Skip to main content

Featured Post

Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park FAQ, timeline, and infographics (pinned post)

Manifest destiny, in West Harlem and Prospect Heights

From a New York Times profile today of Nick Sprayregen, the winning (so far) main plaintiff in the challenge to eminent domain for the Columbia University expansion:
He pulled out a copy of the inaugural address by Columbiaā€™s president, Lee C. Bollinger, in 2002, and read several passages. In one, Mr. Bollinger described the universityā€™s need to expand and said, ā€œI will do everything in my power to build this new Columbia.ā€

ā€œThat almost sounds like itā€™s coming from a religious figure,ā€ Mr. Sprayregen said. ā€œDo they think this is fallow land with no one on it, and theyā€™re settlers and there are a bunch of illiterate Indians here and itā€™s their God-given responsibility to tame us and take control?ā€
It also sounds a lot like Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner's statement, upon the December 2003 announcement of the AY plan: "We are going to get the Nets to Brooklyn if itā€™s the last thing I do."

Comments