Monday, March 10, 2025
Sunny. High 58 degrees.
Temperatures will be warmer this week, with Tuesday expected to even reach 60 degrees. Rain is currently forecast for Sunday.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
Friday is both the Hindu holiday Holi, and the Jewish holiday Purim.
For those who might have forgotten, Daylight Saving Time took place this past Sunday at 2 a.m.
Celebrities, such as Mark Ruffalo and Laurence Fishburn, joined a rally on Saturday to raise money for the West-Park Presbyterian Church on West 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. “You don’t have to come after this beautiful old church,” Ruffalo said during his remarks. “We see this as a great economic driver on the Upper West Side. This is basically the Upper West Side’s answer to the Public Theater.”
You can read more — HERE.
Upper West Side News
By Gus Saltonstall
The Trump administration announced on Friday that it was cutting $400 million in federal funding for Columbia University because of what it called the school’s failure to protect its Jewish students.
“SHALOM COLUMBIA: The Trump Admin…has canceled $400 million in federal grants to Columbia over its failure to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment,” The White House posted on its social media channels.
Katrina Armstrong, the school’s interim president, wrote in an email sent to the Columbia community on Friday that it would fight to get the funding back and was “committed to working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns.” Later that day, Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote that she’d had a “productive meeting” with Armstrong about the issue.
It is not clear which specific research and activities at Columbia University will be affected by the canceled funding, and the school said it was reviewing the announcement and had reached out to the Education Department for more information.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order at the end of January saying that his administration would take aggressive action against antisemitism on college campuses, and this move to cut Columbia’s funding appears to be the first target of the plan.
The Morningside Heights school received national attention last year for the ongoing protests on its campus related to the war in Gaza.
You can read more — HERE.
A man who was nabbed at the end of February for attempting to rob a bank on the Upper West Side has been arrested 76 times, according to an article this weekend from the New York Post.
Fernando Rios, 46, was arrested on Feb. 28 after walking into a Citibank branch near 86th Street and Broadway, demanding money, while indicating that he had a gun in his pocket, police said.
“Don’t move, I’m going to shoot,” Rios allegedly told the teller, according to the Post.
Rios was quickly arrested and charged with robbery, police said.
It turns out that Rios has 76 prior arrests going back to 1993, and had recently finished a year in prison also on a bank robbery conviction, the Post reported. Since 2017, he’s been arrested and charged in connection to six different bank robberies.
You can read more — HERE.
Antisemitic graffiti recently appeared in Riverside Park.
“Walking this morning along the middle level of Riverside Park, I saw the following anti-Semitic Graffiti,” a reader emailed West Side Rag over the weekend. “It was etched into the stone fence. It is in the area of the Soldiers and Sailors monument at 90th or 89th Street, but down towards the river. Appalling.”
From the photo, it is not completely clear whether the hateful graffiti is etched into the stone, or spray painted in black on it.
The Rag reached out to the NYPD about it, and will update this article if any more is learned.
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.
Columbia should be razed to the ground . Trump is right on this one.
Trump is not right on this. He is using it to be vindictive. There are so many other ways to handle this. Everyone, including Jewish students & professors, will be hurt (and blamed) by this.
Antisemites will find reason to blame Jews no matter what. Acquiescing to them is not the answer.
Wow. You sound like Trump. Why does everyone have to race to extremes?
As on a number of issues, I don’t 100% disagree with Trump. This is a problem and the administration at Columbia needs to be motivated to do something about it. They are doing a horrible job of handling this.
However, Trump’s childish performative wanna-be mafioso garbage is not the answer. He is going way too far to the other extreme. And he is just doing it to please his ignorant worshippers and show them that he is sticking it to the libs.
Does this really improve their lives or impact them at all? Is it putting food on their tables or creating jobs? No. But Fox News tells them this is a big problem and big, bad Donald Trump is doing something about it so they can all rejoice and worship at his throne (what ever happened to “you shall have no other God but me?” Hypocrite evangelists…)
Ridiculous – free speech except when students criticize Israel?
