It looks the one of the landowners under the threat of eminent domain in New York City’s Manhattanville (aka West Harlem) neighborhood has a blog about his fight. Check out My Land is Mine, with posts by Nick Sprayregen, owner of Tuck-It-Away, a self storage facility threatened with condemnation to allow Columbia University to expand its Morningside Heights campus northward. The Empire State Development Corporation, the entity actually doing the taking, asserts the neighborhood is “blighted,” and Sprayregen and another property owner have sought court review.
I used to live in and frequent that neighborhood when I was attendingColumbia Law, and even rented a small locker at the BroadwayTuck-It-Away facility. The neighborhood did not fit a classic definitionof “blighted” then — nearly 16 years ago — and has appeared to become even more gentrified in the interim. The property owners contesting the blight designation claim that the designation is the result of collusion between the ESDC and the developer.
The blog contains posts with the owner’s thoughts and published op-eds, key pleadings, and links to media reports. We’ve posted about the issue here.