Harlem State Senator Cordell Cleare’s Letter To Columbia President Minouche Shafik

On Friday, July 12th, 2024, Harlem senator Cordell Cleare wrote a letter to President Minouche Shafik regarding the “Manhattanville project.”

Dear President Minouche Shafik,

I write this letter on behalf of a coalition of elected officials, and community stakeholders to call for a public meeting where our concerns can be addressed and a new deal be negotiated.  

I have read your statement regarding my and Assemblyman Taylor’s NYS bills S.9028 and A09944. The statement includes several discrepancies and falls short of addressing the concerns of my bill and of the community. First and foremost, your statement claims that the “Manhattanville project has the strong support of local elected officials, community members, local residents, and many other longtime partners.” The Juneteenth Rally and this letter show you that that is not true.

Community groups such as The NY Interfaith Commission for Housing Equality, Save Harlem Now!, WEACT, and Riverside Church, as well as elected officials such as myself, Assemblyman Al Taylor, Assemblywoman Inez Dickens, Senator Robert Jackson, Borough President Mark Levine, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Councilmember Yusef Salaam, former congressman Charles Rangel, and scores of community members joined together to call for the halting of the Mixed Used Development Plan. Additionally, your claims of “daily engagement”  are a gross exaggeration as to the nature of your relationship with the community. The Interfaith Commission on Housing Equality sent you a letter back in February requesting a meeting which was never responded to. The community does not stand with Columbia in its detrimental expansion and demands greater transparency and consideration in the University’s actions. 

According to an attached report created by the Community Service Society based on American Community Survey data over the past decades; evictions and rent prices are on the rise, while affordable housing units and the Black and Latino populations have declined. The community is paying an astronomical cost as Columbia expands.  

The benefits that were provided by Columbia per the Community Benefits Agreement clearly were not enough to preserve the West Harlem community. The $170 million that Columbia promised to give out to the community for 25 years after the signing of the 2008 deal is just a fraction of what Columbia earns off of the new Manhattanville campus and the displacement of our constituents. The amount provided in the CBA was nowhere near enough to counteract Columbia’s historic displacement of Manhattanville and West Harlem Residents.  

Therefore, I request a reassessment of the terms of the Columbia Education Mixed Use Development General Project Plan and the Community Benefits Agreement. I am requesting a one-on-one meeting with you to discuss the issues raised here.  

Sincerely,  

Senator Cordell Cleare 

New York State Senator Cordell Cleare

New York State Senator Cordell Cleare was raised in Harlem and her family has lived there for four generations. Cleare is a product of the New York City public schools, including Brooklyn Technical High School.  Today, she is best known for her fight for Reparations, Truly Affordable Housing, Quality Schools & Equitable Education, Access to Healthy Foods as well as Economic, Environmental, Restorative and Racial Justice. She entered the New York State Senate on an express train from Upper Manhattan, bringing fresh ideas and legislative proposals to make New York, the state of the whole people. https://www.nysenate.gov/senators/cordell-cleare

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