The free speech argument is also false. Columbia is a private university, and the free speech amendment does not hold up on private property, whose owners can legally kick anyone off if they don’t like what they’re saying. Columbia’s owners/administration apparently like the death threats to both Israel and Jews, because otherwise they would have kicked the Hamas-loving, Jew-hating crowd off their property ages ago.
The First Amendment issue is the federal government attempting to force Columbia as to what speech it needs to ban from campus.
Columbia is a private university and the protesters were on private property. While I’m being concrete here, the First Amendment right to free speech does not generally apply to private property without the owner’s permission; moreover, there’s a difference between free speech and hate speech, which is meant to incite violence and is, therefore, not protected speech. Columbia itself should’ve taken care of the problem a year ago, but it didn’t, which is why the federal government is now intervening. Enough is enough, and I say that as someone who did not vote for Trump.
Criticize Israel? Have you read what they’re doing? Threatening the lives of Jewish students or anyone who supports Israel; disrupting classes on Israel, which is why students go to college in the first place — to go to class; distributing fliers and posters condemning Jews worldwide, with both implicit and explicit threats, such as a Nazi jackboot squashing a Jewish star. Hateful murderous threats and illegal trespass does not fall under “free speech.”
Criticizing and calling for its destruction are two very different things.
By all accounts these protesters have been disrupting classes, vandalizing university property, injuring staff, intimidating students and professors and protesting in areas they were not authorized to protest in. Furthermore, their protests have often crossed the line into violent threats and celebrations of violence.
I believe that speech should be protected – even offensive, hateful speech. But this is clearly not a free speech issue.
[Not sure why my response is being blocked but let’s try again….]
Then we agree, of course the protestors who have injured staff & threatened violence should have consequences.
That’s not what’s happening here – funding for research is being stripped from the university bc of individuals who are not necessarily even affiliated with Columbia! This is just a fig leaf to punish higher education and stifle speech that the administration disagrees with.
If Columbia had lived up to their responsibility and had put an end to these murderous protestors, the academic funding would still be in place. Higher ups in the Columbia administration itself were shown to be rabidly antisemitic after texts and emails disclosed their prejudices, so no wonder they turn a blind, smug eye when threats, violence, and trespass are rained down upon Jewish students and staff.
The administration had them arrested and sometimes suspended and expelled. And I saw no evidence of murderous protestors. Disagreeing with the genocide and decades-long oppression of Palestinians does not make one antisemitic. Supporting the innocent people of Palestine is not supporting Hamas. The absolutism is where the chance for meaningful discussion was lost throughout this whole crisis.
You must be joking. Have you heard their chants and read their fliers? If so, we have different interpretations of the word “murderous.”
Israel has never committed genocide against the Palestinian people, nor has she oppressed them. You should be protesting against Hamas, Hezbollah, and some neighbors, including Jordan. Is Israel perfect? Of course not, but compared to what other countries have done and what they would have done in such circumstances — threatened with annihilation since her 1948 birth — Israel has acted with restraint.
Where is the outrage over October 7th?
Huh, never oppressed Palestinians? What’s going on in the West Bank then?
Ask Hamas. And also ask what you would do after the October 7th pogrom. Israel has wanted to build housing for the Palestinians for decades, but they’ve been met at every turn with rejection by the neighboring Arab lands, who’ve used the Palestinians as a weapon against Israel since 1967. Were Egypt and Jordan oppressing the Palestinians when Gaza and the West Bank were under their auspices? If the Arab world and their terror brigades put down their arms today there would be peace, whereas if Israel put down their arms, they would be slaughtered.
Free speech is fine. Threatening students, trespassing, blocking access for some students, disrupting classes, harming people, and vandalism are not fine.
People committing crimes should be handled by the criminal justice system. People who break rules should be held accountable. Life is hard. Actions have consequences. This is true even for the little darlings at elite colleges.
Allowing these terrorist sympathizers to intimidate students and disrupt the campus is not “free speech.”
While both free speech and hate speech involve expression, the key difference lies in their intent and impact: free speech protects the right to express any idea, even unpopular ones, while hate speech is defined by its intent to incite hatred, discrimination, or violence against a group based on their identity. Chanting “Intifada Intifada” (A time known for suicide bombings targeting Civilians) and “Kill All Zionists” (90% of Jews) crosses that line and thus it is not protected speech.
