State Attorney General Tish James is currently entangled in other pursuits, appearing frequently in front of cameras and embroiled in lawsuits against the Trump administration. Meanwhile, she’s overlooked an urgent issue: the West Harlem Development Corp.’s $100 million debacle, marred by squandered resources, missed opportunities, and potential self-dealing.
Back in 2009, Columbia University established the WHDC as a conciliatory gesture to appease local influencers when the university sought state intervention through eminent domain to expand its footprint significantly within the neighborhood.
With tens of millions from the university, this nonprofit was charged with channeling funds into economic development initiatives in Harlem, including a $20 million commitment aimed at creating affordable housing.
However, rather than fulfill its mission, the WHDC transformed into a machine for political favors, dispensing grants to minor arts and youth groups in Harlem, awarding lucrative salaries to insiders with political ties, and — in a puzzling turn of events — reportedly contributing to a plan by the Council on American Islamic Relations for addressing the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and the ensuing hostage situation.
The anticipated economic revitalization and affordable housing never materialized. Instead, the organization became a pipeline for channeling funds and influence through well-connected individuals like current Chair Milton Tingling and Executive Director Zead Ramadan, who also serves on the board of CAIR-New York.
Tingling, a retired judge, was just named to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new Jew-free advisory panel on judicial appointments.
Ramadan is the central figure in a federal lawsuit against the WHDC, brought by its terminated director of housing development, Vincent Morgan, who taped his boss Ramadan’s allegedly racist rants about Dominicans, African-Americans, Zionists and Jewish control of New York City. (Ramadan has denied any wrongdoing.)
The dysfunction at the WHDC is well-known among uptown pols, who won’t go on the record about the noxious organization; Columbia has washed its hands of the whole thing after years of peeping about the waste and abuse.
But where’s crusading AG James, whose duties include policing New York tax-exempt charitable organizations?
She hasn’t been shy about suing groups with whose positions she dislikes, from the NRA to the Catholic Church, but declines to lift even an eyebrow about the scandalous WHDC.
The West Harlem Development Corp. is a poster child for the neglect and deep-rooted waste that defines so much “economic development” in New York, and the “community benefits” blackmail surrounding most large projects.
And that, no doubt, is why Tish James won’t do a thing to liberate the tens of millions still in the WHDC hoard for the actual good of the community.