Meet Nick Sprayregen -- that's him over there on the right, alongside anti-Columbia propaganda. For three years, he's upheld a solemn vow to rally against the University's expected use of eminent domain by holding onto his Manhattanville storage company, Tuck-It-Away Storage. He's also the subject of an Observer profile from earlier this week (and one from the Times earlier this year), which chronicles his Sisyphean battle against Columbia.

Specifically, Sprayregen's opposed to the University's imminent use of eminent domain, and in the past has tried to make a deal with Columbia in hopes of convincing them to drop it from their game plan. But Bollinger and his Legal All Stars wooed Harlem politicians with promises of low-income housing and an increase of jobs, so Columbia's plan was approved by the state, Manhattanville was deemed "blighted", and Sprayregen's hopes of warding off eminent domain looked bleak.

The New York Times is reporting this morning that Anne Whitman, who up until very recently was one of three Manhattanville landowners who refused to sell to Columbia, has decided to throw in the proverbial towel and has agreed to turn over her land to Columbia. In exchange for selling the property currently home to her moving storage company (now located on 129th/130th on B'Way), Whitman will receive a stretch of property in Washington Heights, which Bwog hears is quite lovely.

A few years ago, Whitman had the following to say when CU offered her $4 million: "'No way Columbia is going to steal this property right out from underneath me. Remember that man who stood in front of the tank at Tiananmen Square? That's me.'"

Which, of course, didn't turn out to be quite true -- probably-unintended anti-Communist implications non-withstanding.

Nonetheless, that leaves just Nick Sprayregen and a conspicuously unnamed family as the only two landowners resisting the charms (re: money) of PrezBo.