I’m sure we can cherry pick individual statements from the weeks of protest that crossed the line, but to strip federal funding *from the university* on those grounds is nonsensical. The far right is using these protests to co-opt Jewish Americans in their decades long war on higher education.
Please. The issue is far more nuanced than your “analysis” allows. There’s a limit to everything, and the limit here should be reached before students and teachers start to die — several have been physically attacked already. If the denial of federal funding is a wake up call, a real incentive to rein in the hatefest, so be it. The money will be available again when the Columbia administration acts responsibly.
About the bank robber arrested 76 times: On June 24, vote for Timmons as our DA . Not Bragg.
I would hope we can all agree on this ?
Bragg wasn’t in office for this guys travails. Not supporting him, but….
You would think that after the 75th arrest they would put the guy away for good. . .I guess just not the folks we vote for.
Maybe the NYPD should just give him a Lifetime Achievement Award?
First in his family to be arrested 75 times!
LOL. Love it.
Unfortunately, there is a decent chance that he is not the first in his family.
This is all so simple. For each time convicted of a crime, the punishment should be increased. By 70+ times, it should be life. Regardless of how “trivial” each crime is. Because that is someone who clearly has a major problem and should not be among us.
This is such an easy, common sense fix to the laws. If someone campaigned on this platform they would get many votes (or should – too many bleeding hearts around here would probably oppose it – and those who support it are not Republicans or Trumpers – we are just people with common sense).
First in his family to be arrested 75 times? How do you know that?
You know the old saying: “76th time is the charm”
The anti-Israel protests (I refuse to call them pro-Palestine) have radicalized and are likely to continue down that road with ICE’s arrest of one of their ring leaders. The second intifada teaches us where radicalization can lead, including terror attacks on college campuses. Columbia/Barnard would be well advised to heighten security at their gates for the time being, including but not limited to metal detectors and bag searches.
We’re ditching the Education Dept. We might as well close all the colleges too.
Columbia charges like $90k per year and has a multi-billion dollar endowment. Why do we give them anything?
Perhaps because the R&D that Columbia facilities does is stuff we need? Like for examples hosting the “Manhattan Project,” improving heart bypass & transplant surgeries (guess where Dr Oz got his start & where folk lie Bill Clinton & David Letterman got treated), examine the first moon rocks (the Columbia facility at Lamont Labs), etc, etc, etc?
Columbia physics professor here. The university endowment is earmarked for specific purposes and doesn’t cover day to day research expenses. We (faculty) apply for competitive federal grants to do specific research projects which aid the goals of government agencies (e.g. NASA, National Science Foundation, NIH), and they in turn pay for our lab equipment, student researcher salaries, publication in journals. Undergrads (those paying tuition) or the college play a minor if any role in this. This has been the “contract” between the federal government and university since WW2 and has made the US the premier research country and created the highly skilled workforce that has made our country prosperous. Columbia as we know it would die and international talent would go elsewhere were government research grants to dry up. With DOGE now gutting every federal agency (even extremely well run ones like the National Science Foundation), I am afraid for the future of science in this country.
Professor Metzger, my question is whether Columbia is run efficiently? Could it be that expenses can be cut by 50% without impacting quality? At a bank where I worked, one secretary supported 40 employees, why does Columbia need 1 secretary for five professors? At Harvard, the number of administrators has now exceeds the number of students, what are those figures at Columbia and what do those administrators do all day? Why does Oxford cost $15K per year while Columbia $90K? From what I can tell, government subsidies to Oxford are less than the ones Columbia receives. I have been in academia for twenty years, I have never seen a private business run so inefficiently. Why is a tenured professor at Columbia required to teach 10 hours a week 12 weeks a year, (according to a professor in comp sci department) and the rest of the time he can do whatever he wants once he gets tenure? Nobody else in America has that kind of a deal.
Once again, my reply to a poster, which was written well over an hour and a half ago, in this case to Prof. Brian Metzger, has been censored.
