By Gus Saltonstall
Morningside Heights Assemblymember Daniel (Danny) O’Donnell publicly denounced Columbia University on Thursday for its “failure to fulfill its moral obligation to the West Harlem and Morningside Heights communities” by not installing an elevator at the 125th Street 1 train subway station.
Since 2022, community organizations and elected officials have called on the school to commit to working with the MTA to plan, design, and fund the installation of an elevator at the station.
Columbia’s footprint is growing rapidly around the 125th Street area, with buildings such as The Forum, David Geffen Hall (130th Street), and the Jerome Green Science Center already constructed, and more new developments underway.
O’Donnell emphasized that the area was subsequently becoming an increasingly used thoroughfare for people connected with the university, including a large graduate student population.
“With a growing Manhattanville campus, a $13 billion endowment, and $179 million in annual property-tax exemptions, Columbia should be stepping up to plan and fund this project,” O’Donnell said. “Instead, after years of urging Columbia to engage in discussions and collaborate with the MTA and community members, there is nothing to show for it.”
Elevators along the 1 train line are a rare sighting. The only fully accessible station along the line between West 96th Street and West 225th Street is the Dyckman Street stop.
In addition to speaking out, O’Donnell created a petition calling for Columbia to add the elevators to the 125th Street station, which has collected 479 of its 500-signature goal as of 11:30 a.m. on Friday.
Congressmember Adriano Espaillat, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, Councilmember Shaun Abreu, the Morningside Heights Community Coalition, and Manhattan Community Board 9 have all also publicly supported the push for elevators at the 125th Street station.
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The ADA is more than 30 years old. We need working elevators at every stop. Seniors, the disabled, parents with strollers, even people hauling awkward loads rather than tying up the streets with a car…we all need them. The absence is especially noteworthy on the 1 north of 96th, as it runs into neighborhoods where poverty and chronic illness are concentrated.
Columbia has always dragged its funding feet when it comes to providing any amenities for the people in the neighborhoods it is gobbling up. C’mon, with all that money? Do the right thing Columbia!
Yes, get Columbia to do it becasue the City and MTA are so mismanaged they can’t. Who keeps voting for these people?
There are elevators at West 72 Street, and at least escalators at 125th.
The 125th St escalators don’t go up to the platform
The streets and sidewalks are too narrow for more escalators and elevators. This station is like 120 years old.
Part 1 “Moral Duty????” Hears an idea he could have funded it in the MTA budget as the state gives aid to it. This just cries out for term limits to be law min NYS/NYC He has been in office since 2002.
This station opened in 1904 and is over 2,100 feet long and is a NYC landmark as well as being listed National Register of Historic Places. The arch over 125 street is 55 feet high and its foundation go down 30 feet
Means nothing if you cannot access it!
If Danny was so concerned about ‘moral’ obligations why hasn’t he targeted the MTA for not opening up the 2nd exit of the subways station at West 103 Street and CPW. If there was any type of emergency such as a fire there would be no escape. There is an existing 2nd exit that has been closed for years; the local community groups have asked for this to be re-open. As usual Danny and then Boro President Gale Brewer have ignored our reasonable requests that will after all subway riders.
Part 2
With its structural age, landmarked statues in mind take a look at the street layout below it as well as the very nearby buildings. The MTA budgets 81 million- and 2-years form planning phase, environmental assessment, community/landmarks approval to finished construction.
Thats just for an unground station. Think of the added expense here having to build it 5 stories in the air a block away and then thread some sort of walkway/pedestrian bridge, which would run a block at 5 stories as well. There is no nearer room on the street/sidewalk to place the elevator
It is not a private university’s problem to fix problems, mismanagement and lack of funding for city issues. When you were in the assembly, why didn’t you petition funds for this? Where were you?. Columbia has already spent a fortune on maintaining the 116th Street as well as the 125th Street stations that the city and the MTA are supposed to be maintaining. For the record, Columbia was the one who paid for the escalators.
Columbia does not pay taxes on real estate. It is the largest landowner in NYC.
Yes, it’s their responsibility to pay for capital improvements given the massive sums it withholds from public coffers thanks to their ‘educational’ tax break
Where are Gale Brewer and Danny O Donnell doing anything to improve our neighborhood? They should be seeking funds from the city for projects.
Danny O’Donnell has spent a generation as an elected representative of the state which runs the MTA. If he wanted to make Columbia legally obligated to build an elevator on public property, he could try.
Instead he’s retiring soon with basically one accomplishment of note. Sorry, two accomplishments if you include the tennis court repaving.
The reality is it costs a fortune to install an elevator at any subway station. And Danny O’Donnell has spent a generation as an elected representative *not* solving the problem of why it costs so much to get basic infrastructure right.
I’m the last person to say this, but leave Columbia alone.
Are there other subway stations where we expect private entities to facilitate their upkeep and improvements?
