Columbia continues its war on property rights:

Columbia University cleared a major hurdle on Thursday in its effort to expand its campus into Manhattanville when state officials voted to approve the project, opening the door for the use of eminent domain to allow the university to acquire land from holdout owners.
Columbia already owns most of the 17-acre expansion zone in the largely industrial neighborhood in western Harlem, where the university’s $6.28 billion expansion plan would build a new campus over the next 25 years.
The vote, by the board of directors of the Empire State Development Corporation at its offices in Midtown, came after two hours of impassioned testimony against the plan by more than two dozen people, including residents, local business owners and their lawyers.