Perhaps it was just overlooked or perhaps much like some of the faculty at Columbia, silence in the face of opposition is the norm.
I’d like to think it was the former, so I’ll add the comment again.
Prof. Metzger, then perhaps it’s time for the faculty to take a stand and tell Columbia that you will take your research programs to a university where Intifada and “kill the Jews” are not the words of the day. I would imagine that any other university would be thrilled to have you.
Thank you, Professor. Understandably, most people don’t understand the inner workings of how essential research is funded – that endowments, tuition, etc. can’t possibly fund the infrastructure that supports the research universities do to benefit the country and its citizens. The stripping of government grants is capricious and dangerous. Antisemitism most certainly needs to be condemned and not tolerated. The Trump administration, however, is at best disingenuous in this case given the blind eye they’ve turned in many instances – such as Musk’s address to the AfD and his offensive hand gestures – and given the right’s long crusade against higher education. Since the protests last year Columbia has strengthened many of its policies against antisemitism and intolerance. Yes, it may still have work to do, but the cudgel of stripping funding is egregious and does irreparable harm to essential work that benefits us all. (And it’s pretty rich that the government is demanding action against the hatred of antisemitism while also forbidding any support for diversity, equity, and inclusion). And make no mistake; this is just an opening salvo. Other institutions are not far behind. America’s leadership in the world is taking a devastating hit.
Resources are limited. Why is it better to subsidize Columbia rather than spend more on public schools, or public safety, or housing for the poor? What exactly are we getting for the hundreds of billions taxpayers give to the universities (student loan subsidies, Pell grants, property tax exemptions, tax breaks on charitable contributions, low to non-existent taxes on endowment income)? Is it worth it? Can we get the same output for less money?
What-aboutisms don’t add to any argument. I agree with your criticisms of Trump and his ilk, but they are mere deflections in this argument.
Sure, antisemitism needs to be condemned. Great to say. But what actions do you propose?
I propose punishing those who break laws and university rules and who engage in activities that support the genocide of Jews (and , if pro-Hamas, the murder of other Palestinians for PR purposes).
You can complain all you want about the funding cuts, but if you don’t have a constructive response that stays on point, those cuts will never be restored.
So, professor, what do you think Columbia should do to get its funding reinstated?
Thank you Professor Metzger. If it weren’t so serious, one might suspect theater of revenge and “owning the libs” in the hostile hypocrisy of the “Shalom Columbia” tweet, and in the demands to deport antisemitic protesters – when just a few years ago, the torch-bearing crowd at UVA, shouting “Jews will not replace us” – and including an actually murderous activist who used a car to kill someone – were “very fine people”?? Yes, the country my WWII vet dad fought for – with his army friend, later a Columbia professor – seems to be being undermined daily.
Yes, there’s a grotesque irony to Trump and his right-wing ilk condemning the antisemitic, death-to-the-Jews protests at Columbia while applauding white supremacists elsewhere; however, two wrongs don’t make a right, and these vile protests, with their murderous threats, classroom disruptions, and physical assaults, have been going on for years now. Columbia, by not having taken sterner action, has promoted the ugliness and inspired fear in the Jewish community. Enough is enough.
Then let the funds and international talent go to other US universities that don’t tolerate such behavior. It sounds like you’re ok with the current situation as long as you’re funded.
Other US universities are in the crosshairs as well. This is just the beginning of an attempt to attack and dismantle all of higher education – along with many other institutions that make this country a leader in the world.
I disagree that this is an “attempt to attack and dismantle all higher education”. If you believe that, please provide evidence (I assume you are part of the physics department with Prof. Metzger).
I fully expect that institutions where students are held accountable and not permitted to break laws will not see similar cuts.
There’s already a list of nine other schools they will “review”: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/08/us/columbia-trump-colleges-antisemitism.html
I work on NIH-grant funded research at another institution (not Columbia). This is still creating chaos. These extra “reviews” and scans of grant applications for “DEI-related language” (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00703-1) are slowing down approvals for all new and existing grants. For example, we were supposed to receive a Notice of Award over a month ago on a project that only mentions DEI in the sense that we are recruiting from a diverse population by virtue of being in NYC.
