Submitted by Sidney Goldfischer, Jul 31, 2007 07:34

Renato Besabe't statement that Fordham dd not evict the poor tenants from its Lincoln Center site is not correct. Fordham's resposibiltiy for the evicton is spelled out in its extraordinary Dec. 24, 1957 Agreement with New York City. That Agreement is unusual as it states that the site, which the city would seize by eminent domain would be auctioned to the highest bidder and then goes on to discuss the terms of the sale with Fordham and is signed by the University, thereby excluding all possible bidders! The deal was arranged by Robert Moses and Moses' role is acknowledged in the Plaza which bears his name and sculpture. Opposition the the urban renewal projects and the ensuing evictions that destroyed poor neighborhoods is described in "Fordham, A History and Memoir" by Raymond A. Schroth, S.J *. For example, Msgr. John J. Egan, executive director of the Chicage Cardinal's Committee on Community Conservation described such projects as being made by technocrats with no understanding of the human beings whose lives they disrupt. "No churchman, of wwhatever faith," he wrote,"be he pastor or bishop, can look with equanimity at this destruction of health social cells." Father Egan's remarkably pespicacious view is now the conventional belief of urban scholars. What has been done cannot be undone and the LIncoln Center cultural and collegiate campuses are perhaps one of the finest exanple of what has been achieved through urban renewal. But there is no justifiction for the resale of any of the condemned properties for luxury condominiums. If the University has no use for this land for its educational programs there is no end of community projects ranging from elementary schools to affordable housing for which it can be utilized. * Loyola Press, 2002, pages 243-244.

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