The Weekly Wrap: Columbia Students Take Over Hamilton Hall Before Police Crackdown

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The deadline for our annual Vanguard conference, which is taking place in Lexington, Kentucky this September is approaching. In case you need more convincing, check out 10 reasons to apply for Vanguard Lexington. Submit your application by May 6 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern!

Also, we want your feedback. Have you used Next City’s journalism to inform your work? Let us know by filling out this form.

Columbia Student Occupation of “Hind’s Hall” Shut Down by Police

Student protestors associated with the Columbia University Apartheid Divest campaign took over Hamilton Hall on Tuesday, unfurling a banner referring to it as “Hind’s Hall,” named after a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli forces in February. Hind Rajab gained international attention when she called emergency services from the back of a car where she was trapped with the dead bodies of her aunt, uncle and three cousins, who had all been killed by Israeli forces as the family attempted to flee Gaza City. Rajab’s body was later found by a team of Palestinian Red Crescent medics after she was killed by Israeli military shelling and gunfire. A previous team of paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent who had coordinated with the Israeli military to bring the girl to safety were also found killed by Israeli forces, mere meters away from Rajab.

According to the Columbia Spectator, NYPD officers in riot gear began arresting over a hundred protesters at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, throwing some student protestors to the ground. One protestor was unconscious as a student who tried to offer help was turned away, according to The City. The NYPD, Mayor Adams and Columbia President Minouche Shafik all alleged that the building occupation was orchestrated by outside agitators, but the claims were refuted in real-time by student journalists reporting on campus at WKCR, Columbia’s radio station. The building occupation mirrored similar takeovers of Hamilton Hall, including a 1968 Vietnam War protest in which students renamed the hall “Malcolm X Liberation College” and a 1985 protest in which students renamed it Mandela Hall and demanded the college divest from South African apartheid. The university did so months later.

Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, students at Brown University successfully secured a vote to divest the school’s $6.6 billion endowment from companies associated with Israel, after which protestors took down the encampment.

New Orleans Property Tax Funds Childcare

A property tax increase in New Orleans has funded 1,000 additional childcare seats for low-income families, increasing the program’s budget from $3 million to $21 million, the AP reports. Families are eligible if they have children aged 3 or younger and earn up to 200% of the federal poverty level. The state of Louisiana will match the city’s contribution, bringing in an additional $21 million. Another property tax in Whatcom County, Washington, passed by ballot initiative, raised $10 million for child care. Texas passed a property tax exemption for some childcare providers. According to the Census Bureau, the number of childcare businesses dropped between 2020 and 2021, and childcare costs across the country range from between 8% to 19.3% of families’ median income per child.

NYC Mayor’s Rezoning Initiative To Hit Community Boards

New York City’s planning commission has approved the mayor’s “City of Yes” proposal to fast-track housing construction, and it will now go before the city’s 59 community boards, Streetsblog reports. As with a then-controversial citywide rezoning enacted by Adams’ predecessor in 2015, City of Yes would allow developers to build taller buildings with more units if a certain percentage is deemed affordable (defined as 60% of the area median income in the legislation.) It would also legalize commercial to residential conversions for older office buildings and eliminate mandatory parking minimums, which, as Streetsblog points out, limit space for housing and drive up rents. But parking is a near constant topic of conversation at the city’s community boards, where many board members own cars. While community boards’ input can sometimes sway council members, their votes are purely advisory. (For example: a majority of community boards voted down Mayor Bill de Blasio’s citywide rezoning in 2015, with only 10 approving, but it became law anyway.)

MTA Announces Climate Resilience Plan

According to Smart Cities Dive, the MTA announced a $6 billion climate resilience plan that will raise equipment in subways and bus yards and prevent rainwater from entering the subway system while investing in draining and pumping systems for the water that does get in. It would also strengthen bridges that could face structural issues due to extreme heat. “Our leaders at all levels of government need to ensure the MTA has the resources sufficient to maintain, upgrade and future-proof our basic infrastructure,” Rider’s Alliance Director Danny Perlstein said in a press release.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Releases Final Rules for Lending, Borrowing

The Federal Housing Finance Agency released a new rule codifying its practices related to fair lending and borrowing. It establishes that FHFA has the authority to oversee unfair or deceptive practices in lending and requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to collect data on borrower language preference. The rule also requires the two government-chartered entities to collect data on “housing counseling and homeownership education.”

According to a statement from a coalition of affordable housing organizations including the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy and National Consumer Law Center, the rule will “provide greater market access to underserved communities” and is a “major step forward in addressing issues of equity in the housing finance system, particularly for people of color and others chronically underserved by the mortgage market.” While the rule only codifies FHFA’s existing practices, it may make those policies more immune from dramatic changes if a new presidential administration takes over.

---

Curated by Deonna Anderson

MORE NEWS

• In D.C., Undesign the Redline, an interactive exhibit, explores racist housing policies that shaped its upper Northwest and other neighborhoods nationwide. Washington CityPaper

• A study from the Urban Institute “illuminates how hard it is for philanthropy to fix a big and seemingly intractable problem like homelessness in a relatively short period, especially if there isn’t sufficient collaboration with municipal government.” The Chronicle of Philanthropy

• The DEA has proposed to reclassify cannabis as Schedule III, for drugs with significant medical use. Mother Jones

• What’s the right way to fund struggling transit systems? Governing

RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES

• Applications for the Black to the Future Public Policy Institute are open. The Institute is a policy advocacy and leadership training fellowship that provides community leaders the tools needed to transform Black communities into constituencies that wield independent, Black political power. Apps are due on June 5. Learn more and apply here.

• The California Planning Foundation is awarding $80,000 in scholarships to students pursuing degrees in Urban and Regional Planning, Environmental Studies, Community Development, Public Policy, Real Estate and Development, Geography and Urban Studies. The deadline to apply is June 14. Learn about eligibility and access the app here.

EVENTS

• May 14-16 at 5:30 p.m. Eastern: We’re hosting Next City’s first-ever film festival, looking at community solutions to three urgent climate issues. Register now.

• May 23 at 1 p.m. Eastern: The Urban Institute and the Berkeley Opportunity Lab are hosting an event with multiple conversations about the impacts of providing cash assistance to low-income families with children and how policymakers and researchers can leverage these insights to improve the well-being of some of our nation’s most vulnerable children. Learn more and register here.