We have a hiring freeze in place for most positions, including entry level research assistant jobs for new graduates who want to gain experience before medical or graduate school. Also, NIH cancelled their summer internship program (https://www.training.nih.gov/research-training/pb/sip/). These last two points should raise an alarm because they are pathways for future physicians and scientists. If we see an increased shortage of doctors and a drop-off in medical research conducted in the US in the next 5-10 years, it will be due to what is being dismantled right now.
The ‘similar cuts’ are already happening. A case could be made for a careful examination of university funding, but this meat cleaver approach is doing real damage to vitally important research. This article describes some of the devastating cuts to research labs and to students at universities across the country, not just Columbia. (I’m not sure why you assume I am in Columbia’s physics department simply because I support higher ed and science funding. That couldn’t be further from the truth.) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/us/politics/trump-university-funding-grad-student-cuts.html. If you can’t access it, here is a quote that reflects the widespread severity of what is happening: ‘Asked to comment, the university pointed to a statement signed by J. Larry Jameson, Penn’s interim president, posted on the school’s website, which noted that the cuts “represent an existential threat across our university and American higher education.”’
Sorry, was that supposed to be supportive of your statement that there is an “attempt to attack and dismantle all higher education”?
I have two degrees from Columbia. I went there when we were taught to use reason and logic to support our arguments. It seems those days are gone.
You didn’t really address ILikeYou’s point.
That “contract” is over, professor; and thankfully so. It’s time for universities to fund themselves without government largess. And if that means slashing their bloat and bureaucracies, while tapping into their mammoth endowments, so be it.
The traditional view is that research benefits the nation, not only the university and its employees.
Have you read academic research lately? Most of it is not replicable, and hence questionable. A very large % of studies are not interesting to anyone other than the professors conducting it and there is no cost control. Flying to a conference in Hawaii in the winter or Italy in May is not my idea of taxpayer money well spent!
Brian, those who were silent during those hateful rallies, such as Columbia faculty, are just as complicit in spreading hate. How could you and your colleagues allow this hateful propaganda on your school grounds. I only saw one professor speak out against it, who was suspended from Columbia. I am clear Columbia research will suffer, but there are other colleges and Universities that protected their students from vile hatred and they are also doing research. Columbia Faculty has a lot to think about, how they ended up on the side of hatred.
From the Association of American Universities statement:
“It is absolutely critical to root out antisemitism and other forms of discrimination. But that is not the issue here. This unprecedented decision to cut $400 million in federal funding does nothing to end discrimination. It will, however, succeed in harming the university’s 36,000 students, including nursing students, medical students, veterans getting their college degree, students who have transferred from community colleges, and patients seeking care at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
Today’s unprecedented decision will also harm the American people beyond Columbia’s campus by halting medical and scientific research. Actions such as this will only reduce America’s greatness in the global race for scientific and technological dominance. It is an unforced error and a gift to our potential adversaries.”
Columbia has a $15 Billion endowment. They made $1.65 billion from their investments last year. And they charge outrageous amount for tuition.
Government funding of fundamental research is done by all governments (including the Europeans and Chinese Goverments) and is one major reason why the US has had among the most dynamic and wealthiest economies in the world. Without funding, most of this research wouldn’t happen.
The total government spending on this research is around $70B/year, which is about 1% of the total Federal budget of $6.9T. This includes things like improved medical devices that enhance soldiers’ ability to survive battlefield wounds to the research done at Penn (another wealthy school) in 2002 that led to the raid development of the COVID vaccine, which saved an estimated 10m people worldwide.
The admin bloat and other issues are one thing, research is another–outstanding scientific research is one reason for the US’s exceptional prosperity. Maybe we shouldn’t kill the golden goose until you really understand the consequences.
What is harming Columbia students is the administration’s refusal to punish lawbreakers, vandals, and people who chant in favor of the genocide of Jews.
Once they address that, they will likely get their funding back.
It’s really not hard.
It is frightening that with a strike of a pen on a whim, Trump can destroy one of the worlds top research university because a handful of students don’t agree with him. We are now in Nazi Germany.
