One of the restaurants removed from the site due to the Manhattanville Expansion (Floridita, a West Harlem staple) ended up in a building with the high risk of asbestos exposure. Yet upon reading the documents regarding the Expansion, there was a clear intensive effort to remove the asbestos risk from destroying the old buildings in the Expansion’s own footprint. When the owner, Roman Diaz, attempted to push Columbia to pay for asbestos removal in his new building, their response was much the same as always: “For Columbia, the issue is not whether the asbestos is present or not but whose legal responsibility it is to abate it. Fountain said that handling the asbestos falls under Diaz's obligations as a tenant based on his lease with the University, which specified that Diaz was leasing the property ‘as is.’ ‘The lease, which the university signed with Mr. Diaz after extensive input and further negotiation by his own legal counsel, provides that Mr. Diaz accepted the property in its 'as is' condition, including the tenant's responsibility for ensuring compliance with all code requirements,’ Fountain said in a statement. ‘Consistent with the obligations of Mr. Diaz's lease, as well as any lease, the tenant has obligations.’"
Cite as
Anonymous, "Eminent Domain", contributed by Isabelle Soifer, Center for Ethnography, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 17 February 2020, accessed 20 April 2024. http://centerforethnography.org/content/eminent-domain
Critical Commentary
One of the restaurants removed from the site due to the Manhattanville Expansion (Floridita, a West Harlem staple) ended up in a building with the high risk of asbestos exposure. Yet upon reading the documents regarding the Expansion, there was a clear intensive effort to remove the asbestos risk from destroying the old buildings in the Expansion’s own footprint. When the owner, Roman Diaz, attempted to push Columbia to pay for asbestos removal in his new building, their response was much the same as always: “For Columbia, the issue is not whether the asbestos is present or not but whose legal responsibility it is to abate it. Fountain said that handling the asbestos falls under Diaz's obligations as a tenant based on his lease with the University, which specified that Diaz was leasing the property ‘as is.’ ‘The lease, which the university signed with Mr. Diaz after extensive input and further negotiation by his own legal counsel, provides that Mr. Diaz accepted the property in its 'as is' condition, including the tenant's responsibility for ensuring compliance with all code requirements,’ Fountain said in a statement. ‘Consistent with the obligations of Mr. Diaz's lease, as well as any lease, the tenant has obligations.’"