I can only hope that when he is out of office one of the first acts of the next president is to NULL and VOID the security clearance of every single cabinet member in his administration that does have previous job experience... otherwise they will all still make money with that clearance (and who knows what other shady self-dealings) and a mockery of this country.
7
Donald Trump -- such a stable-genius-great-wisdom artist of the deal, his name must be hidden from public view.
8
Lasker rink is not even well run. It’s expensive and the bathrooms are gross and smelly.
7
As someone who attended more than a few Schaefer Music events at Wollman Rink back in the 1900s, I wonder if there might not be a number of eager alternative sponsors these days. That said, I still remember the dark looks from José Feliciano's fans when my friends reacted poorly to his version of Light My Fire. I think Ginger Baker was on the same bill that night (which strikes me now as some mighty wacky booking) although those days are a bit foggy. I do remember the cheap seats were 2 dollars, no matter who was playing.
2
Take the name off everything. That is all.
17
How was Trump able to buy skating rinks located in the park? Isn't the park owned by the city?
How about NYT runs a story about how and when Trump bought skating rinks and a public golf course in a city park?
Who is responsible for that shady deal?
He still owns it. Taking his name off it, doesn't hide the fact that any admission lines his pockets.
p.s. Those of us that grew up any where in the Tri-State area knew about Trump's stiffing unions workers on pay, the numerous bankruptcies he filed to avoid paying the hundreds of lawsuits against him, refusing to rent to Black folks, relationship with Roy Cohn, his abusive relationship with Ivanka Trump (which she wrote a book about more than 20 years ago), his sleazy Studio 54 adventures, and his various shady deals around NYC, including the city giving him money to build low income housing, but instead he built $1,000,000+ penthouses, and still enjoys tax breaks on these properties, long before he had a game show on NBC or ran for President.
Of course, he is unpopular. We loathe him, his father Fred, and his degenerate, corrupt, offspring (this does not include his young son, Baron).
I'd ice skate in my bathtub and golf in my backyard before giving him a dime!
20
He only runs them. Badly, of course, the way he's always run his businesses.
The only thing the Trumps do well is sell the Trump name to stooges in search of bogus, gaudy pizzazz.
16
I favor the idea of naming streets and public buildings in honor of famous Americans and would like to see homeless shelters, immigrant detention camps and mental hospitals named after President Trump.
9
@A. Stanton
Why? I don't think you meant it this way (hope not) but this post says that sonehow homeless people, people waiting in immigrant detention facilities and people afflicted with mental illness deserve to reside in facilities named for trump. Why?
3
Scarlet letter now?
7
I worked in the GM Building during the time Trump owned it, then lost it due to bankruptcy (go ahead, google it). The huge letters bearing his name came down quickly. His presence in the building was negative even back then. New Yorkers know this.
16
It's amazing how deep Trump loathing reaches into the micro-economy.
And yet he is a potential re-elect?
6
NYT should get a copy of the contracts that Trump has with these properties in Central Park.
Does he own them? Manage them? Lease them? Does he keep all the proceeds or does the city split profits.
Publish the contracts for everything he is associated with the park: rinks, golf course, carousel, so we can see where the money is going.
Has Trump been lining his pockets with money that could be going to NY tax base, park maintenance, schools, libraries. Please get the facts. Readers want to know.
Let's see where filth lies and who in the City is culpable for these deals.
9
Really not sure who is more incompetent and corrupt, Trump or the Concessions staff at the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. A marriage made in heaven.
1
Now if we could only remove his name from the list of US presidents.
24
@Ellen Oliver
Good one... Maybe we'll all wake up one day to find out it was all just a long- running mass media joke on us all and never really happened.
5
This company won't even stand by its own name if it means making less profit.
Is that not the definition of greed and cowardice all wrapped up in to one?
9
I will still not skate there. That ice is tainted. There are plenty of other rinks in and around NYC with much better ice and no hidden "T" with which to contend.
12
So. There was a brief moment of "look what that guy got done" back when Trump got the Wollman rink over some hump or other. I admit that feeling. I also (super-cringe) admit that I voted for Nixon in 1968, but hey, my parents were staunchly Republican, and I was essentially uneducated despite 3.5 years at a SUNY school when tuition was $400 for a semester no matter how many credits one registered for. Yes, I am an English major and that sentence ended with a preposition. Sue me. It apparently works for Tump . . .
But oh, how the times have changed. Apparently even that chronic bankrupt or his minions can make a practical move to stem their red ink.