Ah, cue the Nazi trope whenever someone does something the Left doesn’t like!
You might want to learn a little bit about Nazi Germany. We may be in a crisis, but it’s not the same.
The ultimate goal is trump wants to control the narrative. Get rid of dept of education. Welcome to Russia. This will only incite more antisemitism
In the works of Mick Jagger ” You can’t always get want you want. But, if your try sometimes you just may find, you get wat you need.”
Mark Ruffalo sees this church as a “great economic driver” for the UWS.
I see a decrepit building that has been surrounded by scaffolding for the past 25 years. It makes the whole area look seedy. This is hardly beneficial for the neighborhood’s economy.
According to the linked article the Chief Officer of the Public Theater claims she will raise $34M by the summer to reconstruct the church. I find this impossible to believe. She fails to note where these funds are coming from.
My prediction is we will have a run down church surrounded by scaffolding for many years to come.
If all these wealthy celebrities are so enamored by the church they should use their own money to renovate it.
Thank you Gene Kelly for your helpful disitnction between “free speech” and “hate speech”–Let’s try to hold this in mind and not vilify each other. Both groups need to be respected as both have legitimate histories of suffering —
Columbia being “razed to the ground” is not the answer– let’s try setting examples for listening to each other– and entering this important conversation in a constructive way.
Perhaps the administration should also consider whether Columbia (administration and many students) is guilty of anti-Palestinian words and deeds. . . .
The Trump White House’s use of the greeting “Shalom” shows how shameful, false and duplicitous its attack on Columbia is. I go to Columbia all the time and know for a fact that the antisemitism claims have been grossly exaggerated. The student demonstrators I have spoken to have had deep humanitarian concern for the sufferings of Gaza and the West Bank, but not a hint of antisemitism in the sense of hatred of Jewish people. And only a small portion of the chants I have heard could remotely be considered antisemitic. (You have to set aside the nutty lefties outside the gates, some of whom really are antisemitic, but the university has been strict about excluding them.) Trump making use of what should be solemn and serious, as any claim of antisemitism should be, for his own tawdry political purposes.
I have also concerns for the people of Gaza, especially after October 7th, a day in which Hamas acted in a way that could not have not possibly been meant to help them. And as much as I have tried and tried, I have yet to find ‘deep humanitarian concern’ for the hostages (both dead and alive, not to mention those killed after being taken alive) being expressed by the student demonstrators. I am first to admit that this mess may be completely unfixable, from the local end as well as the global one, but please please find me any of these kids- as well as some faculty- who will even deign to keep listening after somebody says the word ‘hostages’. If the demonstrations had called for help for the Gazans in ADDITION to returning the hostages I doubt we’d have seen the ugliest part of this playing out over and over again. The day I saw a swastika on a lamppost within walking distance of Columbia was unforgettable.
And yet they remain remarkably and curiously quiet about Hamas and the destruction they cause the Palestinian people.
And yet they hold signs about intifada and river to the sea.
If they’re not antisemitic then they are spectacularly stupid.
I am appalled at the right-wing tone of so many comments on this post an others on this site. The West Side I know and love isn’t composed of reactionary curmudgeons who gullibly regurgitate anti-democratic swill from the NY Post, Fox News, WSJ opinion page, etc. it sure is easy to make a blunt, pat accusation against Columbia, for example, and basically call it a Hamas training ground, but shouting this over and over doesn’t make it any closer to the actual truth. Thank you, Professor Metzger, for bringing your knowledge, sanity and reason to this discussion.
And my god, no, electing Republicans is NOT the answer. I am going to tirelessly resist this horrific, lawless, authoritarian cabal. We are in a very dark time now, and for all those trumpeting the glories of Trump and his henchmen, don’t get too smug—they will be coming for you, too. I guarantee it. Meanwhile, you should enjoy the diversity and open-mindedness of the UWS while you can. The brownshirts aren’t out in the streets, not yet…
Trump: “I’m trying to protect Jews”
Doris: “What a Nazi!”
I haven’t seen any posts here (except for maybe the very first one) that is as extreme and dramatic as yours.
