See more of our coverage in your search results.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani is threatening to sue Columbia University to open their campus gates — which have been locked for three years since the anti-Israel campus protests of 2023.
The Mamdani administration warned it’ll take “prompt” legal action if College Walk — a once bustling footpath on West 116th Street that allows pedestrians to cut across the school’s Morningside Heights campus — isn’t reopened immediately, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
“When it comes to the specifics of this lawsuit, I want to just lay out very clearly that what we stated is that unlike the past administration, we do support the reopening of the walkway,” Mamdani said at an unrelated press conference in Greenpoint, Brooklyn Thursday.
The city previously argued that College Walk did not require pedestrian access under Mamdani’s predecessor Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.
Fuming neighborhood residents sued the school and the city in January 2025, arguing that the stretch of quad space was intended to remain public after the Big Apple sold it to the private Ivy League institution decades ago.
Mamdani said the city reached an agreement with the plaintiffs, “which makes clear what the original purpose was of College Walk, as well as commits us to taking prompt legal action if Columbia does not immediately reopen the walkway.”
The mayor, who isn’t shy about his anti-Israel views, said the decision didn’t have to do with his support of the student protests over the Israel-Gaza war.
“The reason this is a priority is that decades ago the city reached an agreement with Columbia University on the basis that College Walk was supposed to remain open for public access,” he told reporters.
“This is something that I know personally, also as someone who grew up on Riverside Drive, right next to Columbia University, whose father is a Columbia University faculty member,” he continued.
“And what I have heard, and what so many have heard in that neighborhood, is that when you close what is public space in the very site that is supposed to be a protection for academic and public freedom, you are not only taking a very different path, but also quite literally, you are forcing so many members of the community to take very different paths to get around their day-to-day life”.
A university spokesperson defended Columbia’s ability to oversee the walkway.
Start your day with all you need to know
Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.
Thanks for signing up!
“The City and University have argued in court filings that College Walk is private property and that the City’s easement is limited to municipal infrastructure,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“As the property owner, Columbia has the legal right and responsibility to manage access to College Walk, including taking appropriate measures to protect our community and the continuity of our academic operations.”
The court of documents revealing the city’s change of argument in the case were first reported by the Columbia Spectator.