Yes. For ex. the escalators at E53rd & Lexington on the 6 line were installed and are upkept by the building above them
But that was a condition of the land purchase. Columbia doesn’t own the land that the station sits on.
The MTA is the worst offender in the city if not the country when it comes to accessibility a private company would have been sued out of existence a long time ago if they ignored the ADA the way MTA does.
There are different rules in the ADA for public transit systems, but the MTA manages to ignore even those.
No, the Port Authority is much worse.
Given that the station is above ground and over vacant lots, it seems like it would be a relatively easy addition. Millions, yes, but no utilities to move, no digging, no finding a way to shoehorn it into the platform.
Columbia should step up and pay. It would help their own employees and students, not just the local population.
The 116th Street station is underground and there are no vacant lots. What on earth are you talking about?
No, the MTA should pay for capital improvements. That’s the point of the soon to be implemented congestion pricing program.
Huh? There are no vacant lots. It is a very narrow platform with narrow sidewalks. There is no room for elevators unless you want them in the middle of Broadway. And no, the MTA should pay be paying. They just got ten billion from the state budget. They get the equivalent of Columbia’s entire endowment per year in state aid.
Honestly, why is this Columbia’s job? I thought progressives were champions of government-sponsored everything, not private institutions.. LOL!
Because it has a 13 Billion dollar endowment, benefits from the subway servicing it, and has $179 million in annual property-tax exemptions.
Columbia has suffered financially and rightfully so, due to it’s antisemitic stance. Perhaps a little give back to the community is in order. Personally, I think it’s too little too late.
Hold the MTA to account for its insanely high costs. They are multiples higher than comparable cities and none of our elected officials are especially interested in fixing the problem or even finding out why we are such an outlier.
Good cause! Half the UWS would sign this petition if it were online. (Means more, maybe, if the signatures are from folks in a 10 block radius – I haven’t gotten off or on a 1 train at 125th in a few years and never lived there. But when I did go there, it was to see friends living amongst the acres of Columbia owned housing in that community. ) It’s crazy that that above ground, high station doesn’t have excellent, modern elevators. So many people rely on elevators and use them frequently at 96th, where they were integrated into one of the architecturally best station upgrades, and 66th, where they aren’t beautiful but are functional, just popping above ground near the stairs to open their doors. Why hasn’t Columbia stepped up? Big institutions, private and non profit, partner to upgrade stations all the time. Even CcopernUnion was involved at St Marks Place, eons ago. We are all only temporarily able-bodied, and even in stair-climbing shape may easily find ourselves encumbered enough to need an elevator. 🛗 Raise the bar, Columbia!
Maybe some private entities would be amenable to contributing for improvements if the cost weren’t so inflated because of the ineptness and lack of accountability of agencies like the MTA and PA.
It is pretty ridiculous for a local politician to blame Columbia for the lack of an elevator. The failure is on politicians and the MTA.
Maybe it’s time to reconsider nonprofit tax status to universities that have billions in endowment funds. That would provide additional needed tax revenue for the project mentioned plus a myriad of other needed services. It shouldn’t apply to less wealthy schools, which wouldn’t be able to exist or thrive, but institutions such as Columbia—one of the largest real estate holders in the city,—should be high on the list for dropping its nonprofit status.
Politicians of a certain bent are rather free with word “should” when it comes to spending other people’s money.
MTA is not poor, far from it; there is an extensive, exhaustive and bewildering array of taxes, surcharges, and fees those in NYC and or NYS pay to MTA, this on top of fares.
On his way out the door Daniel (Danny) O’Donnell wants to shame Columbia University into financing building elevators at said subway station.
What exactly did Mr. O’Donnell do during his tenure to lean on MTA to build the thing themselves?
The 116th Street Station is 2 levels down. You go down 1 level to the turnstyles and then another level to the the uptown and downtown platforms. The uptown platform actually has another exit. Half way down the platform toward 116th Street is another exit with a staircase. There is just a single staircase because the street goes downhill and it is not as far to climb up to the street. An elevator could be put here but it would only service the uptown side.
Columbia is an octopus with concerns at all for the existing people’s of the neighborhood, they are only concerned with serving the highsbidder who can pay for an overpriced education, and it ‘ain’t’ from the people of west harlem!
The subway elevator has facilitated convenience for robbery crimes, allowing criminals to isolate and target victims in hidden rides. As a safety measure, walking to and from the 116th Street station could be a solution for the 125th Street Forum.
Columbia University has engineering and MBA departments. As part of students’ on-the-job training, projects can be planned to hire the right construction vendor and complete them on time. This could be done through a joint effort with MTA. Such projects might be categorized as “urban studies” or “human-centric accessibility engineering.” The elevator quality will be tested daily and warranted by another student project next year.
I emailed Assemblyman O’Donnell about a racial and disability profiling incident that occurred in his district and his office never responded. I guess he’s just trying to butter up his social media profiles so he can leave on a high note.