One of my fondest memories growing up in Woodside, Queens in the late 1950’s and 1960’s was, during the winter months, taking the elevated IRT No. 7 Flushing Line into the “city” with my sister and mother to skate at Wollman Skating Rink in Central Park.  It was only a short ride to 60th Street and 5th Avenue after a transfer to the BMT Line at Queensboro Plaza and, after disembarking from the subway, only a short walk to the rink.  I would lace up my hockey skates while my sister donned her figure skates and we would spend our afternoon racing around the rink weaving in and out of the other skaters, stopping occasionally for a hot chocolate to warm our hands. 

Another memory was driving over the Whitestone Bridge to visit my relatives in the Bronx where both my parents grew up.  As we approached the Bronx side of the bridge and looked out to the east we could see city sanitation trucks dumping garbage in the landfill in what is now known as Ferry Point. 

Fast forward a few years… in 1980 the Wollman Rink was closed when its concrete floor buckled and a two year renovation was planned.  By May 1986, six years later, the renovations had still not been completed and with some additional construction changes it was estimated the work would now not be completed until the winter of 1987. Enter Donald Trump who offered to rebuild the rink at his expense (within six months) in return for a lease to operate the rink and an adjacent restaurant to recoup his costs.  Then Mayor Ed Koch agreed and, lo and behold, the work was completed some two months ahead of schedule and under budget.

A similar saga of failed development began to unfold beginning in 2000. This time with respect to the long awaited development of a golf course (Robert Moses actually had thought of a golf course at the location in the 1960’s) on that same landfill east of the Whitestone Bridge that I saw on my way to the Bronx from Queens.

The city, in 2000, entered into an agreement with developers to build and develop an 18-hole golf course on some 195 acres. In return the developers would be given a 35-year franchise to operate the course. Environmental concerns emanating from the leaking of methane from the landfill required a clean-up of the landfill with the city expending millions in the process on top of a development budget that was already running 18 million dollars over original projections. In 2012, the city turned the project over to Trump.  Remember this was 12 years after the original contract was awarded. Trump completed the course in 2013, only one year after having the project turned over to him, and his organization has been running the facility ever since.

In terms of these two projects at least, the Trump Organization has done right by the city and its residents and visitors.

The reward, however, for the Trump Organization’s competency is a cancelling of the Wollman Rink contract and a planned cancellation of the Ferry Point Golf Course contract.

The reason cited by the Di Blasio administration for the former is President Trump’s inciting of an insurrection at the Capitol, a charge of which he was formally found not guilty by the Senate.  And notwithstanding the fact that the Ferry Point golf course has run into some financial difficulty, the primary reason given for the latter contract’s cancellation is that the PGA, citing reputational concerns, cancelled its 2022 Championship at Trump’s Bedminster Golf Course.  Based on that, the city felt these same reputational concerns would impact the Trump Organization’s ability to fulfill that part of the Ferry Point contract which required the Trump Organizations to attract major championship events.

So in the end politics, not business competency wins the day. And innocent until proven guilty, a hallmark value of our democratic society and the core premise of the US justice system, also takes a holiday.

Equally important is that the decisions being made to marginalize the Trump Organization affect more than the Trump family…they also affect the many people who work for the Trump Organization and rely on it for their income. 

The fact is that cancel culture will endure as long as we are willing to stand by and let it.  We can as individuals and as a society fight against this insidious tool of oppression, which is more and more being used against any one with whom we might disagree  or whom we find disagreeable.

When progressive voices suggested that Goya be boycotted because its CEO spoke out in support of Trump, people, including this writer, countered by going out and buying more Goya products, which by all accounts led to a 1000% increase in Goya sales. What were progressives reacting to in calling for the boycott? Specifically, the CEO had referred to Trump as a “blessed leader” following his promised expansion of taxpayer support for charter and private Schools and additional tax benefits for opportunity zone development in urban areas.

Recently in reference to the planned cancellation of the Ferry Point Golf Course contract the President of the Friends of Ferry Point Park posted the following:

“The quality of maintenance (under Trumps name) has been fantastic and we hope if any other concessionaire takes over it will also be immaculate and sensitive to wildlife. It is a shame that our prejudice (sic) NYC “Leaders” did not allow Trump to help the West side of this Park for fear of political alienation from others Democrats.”

It is obvious that he gets it…too bad our political leaders do not.