The very first post wants Columbia razed to the ground but ok….
Doris is spot on, plenty of commenters here are painting with a very broad brush and are totally fine with the federal government punishing free speech just because they happen to disagree with these protests .
I love how liberals want to Support Israel and protect Jewish students on the UWS , but their blind hatred for President Trump gets in the way. You don’t have to like him, but you know damn well he is right.
Truth, Justice, the American Way, Donald Trump: which item is not like the others?
I know you damn well don’t know he’s wrong.
And indeed I do not like him — to say the least! It’s a clear-eyed conclusion reached by way of 45 years of diligent study, incidentally.
Yup, King Krasnov hates antisemitism SO much that he fired not only that rampaging edgelord who made the Nazi salute a few weeks ago and openly supports Germany’s far-right AfD party but also that guy who kept a book of Hitler’s speeches on his nightstand for easy reference and whose father was a Nazi, too.
Tomorrow’s headline today: “Antisemitic graffiti found in Riverside Park; Trump cancels all federal funding to NYC.”
These aren’t people standing and holding signs or handing out fliers. Its a campaign of threats and intimidation that, frankly, if it had been aimed against Gays or African-Americans would have the UWS up in arms. We’re supposed to continue to fund this wealthy school with taxpayer money despite the civil rights violations occurring? No, and thank you Mr. President.
Glorious nighttime photo of Lincoln Center by Isabelle Tietbohl–brava!👏
I too am disheartened by the tenor of comments here, and lack of concern for an assault on a local institution and our city in general. Agents entered a Columbia building apparently without a warrant and disappeared a student in the dead of night, leaving his lawyer and pregnant wife unable to find him for days. They attempted to take another student as well (without a warrant) but couldn’t gain entry. There is not even a pretext of anything other than intimidation and suppression of dissent. Other students at Columbia are rightfully terrified and wondering what’s next. Meanwhile the administration is using already-allocated research funding as a cudgel to try to manipulate institutions of higher education. Yet comment after comment here is that Columbia had it coming for even allowing protest on their campus.
I know the commenters here do not represent the typical residents of UWS, but it is disappointing to hear such clamoring for authoritarian crack-down on freedom and higher education in our own back yard. This will only get worse unless there is tremendous opposition.
I’m curious why there’s no note about our Council person focusing on farm to table food for the incarcerated?
It would seem newsworthy on a number of levels to her constituents.
I see Alan Dershowitz is saying that it would be good if Barnard were to go out of existence. The students would go elsewhere. There are people on this board and in this country who care about Israel more than anything in the whole world.
We must be reading a different board. All I see are some commenters who take issue with calls for Israel’s annihilation.
You’re distorting Dershowitz’s words.
Dershowitz spoke out against the antisemitism of the protests. And yes, praising the Hamas attacks of 10/7, calling for an “intifada” until Israel is destroyed and intimidating Jewish faculty and staff is antisemitism.
This is not a matter of simply stifling criticism of Israel.
Really?
Evidence?
The photo makes it very clear that the hateful graffiti is not etched into the stone.
Re Columbia — The federal government clearly and unambiguously has the right to cancel research and grant contracts for schools that fail to meet Civil Rights requirements. However, the law that gives them that authority explicitly requires a formal investigation with an opportunity to comment by the party being investigated. The Trump Administration made no pretense of conducting an investigation or of giving Columbia (or anyone for that matter) the opportunity to comment. What they have done is clearly and unambiguously illegal and, if Columbia takes the Administration to court, they will prevail, at least in the short run. This not to defend or criticize what Columbia did or did not do — they could still be investigated and lose their grants. But there is a clear, unambiguous administrative process that must be followed.
Offensive graffiti is basically one idiot putting images up that will piss people off. Growing up in a Jewish neighborhood in the sixties, I constantly saw swastikas on walls, on public toilet partitions and on park benches. (perhaps some of those were penned in by Jewish teenagers.) We all realized that these were put there by idiots. I wouldn’t ignore this image if it was on my synagoguel or house, but let’s put this in perspective.
That bank robber is clearly not very good if he’s been arrested 76 times…