Photograph of Manhattanville by Mira (on the wall) on Flickr Unsurprisingly, the state agency the oversees development declared a 17-acre area eyed by Columbia University was "blighted", opening the door for the state to use eminent domain to seize properties for Columbia's grand Manhattanville expansion plan. The school owns most of the 17 acres, but there are still a few holdouts who are promising go to court over the matter. A lawyer for the......

This morning around 6:15 a.m., two people were shot outside the Manhattanville Houses at 1430 Amsterdam Avenue before the gunman shot himself. Now it turns out the shooter was a postal carrier who had gotten into a fight with the men. NY1 reports that 48-year-old Roberto Caballero "had a confrontation with two men," and shot one man three times in the chest and the other once in the head. Then Caballero went to his apartment......

Columbia University’s 17-acre, $7 billion dollar expansion plan (which was approved late last year) has some up in arms, and standing firm. Anne Whitman, owner of a building in the midst of the expansion territory, wants the University to move her owner-occupied building instead of having to give it up altogether. The building, a 1903 dairy stable purchased by her father in 1972, currently houses her antique moving and storage company. Originally part of Sheffield......

The old saw is that one can't fight City Hall, and we can apparently add the ivory tower to the bulwarks of imperviousness. Despite fierce community opposition, Columbia University will be expanding its upper-Manhattan campus to surrounding blocks. The plan to expand the university's property by 17 acres and several blocks in each direction was approved this afternoon by the New York City Planning Commission. CityRoom reports the neighborhood meeting wasn't exactly neighborly:A majority......