While We Were Sleeping: NYU and the Destruction of New York

by Mark Crispin Miller (Contributor), Jules Feiffer (Contributor), Ernest Davis (Contributor)

While We Were Sleeping is an urgent call to save Greenwich Village from New York University's uncontrolled expansion. Writers and artists make the case against NYU's plans to devour precious acres of green space -- including the spectacular Sasaki Garden, the Key Park children's playground, and a gorgeous grove of oak trees. All this will go ahead if we don't stop it. The price of our inactivity will be twenty years of continuous construction. We will wake up to discover 2.2 million square feet of office space where our Village used to be. Our alarm clock is ringing.

139 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Mark Crispin Miller graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in 1971, Johns Hopkins University with an MA in 1973, and a PhD in 1977. He is currently Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. He is known for his writing on American media and for his activism on behalf of democratic media reform.

Reviews

[Nazary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this book in the self-print section of McNally Jackson and as most great books it was a happy accidental find. I've long been weary of the NYU expansions plans and to see it take voice was reaffirming.
This book is a little bloated and some of the pieces are repetitive - yes we get it it's bad but you can explain YOUR reasoning for it? And an introduction of the NYU 2031 plan at the beginning would have been useful for novices.
Despite this it's still an important read to really understand the impact NYU is about to have on the village and the city. In particular the pieces by Andrew Ross and Sarah Schulman are must reads for anyone that wants to learn about this topic.
Overall I encourage any New Yorker to read this book, but hope they tighten up the second edition.