Defining Manhattanville

GURNAM SINGH AND PARMINDER KAUR: Owners of two gas stations in Manhattanville; along with Nick Sprayregen, the last private landowners in the expansion area who have not sold their properties to Columbia.

JOE IENUSO: The University’s executive vice president of facilities; oversees the construction and on-the-ground aspects of the expansion.

LEE BOLLINGER: University president; announced Columbia’s plan to build a new 17-acre campus in 2003; has ardently maintained that the University cannot proceed with its expansion plans without acquiring every property in the footprint of the expansion.

MANHATTANVILLE: The neighborhood in which Columbia’s planned campus would be located; loosely defined as the region between 122nd Street and 135th Street from the Hudson River to St. Nicholas Park.

NEW YORK STATE COURT OF APPEALS: The state’s highest court; ruled in July that eminent domain can be used to obtain private properties in the area, a major victory for Columbia.

NEW YORK STATE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION: Unexpectedly declared in December 2009 that state seizure of private property in the 17-acre expansion zone was illegal. Its ruling was overturned this summer by the New York State Court of Appeals.

NICK SPRAYREGEN: Owner of Tuck-It-Away Self-Storage; along with Gurnam Singh and Parminder Kaur, one of the last private landowners in the expansion area who has not sold his property to the University.

NORMAN SIEGEL: Sprayregen’s attorney and former New York Civil Liberties Union director; will soon petition the United States Supreme Court to review the New York State Court of Appeals’ ruling on eminent domain.

BILL PERKINS: State senator who represents Harlem; opposes Columbia’s use of eminent domain to obtain the remaining properties and has held several public hearings on the matter in recent months.

BLIGHT: A condition of economic disrepair beyond the potential for natural relief; a criterion for eminent domain.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Repeatedly maintains that it is not a party in the legal battle over eminent domain, explaining that it is a matter between the private property owners in Manhattanville and the Empire State Development Corporation.

DAVID SMITH: The attorney for Gurnam Singh and Parminder Kaur.