<p>An interesting area on what Yale's been doing to reshape the area around its campus.</p>
<p>Best,
DMW</p>
<p>That sounds really neat. Slightly creepy (in a college-takes-over-town kind of way), but good because it serves the college students specifically but the whole town as well.</p>
<p>One question...why would Yale replace their own bookstore with a B&N? Was their bookstore that bad?</p>
<p>Anyways, I really want to visit New Haven now... (more so than I already did want to, that is)</p>
<p>alot of colleges have B&N affiliated bookstores. They're all realy tailored to the college (and mostly very nice!), so it has little effect that its actualy a B&N</p>
<p>New Haven is too hostile to Yale. They blame it for all their problems. U don't see that in Cambridge or Columbia(NY).</p>
<p>columbia's relationship with harlem (ahem, "morningside heights") is at least as bad as yale's with new haven, although the latter has been the one with the high-profile labor problems in recent years.</p>
<p>Mensa160--</p>
<p>"U don't see that in Cambridge or Columbia(NY)."</p>
<p>There has historically been a great deal of tension at Columbia and in Morningside Heights regarding its purchase of cheap land in Morningside Heights. An example of this is the 1968 campus shutdown at Columbia by the Students for a Democratic Society--a protest that began as an outcry against the university's land-purchasing practices and evolved into a protest against the university's involvement in and endorsement of the Vietnam Conflict.</p>
<p>For several years now, Yale has been making voluntary payments to the city for its academically-oriented properties, even though it's exempt from doing so by law.</p>
<p>The new police center doubles up as a community center and Yalies are active in community service around New Haven.</p>
<p>The problem is not as bad as you want to paint it; at the very least, Yale is not blind or innactive on improving relations with the city.</p>
<p>That article is inaccurate. Most of the development in New Haven is a result of private developers coming up from New York City or elsewhere and building million-dollar loft condominiums and luxury apartments. Dozens of expensive new restaurants and stores are opening all throughout the downtown area. The property values in downtown New Haven have literally quintupled over the past five years, and massive new developments are in the works. The other factor driving development in New Haven are young professionals and older couples who are leaving boring suburban areas throughout the region and moving into the city center to take advantage of cultural life, such as theaters, nightlife, walkable areas, parks and restaurants. Most young people in Connecticut now want to live in New Haven, and "reverse-commute" out to their jobs in suburban towns or other cities in the state. New Haven has more 18-24 and more 25-34 year olds than any other city in the state.</p>
<p>Yale's involvement with retail is limited to a couple of blocks immediately adjacent to the campus. In fact, Yale's properties have been fully-occupied for a number of years; the only new places would be where Yale built a new building with retail on the ground floor. The only change, which the article mentioned, was that a handful (maybe a half dozen) family-owned stores left because they did not want to stay open until 9p.m. every day. These were replaced mostly by other family-owned stores - the only "chain" stores are the ones mentioned in that article, like Urban Outfitters. Among other things, this helps make New Haven a much more unique and interesting college town than most of its counterparts. It's more like Ann Arbor or Madison.</p>
<p>Of course, Yale is involved in other ways with its home city (e.g., supporting "magnet schools" that are public schools which attract high school students from throughout the city and suburbs, giving Yale employees special funding to buy their own houses, etc.) The article was correct that New Haven has gentrified and is now a major destination, especially for college students and wealthy people, but I don't think that has much to do with Yale.</p>
<p>Regarding Columbia, it has much worse relations with its host neighborhood. Columbia has even threatened to use eminent domain to create its Manhattanville campus, even though as a private institution it has no right to. No such thing at Yale.</p>
<p>Um... depends on whether Columbia is facing the wrath of its neighbors or the local government. Because if the local government is on board, Columbia could likely get the eminent domain case pushed through, thanks to the Kelo vs. New London case, which expanded justifiable eminent domain claims from necessary public usage and development of "blighted" property to private development that would bring "appreciable benefits to the community."</p>
<p>Since this ruling is so recent, there haven't been many cases that test the limits of the New London case. As far as I understand it (limited, I know) it's possible that Columbia could manage to get possession of more neighborhood land from private owners if it could convince the local government that the public would prosper from it.</p>
<p>Whether any of this would be proper or not of Columbia is up for debate. But the New London case certainly opens the door to new possibilities.</p>
<p>Best,
DMW</p>
<p>Ahem, F.*ck Kelo. And I would lose all respect for Columbia if they ever did something like that.</p>
<p>hahahah, yeah, a lot of people share your sentiments on the case. I don't think I I like the ruling much either, but I'm flattered that you didn't disagree with my reasoning, given that (I'm presupposing from your other posts) you're a HLS student.</p>
<p>Best,
DMW</p>
<p>Nope. I'm Yale Class of 2010 (undergrad). The Kelo case further establishes why Eminent Domain cannot exist in a rights-protecting Republic.</p>
<p>Ayn Rand: The idea that 'the public interest' supersedes private interests and rights can have but one meaning: that the interests and rights of some individuals take precedence over the interests and rights of others."</p>
<p>Once Donald Trump tried to take over an old ladies property for, I kid you not, a limosine parking lot.</p>
<p>Oh, a fellow classmate! Well, approval from one's peers is never a bad thing, either. I wouldn't have expected to see you touting HLS as you did on that other thread though - it's nice, if a bit unexpected, to see people advocating for institutions not because they belong to them but because they genuinely believe them to be the best.</p>
<p>Well, that Donald Trump story was pretty famous. Her house was enclosed on like, three sides by his casino, and it became pretty obvious that she enjoyed the attention. The Donald did not play his cards right with that one.</p>
<p>Hm. I enjoyed the Fountainhead, and some of Rand's quotes I've found worth pondering over. But I mean, we infringe on the personal /proprety rights all the time, and at least some of the time it's for the public good. It'd be terrible to allow an owner to use his land as toxic waste dump if that land was next to an elementary school. I don't care if that's "his land" or not. </p>
<p>Best,
DMW</p>