And thanks to the whistleblowers, the career diplomats and functionaries, the commenters here at The Newspaper of Record, and other caring and persistent citizens, perhaps the pendulum has moved?
A girl can dream. Or even push for reality.
13
Richard Nixon invented the EPA, cared about pollution and tried to stem it, and funded medical research.
The man was flawed, but he had nothing near Trump's insane, obsessive self-entitlement.
7
@Linda Lindenfelser You made my day. Very funny.
6
Trump figures he’s already skating on thin ice with the impeachment investigation.
16
Ba-dum bum.
3
The ice apparently is getting so thin that trump is having trouble skating on it.
10
Boycott, boycott, boycott!
8
Trump is a cowardly little man-boy, a con-man and cancer on society. His ridiculous Trump name on so many buildings is revolting, but don’t forget that he still gets the money from the rink whatever name you want to call it. Boycott boycott boycott.
14
It’s more signs pointing to the fact Trump is skating on thin ice.
7
Last year I took my kids to Vollman Rink. As soon as we arrived and saw Trump’s name on their equipment we did a 180 and went to Rockefeller Center instead. I guess they’ve caught up with the fact that the “Trump” brand is bad publicity, even in the president’s own home city. I hope that this a positive foreboding for the 2020 election.
25
@Viola
I and most people on nyc hope so too. But just a reminder - NYC, and in fact NYS, did not vote for trump in 2016 either.
6
Those financial statements were provided by the Trump organization. How can NYC take them at face value?
13
"is set to expire in early 2021."
So the contract expires in the middle of a skating season? Very strange.
5
@Don Wiss Contract expiers April 30, 2021
4
Then how will we know what properties to boycott?
8
On third ave and 61st street a Trump-Building Store front remains empty for going on three years, unable to rent it. The Trump name is even more tarnished now than before 2016.
13
@Jt
This explains why he is having government employees, military personnel and Pence to stay at his properties.
The military even changed their re-fueling station to Scotland next to his resort and they all book rooms there.
He is hard-up for business.
21
@Jt Apparently the same is true of the tower in Chicago.
2
When I was a teen, well before Trump had anything to do with it, the Central Park rinks belonged to the city. Since when does a company that manages a property get the right to put its name on the property as if it owned it? It is more than past time for the owners of property that Trump's name appears on to take the usurper's name down.
29
Trump the man has been maintaining that Trump the Organization has lost "billions" since he became president. Maybe it's more like a few millions, but the question is: How much of that is due to well-earned disgust with Trump the man, and how much is due to inept management by Trump the organization in the persons of Eric and Don Jr.?
34
@Tom
All of it
6
Skating on thin ice? On the (b)rink of impeachment? Even with his overabundance of crass, crude, common vulgarities, I find it difficult to muster much Schadenfreude for this latest dropping shoe in the drip-and-drab demise of the charlatan-in-cheap. I suppose it is a watershed, though, when even Trump’s own false braggadocio acknowledges that his bad-news approach is bad for business. As I’ve mentioned several times before, shortly after the election, a New Yorker told me, “There’s a reason Trump lost New York by more than twenty points: We knew the dude!” Perhaps the “dude-gotta-go” himself is beginning to recognize what the vast majority of us realized years ago. Sad!
21
Hmm ... could the State rename Donald J. Trump State Park ... this is what Wikipedia says about it: "Donald Trump, for whom the park was named, purchased the property for $2 million in the 1990s, and donated it in 2006.[1][2] Trump donated the land after he was unable to gain town approvals to develop a private golf course on the property.[3] At the time of its donation, Trump claimed the parcel was worth $100 million. He used the donation as a tax write-off.[4][5]" ...
20
@Steve of Albany
This is real?
OMG.
No wonder the little people love him. I could do a lot with $98,000,000 of even virtual money.
And who has “standing” to call him out on things and make him stop? Can we get the IRS to audit him in actuality? Please?
14
The Trump brand has become the punchline to a bad joke in America. In my country, Canada, it is worse than eating month-old roadkill. However, this is not always the case abroad. Those thinking that the so-called American dream is an ideal, and not a vulgar money-grab, continue to frequent his foreign properties. If the USA is lucky, once out of office and if he survives his jail term he will relocate to his rightful place in Siberia.
13
@KennethWmM
I have often thought of America as a "wallet". with 45 in residence at the WH, it is more an ATM. Jenny
1
I like that the NYTimes used the word "wipe". It conjures up the action taken to remove/clean a rancid stain from an object in plain site.
