As locals and University officials wait for the New York State Court of Appeals to determine the fate of Columbia’s planned Manhattanville expansion, a guest commentator for the Center for an Urban Future think tank is calling on the University to increase the economic benefits of the project.
In a policy brief released on Thursday, David Hochman—an expert in technology-based economic development—said Columbia should amend its project plan to include more emphasis on private-sector jobs, as opposed to jobs exclusively within the University.
While it is “unquestionably a project of transformative scope,” Hochman wrote in the brief, “the Manhattanville plan has included no discernable emphasis on jobs other than in the university itself and in retail or service businesses that mostly offer low wages and limited advancement potential.” He compared Columbia’s plan to the expansion models of other universities—such as Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—in which, he said, commercial researchers “operate cheek-by-jowl with new academic space, sparking the growth of a sustainable regional technology cluster and the creation of jobs that pay relatively well.”
To read the full, original article click on this link: Report suggests more commercial development in Manhattanville | Newsroom
Author: Maggie Astor
