In today's paper, Christian Zhang and Avantika Kumar detail how one gas station owner, Carmie Elmore, is fighting the city's West Harlem redevelopment plans, in order to keep his property.
According to Mr. Elmore, the conflict boils down to a disagreement on who exactly controls the 110th Street station and how Mr. Elmore should be compensated for his land:
[Mr. Elmore] acknowledged that his initial contract allowed the city to buy back his gas station for urban renewal purposes, but he said that plan expired in 2008—and as a result, he and his partners fully own the property.
The city offered Elmore the original purchase price of the property plus the cost of improvements he has made since then, rather than its current market price, he said
Though this latest squabble is the result of a city-led initiative, and not related to Columbia's development plans, it is eerily reminiscent a series of legal problems Columbia has had as it also evicts long time land owners in order to facilitate the University's various planned expansions.
