New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s office is threatening to take legal action against Columbia University if it doesn\u2019t \u201cimmediately\u201d reopen a campus sidewalk to the public, court documents show.<\/p>\n
College Walk runs from Broadway to Amsterdam Avenue and serves as the primary pedestrian thoroughfare for Columbia faculty, students and staff to walk through the Morningside Heights campus. The university bought the sidewalk from the city in 1953, but the agreement<\/a> gave the city \u201cfree and unhampered access\u201d for the \u201cmaintenance, repair and relocation, if necessary, of the presently existing City facilities.\u201d For the most part, area residents moved freely across campus until 2024, when the university locked the gates to the walkway amid pro-Palestinian protests on campus. Now, anyone who isn\u2019t affiliated with Columbia must use a QR system to enter the gates.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2025, a group of Morningside Heights residents sued the university and city<\/a>, arguing that locking the gates violated the terms of the original agreement.\u00a0In response, then-Mayor Eric Adams filed a motion to dismiss<\/a>, arguing that College Walk isn\u2019t a city-owned public street or public space and that under the agreement the city only maintains a \u201climited easement at grade for municipal purposes and services only.\u201d<\/p>\n But Mamdani, who was elected last year, has since reversed the city\u2019s position.<\/p>\n