Reason # 40: Generosity?
Why do we need to defeat Donald Trump and ensure that a Democrat occupies the White House?
Commenting on my 37th post on Donald Trump’s personal warmth, Lisa Rose stated that “I have never heard one story about an act of kindness by Trump, Not one!” I was accordingly surprised last night to read of what appeared, at first sight, to be an act of selfless generosity. Flabbergasted, I dug a bit deeper.
At a meeting in 1990, Donald Trump looked at a drastic revision of his development plan for the upper West Side of Manhattan and said “OK”. He even donated 23 acres for a park. What a generous gesture! Perhaps not. Let’s flash back in time and see the full story.
We have earlier described a sweetheart deal between bankrupt Penn Central Railroad, embattled NYC mayor Abe Beam and the Trumps. In addition to monumental tax breaks and an option to renovate the Commodore Hotel, Trump was also given options to develop two giant parcels of land in the west side of Manhattan that were former rail yards. When I say given, I mean given; the Trumps got the options for free! Federal investigators were very interested in this deal.
Donald Trump sold this option but later bought it back for more than $100 million. That doesn’t sound like the art of the deal.
Part of the southern parcel would serve as the footprint for the Javitz Convention Center. More about hijinks there on another day. What about the northern parcel between 59th and 72nd streets? That was to become a titanic development, called first “Television City” and – predictably – later “Trump City”. It would contain the phallic world’s tallest residential building (with Donald occupying the penthouse), twenty thousand apartments, a mall and much more. The local citizenry formed the Westpride coalition, refused to submit to his grandiosity and obstructed him at every turn. He was furious and fought back, including verbal attacks on NYC mayor Ed Koch, who responded by observing
“If I have made Donald Trump respond like a stuck pig, I must be doing something right.” And taunted “Piggy, Piggy, Piggy.”
Contentious negotiations, lasting years, between Westpride and Trump featured multiple downward revisions of the Trump City plan and culminated in Trump’s “generous donation” and his craven capitulation, following an empty, last-minute threat to back out.
The story is told in a riveting article entitled “Lost City of Trump”, by Michael Kruse.
Why did Trump back down. A quick review of other events in his life may help to explain. In 1990, he was involved in a messy divorce with his first wife, he owed billions of dollars in debt. His casinos were swirling around the drain, he had to sell his giant yacht, shut down his airline sell and sell off properties. To put it bluntly, he didn’t have a pot to piss in and might lose everything. There was no possibility that Trump City could be built; he was forced to grudgingly play nice to Westpride. He had gone all-in, in a high-stakes poker game, bluffed and then, when called, folded. As in every other facet of his life, Donald Trump’s generosity was and remains a hypocritical sham.
The Trump City fiasco is yet another example of how stupidity, combined with arrogance and megalomania are not a good model for business acumen and success. Buildings in the much-downsized project, now called Riverside South, have removed “Trump Place” signs from their buildings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverside_South,_Manhattan
Follow the example of upper West Side citizens and stand up to a thuggish bully. A bungling, megalomaniacal loser is not worthy of your vote for president.
Have a heart; use your mind, search your conscience, and vote for Democratic candidates – across the ballot – on November. 5th.
Please share this message with your friends and please, add your thoughts, to expand upon what are only brief sketches here.
Fred Grannis
August 28, 2024