Sprayregen to Columbia: I Plead the Fifth, You Should Too
Nick Sprayregen, the landowner leading the final hold-out against Columbia's 17-acre West Harlem expansion, has an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal. In it, Mr. Sprayregen (profiled by The Observer in July) attacks Columbia's threatened use of eminent domain to take his storage company's property.
In the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the government is permitted to take private property only for "public use."
This clause was once limited to true public projects such as the construction of highways, fire houses and public libraries. But over the last 50 years it has been bastardized by the powerful (in collusion with compliant politicians and the acquiescence of the courts) into a weapon used routinely to forcibly take other people's property for nonpublic uses. What is occurring in West Harlem today is a prime example of this abuse.
16 Park Avenue
"On the corner of Park Avenue & 35th Street, in the heart of Murray Hill... " More details |
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It amazes me that Columbia is allowed to do this to a business owner, especially one who runs a family business. I say we all petition for him to get his business back!
Media Advisor
WEST HARLEM BUSINESS TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE TO RELEASE FULL REPORT OF OBJECTIONS TO COLUMBIA EXPANSION PLAN
Tomorrow, Thursday, September 4th, at 10 am, Nick Sprayregen, president of Tuck-It-Away Self Storage and his attorneys will make public their report that will be submitted later in day to Empire State Development Corporation relating to the Columbia University expansion and the threatened use of eminent domain.
This report, the result of four years of work, will highlight the many instances of the abusive and unconstitutional nature of the expansion plan.
Copies will be made available.
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What: Press conference and release of the “Issues, Facts and Objections” report.
Where: 3261 Broadway, between 131st and 132nd Streets, NYC
When: Thursday, September 4th, 2008
Time: 10 am.
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Participants in the conference will include Mr. Sprayregen; his attorneys Norman Siegel and Philip Van Buren and others.
For further information, please contact either –
Mr. Sprayregen, 212-368-1717, nsprayregen@tuckitaway.com or
Mr. Siegel, 212-532-7586, siegelnorman@aol.com
Media Advisor
WEST HARLEM BUSINESS TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE TO RELEASE FULL REPORT OF OBJECTIONS TO COLUMBIA EXPANSION PLAN
Tomorrow, Thursday, September 4th, at 10 am, Nick Sprayregen, president of Tuck-It-Away Self Storage and his attorneys will make public their report that will be submitted later in day to Empire State Development Corporation relating to the Columbia University expansion and the threatened use of eminent domain.
This report, the result of four years of work, will highlight the many instances of the abusive and unconstitutional nature of the expansion plan.
Copies will be made available.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What: Press conference and release of the “Issues, Facts and Objections” report.
Where: 3261 Broadway, between 131st and 132nd Streets, NYC
When: Thursday, September 4th, 2008
Time: 10 am.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Participants in the conference will include Mr. Sprayregen; his attorneys Norman Siegel and Philip Van Buren and others.
For further information, please contact either –
Mr. Sprayregen, 212-368-1717, nsprayregen@tuckitaway.com or
Mr. Siegel, 212-532-7586, siegelnorman@aol.com
While Sprayregen states a truism of the 5th Amendment, he needs to get real and acknowledge that neither he nor his higly paid lawyers or lobbyists made him aware of this and more. Those of us connected to West Harlem know that both a low-wage researcher in the area and unpaid others fueled his case with no credit or acknowledgement, his the karma of the Columbia menace. That is common thievery too, albeit less than that of Columbia.