Columbia University's "Dinkinsgate Scandal" Connection--Part 2

After New York City voters decided in the 1993 mayoralty election that David Dinkins did not deserve a second term as New York City’s mayor, the Columbia University administration hired the local Democratic Party politician to be a professor “in the practice of public affairs” at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. And during the last few years Columbia University Professor Dinkins (http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/dd98-fac.html ) has apparently attempted to use his remaining special political influence in New York City politics to help his private employer undemocratically implement its land-grabbing campus expansion plan north of West 125th Street in West Harlem, despite the objections of local community tenant activists. Not surprisingly, when Columbia University Professor Dinkins tried to sell Columbia University’s expansion plan to the 700 community residents who attended the local community board’s hearings in August 2007, the former New York City mayor was booed, hissed and shouted down by West Harlem residents and their Columbia and Barnard student supporters.

Following, is a section of an article that I wrote on “The Dinkinsgate Scandal” which first appeared in the August/September 1991 issue of the Lower East Side newspaper, Shadow:

Exhibit A: “Dinkins, a 1950 graduate of Howard University, obtained this law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1965, some fifteen years after graduating from college.”…J. Raymond Jones in The Harlem Fox: J. Raymond Jones and Tammany, 1920-1970

Exhibit B: “Mr. Dinkins testified that he sold the stock to his son in late 1985, and that his son paid for the stock by promising to pay him $58,000, plus interest by January 1991.”—page 8 of the Report of the Special Deputy Commissioner Concerning The Transfer of Inner City Broadcasting Stock By David N. Dinkins on January 10, 1991

Exhibit C: “Dinkins said that before taking office, he transferred his stock in the company, at no charge, to his 32-year-old son to avoid any conflict of interest”—Paul Moses in his September 26, 1986 Newsday article, “Dinkins’ Cable Link: Lists Stock On City Form.”

Exhibit D: “The financial disclosure report for 1985 was completed by Mr. Dinkins in 1986, and the report for 1986 was completed by Mr. Dinkins in 1987. At no time did Mr. Dinkins disclose on the financial disclosure reports that his son owed him any money.”—page 21 of the Report of the Special Deputy Commissioner Concerning the Transfer of Inner City Broadcasting Corporation Stock By David N. Dinkins.

Next: Columbia University’s “Dinkinsgate Scandal” Connection—Part 3