9
The Trump name is mud....a cultural obscenity...it must be challenging to run a business when over the half the nation can't stand anything about you.
Here's to Trump bankruptcy !
45
I've been away from NYC for quite a while now, so I had no idea that the Trump Organization was running Wollman and Lasker. That's a great shame, and I hope the city is able to cancel those contracts forthwith. I visited Wollman many times when we lived in Queens, but now I would never go back unless and until it is no longer associated with this odious administration.
27
As a born & bred New Yorker, who skated at NYC rinks, can someone inform me why posted signs there are now in Spanish?
@Jay Roth
Possibly to help the 29% of the population that come from a Latino background. That's almost 1 in 3 'born and bred' New Yorkers
20
@Jay Roth Believe it or not a lot of people here speak Spanish and ice-skate.
3
Ah, but how much better off they and their children would be if they mastered English.
That is what my impoverished, immigrant grandparents did. They spoke English even at home because they knew their children needed a good grounding in the language of their new home -- the language of engineering, medicine, and law.
My parents retained their Greek language too -- and they never lost their culture of good Greek food, Greek music, and conscientious hard work.
2
Protesters should install duplicate Trump name signs to de-advertise the rinks, so the skating public knows where NOT to skate.
8
So the Trump organization doesn't want its customers to know to whom they are giving their money. Right. Got it! I hope someone stands outside and informs those who are not paying attention that this money goes to support a corrupt president who is trying to ruin out country...and pretty much succeeding.
23
Let's hope that having the Trump name `much less visible' becomes a trend.
10
If only it was that easy to remove from other locales . . .
5
If only it was this easy for the country to do it too.
21
In truth, Trump probably asked for his name to be removed.
After all, the last thing he needs at the moment is for people to be think that he is skating on very thin ice..
10
I imagine it was a decision driven by the desire to avoid constant graffiti abatement. With their name just asking to be modified with a few quick swipes and sprays, they probably viewed it as cost effective.
16
A Midas, he ain't!
Everything about Trump starts with exaggeration--- bloviating to the max. Trump always claims that he can everything faster, cheaper, better than anyone else. And so it was with Central Park concessions. However, now that his presidency is skating on dangerously thin ice, the Trump Family knows that there's no reason to let hyper-partisanship get in the way of corporate earnings.
12
@Dan
But a Minus he is.
Strangely, the Wolfman Rink is the one project that he undertook that went well, on time, within budget. But his name is anathema in New York, so this move is understandable. Skaters were practicing their figures there yesterday afternoon.
The Laskey Rink will be completely remodeled soon.
4
@Caryl baron
Fill me in. Did he buy these properties or is does he have a contract with the city to manage them? If so, does he keep all the profits or the city?
3
It's good to know that the contract ends in 2 years. Now I understand the new plans for Lasker Rink renovation and attempts to go upscale. I would be shocked if the city renews with the Trump organization. Most NYC taxpayers here don't wont this guy or his children to get a dime of their money.
34
Along these same lines, once Trump is out of office, I will boycott any form of media that covers anything he says. I hope this becomes a widely held position.
56
@Concerned
Amen and include Don Jr too. That smug member of the lucky sperm club will have no value for his half baked thoughts.
7
Once the donald himself is out of office and imprisoned -- and indictments of the trump and kushner organizations have resulted in convictions and 'organizational' bankruptcies of the Ch. 7 'sort,' I would like to see little donny, eric, ivanka and jared working the carousel and the skating rinks in Central Park 'for tips' (assuming they 'escape' their own criminal-conviction imprisonments) .
54
No way would I or will I knowingly put a single dime in that con man's pocket.
New York City is FULL of options to Trump properties. There is little we can do until next year--except voting with our feet.
73
There are other choices in New York for skating. My advice is to skip the Central Park ice rinks and the Carousel; “he” doesn’t need us to line his pockets when he is milking his office for every last dime.
85
@L Nelson
There are very few ice rinks in NYC. Several years ago there was a business venture to create a 9 rink facility in the Bronx and the local city council members shot it down out of shortsightedness. Local kids hockey and figure skating organizations have to use Lasker Rink. The facility is out dated now. Clear evidence that the Trump organization has no plans to renovate and are mostly concerned with taking their percentage of the ticket, rental and concession sales.
Local people are thrilled that his name is coming down but the $ is still going to Trump. Hopefully the contract with the city will end soon but knowing Trump it's probably for 99 years.
16
He doesn’t need us help him bring down American democracy and its standing in the world.