The space race

I don't know what's worse - the arrogant assumption that any available land in the east village should be an NYU dormitory, (what new dorm are they "losing?" it's a vacant lot!) or the mindblowingly disingenuous claim that there is some sort of link between community intransigence over NYU's attempt to illegally build a 26 story dorm based on a fraudulent sale of air rights, and NYPD/yuppie homocon attacks on queer/trans youth of color in the west village - i.e., the battle over the Christopher Street pier.

No, scratch that, the latter is far worse, because it ignores the immense social and political differences between a multi-billion dollar real estate behemoth like NYU and an amazing , bottom-up organization of working class and un/underemployed queer/trans street kids like FIERCE. The claim that NYU students are being discriminated against by Andrew Berman is problematic on at least three levels. 1)The neighborhood residents are suing NYU, not NYU students. There are already a number of NYU dorms in the area, and the question is not whether NYU is building a dorm there, at this point, as much as whether NYU's dorm will be a 13 story dorm or a 26 story dorm. 2)The power differential between NYU and the east village is significantly different than what the WSN editorial board represents it as being. NYU is the largest private landowner in the city and has been continuosuly buying up downtown property at a rapid pace, privatizing public space and taking housing units off the market. To claim that any opposition to this represents "anti-student" discrimination is apalling. 3)The link the article tries to make between NYU students in the east village and LGBT people in the west village collapses and glosses over the role of NYU in creating a downtown in which queer youth of color are apparently personae non gratae and the cenrality of racialized and gendered logics of spatiality and visuality at work in the struggle over the West Village as a space where queer youth of color are or are not welcome and the relative class privilege - and whiteness - of most NYU undergraduates. I don't mean to suggest that people who own property on east 12th street may not in some cases be yuppie NIMBYers, but under no circumstances does that somehow make what NYU is doing any less indefensible or allow indignant WSN editors to colonize queer youth's struggles for social justice as a means to sidestep questions of privilege and power in understanding the dynamics of urban development and gentrification.

edit:A little clarification:

I don't mean to suggest that all NYU undergrads are rich or white. Many aren't. Many of them are fighting for tuition reform. Nor am I unaware of NYU's celebrated "queer friendly" status, or in any position to refute this designation. But i do think that organizations like FIERCE force those of us who regularly interact with either end of the village to confront the way it has been (re)racialized as a gentrified, opulent space in recent decade, and whom the architects of the new village have sought to displace, and why. And whatever investment NYU has in it's "edgy progressive" reputation, we would be remiss to ignore NYUs role in crafting the west village so invested in policing and obliterating the spaces of queer youth of color...

I welcome critical perspectives on this, as always.