevelop low-income neighborhoods. Relocating the residents will not alleviate the uncertainty and fear they feel. Residents will have to get adjusted to a new environment that may not always ensure a sense of safety and security.

This is not the first time people have come together to call out the school. In 1968, a protest was held on the Columbia campus, a first of many to combat the policies of a large institution through mobilization and organizing. Students gathered around the Columbia University Memorial Sundial to protest the university’s complicity in the Vietnam War effort and their relationship to the surrounding Harlem community, specifically in response to the school’s attempt to build a gym in Morningside Park, a meaningful place for Harlem residents.

Many Black Harlem natives are now relocating to southern cities for affordable housing. As a Black student who goes to Columbia, this experience made me feel a sense of disillusionment with the “activism” and care the university claims to have for Black, Indigenous, people of color and low-income students like myself. As this research continues, I now wonder what more Black students could do to counter the actions of this institution and incite the political change necessary to improve, rather than impede on the socioeconomic conditions of Black residents in Harlem.

Mazen Alsafi, is a senior majoring in Sociology & African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University. He can be reached at mazenalsafi1@gmail.com