5 Reasons Why NYU's Expansion Plan Reeks of 1% Greed

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“We often joke that NYU is a real estate developer that holds classes on the side.”

There Goes the Neighborhood

Already, there are signs of a last-gasp revolt on the streets of Greenwich Village, such as at the corner of Bleecker and LaGuardia, where the 30-year-old community garden cries, “Condemned by NYU! Help!” on a banner obstructing the pedestrian’s view of roses, irises, lilies and pear trees.

The Sexton plan calls for the destruction of children’s parks, dog runs, the neighborhood supermarket and the outspoken community garden. Critics protest that the development will obliterate the rich artistic and intellectual history of Greenwich Village.

In While We Were Sleeping, Carey writes that when he came to teach at NYU, he came not for the high-rise dorms or the Apple stores, but for the history:

“I was coming to work with Edgar Doctorow and Sharon Olds. I was coming to the village of Emma Goldman and Edna Vincent Millay, de Kooning, Pollock (and the Cedar Tavern up the road) Bob Dylan, Kerouac, Ginsburg, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, Kim's Video, the Stonewall Tavern, CBGB, the Talking Heads and Henry James…It's only now, 22 years later, that I understand that I went to work for a corporation, and I fell in love with a company town.”