Submitted by Bruce Rosen, Oct 4, 2007 11:13

Downtown Brooklyn & the adjacent neighborhoods of Brooklyn Heights & Fort Greene/Clinton Hill are already home to Polytechnic University, LIU, NYC Technical College (CUNY), St Francis College, Brooklyn Law School, Pratt Institute & St Joseph's College + probably some others of which I'm unaware. Growing these may make sense, but to call this virgin territory for institutions of higher learning suggests the contracting entity, EDC, is visiting from another planet. Why, too, has the City & specifically the Bloomberg administration allowed Columbia & NYU to pursue their current expansion plans which not only cause displacement but take valuable property off the tax rolls. A true plan to use the colleges & universities as engines of development & anchors of communities would say, get NYU to return to its former University Heights campus, not displacing CCNY's Bronx Community College, but adding itself as a portal for BxCC grads, The Bronx - once nicknamed the borough of universities - also hosts two internationally renown research institutions - the NY Botanical Garden & the Wildlife Conservation Society + one of then nation's premier medical research centers - Albert Einstein College of Medicine & its allied hospitals. Current Bronxites have no less moxie & smarts than their predecessors. Similarly, eminently walkable Downtown Jamaica, which already boasts CUNY's York College with its state-of-the-art FDA research lab, two teaching hospitals, the flagship of the nation's highest circulation public library system & a rai link to NYC's international portal, JFK, might be further enlivened & returned to a more round-the-clock status with an increased academy presence & community. It just starts with some creative thinking...

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