New York City recently approved the university’s extensive expansion into Harlem. Real estate attorney Michael White accuses Columbia of using “the threat of eminent domain … quite as destructively as eminent domain itself.” Few understand, he writes

that a private owner who covets the property of another can, outside the scrutiny of the public eye, start the condemnation process by writing a check to the self-funding government agency — to finance costs, including government staff salaries — so that agency will put together materials advancing the condemnation. In that vein, Columbia University, interested in acquiring a swath of West Harlem, wrote a $300,000 starter check to [NewYork’s Empire State Development Corporation ] in 2004, years before any public hearings. (The New York Sun)

Christina Walsh of the Institute for Justice excoriates New York officialdom:

Worldwide, New York City is regarded as a beacon of hope and endless opportunity. Yet it routinely uses eminent domain for private gain.This sends a message, loud and clear, that in the Big Apple, the American dream is subject to the whims of a tax-hungry government and land-hungry developers.
Private-property rights shouldn’t depend on where you live or whether your land could make more money as something bigger and newer – or, in this case, whether you happen to own property that a prestigious, wealthy university wants.