File photo by Joan Paylo.
A movement is afoot in a couple of the Trump Place buildings on Riverside Boulevard below 72nd Street to have the name of their buildings changed. Donald Trump’s company developed some of those buildings and then sold them to various other companies; Trump International Realty continues to manage 200, 220, and 240 Riverside Boulevard, according to the website Brick Underground.
Brick Underground got a hold of a letter being passed around at 220 Riverside Boulevard asking tenants to weigh in on a possible name change. It says that 57 homeowners and 24 renters signed a petition asking for the removal. We’ve posted it below.
Brick quoted one tenant who is behind the push for a name-change.
“It’s embarassing to live in the building,” the woman said. “I’ve had lots of friends make comments about it. My kids are so disgusted with Donald Trump that they find it viscerally uncomfortable to live in a building that has his name on it.” She says many of her neighbors feel the same way and want to rid the property of its association with Trump as soon as possible.
The letter points out that the building at 220 is named “Trump Place”, but 240 is called “The Heritage” despite having the same management.
But changing the name could cost a pretty penny.
“[We heard] it would cost between $200,000 and $1 million to replace the name, which would cut into the capital fund of the building,” she explains. “So does it make financial sense as a protest to remove a name when there could be other capital expenses that the building could incur, and how exactly would the building even assess that?”
Residents of 160 Riverside Boulevard are also petitioning Equity Residential to change the name of their building. That online petition had 272 signatures as of Sunday, Oct. 23. Neither the Trump nor Equity Residential reps responded to Brick.
Read more at Brick Underground.
I can understand that some tenants might want to honor a contribution made in the past.
There is some vanity reflected in using a living person’s name.
I feel their pain.
What if one or two letters happen to fall off in the wind?
Indeed. Think of the prestige of living at RUMP PLACE. 🙂
There’s your answer (pace Bob Dylan)
I guess the building was good enough for Trump to build it and YOU live in it. I have an idea…… You don’t like it MOVE!
You are aware that Trump did not build these buildings, right?
He lost control of the development in the 90s when he couldn’t raise money, and Chinese developers built it using his name as their front.
JAE,
That’s one of the dumbest comments I’ve ever seen. These people own the building. Trump sold it to them years ago. Your comment is like saying if I don’t like the color of the house I bought, I shouldn’t repaint it, I should move.
Renters have no rights re. management of the building and 57 homeowners is a small minority of the total. Intolerant liberals are so hilarious. So everyone bought thinking that Trump was a choirboy? Caveat emptor.
The large Trump Place sign on the east-facing side of the building at the corner of Freedom Place and W. 70 St. profoundly disrespects the memories of Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner, three martyrs of the civil rights movement. The street name Freedom Place derives from Freedom Summer, the 1964 campaign to boost voter registration among African-Americans in Mississippi. Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner, Freedom Summer volunteers, were murdered by the KKK because of their activism. A plaque honoring their memories may be seen in the south-east corner of Freedom Place and W. 70 St. That the Trump Place sign overshadows the regulation Freedom Place street sign at that corner is reason alone for removing it.
Mr. Kabak ….. well said! Freedom Place should not be desecrated by a Trump Place sign in close proximity to the plaque honoring the sacrifice these three young men made during Freedom Summer. This is especially so inlight of Trump’s rhetoric about Muslims, building a wall, etc. and now that the election is “rigged”.
Get rid of the T and P, spring for another A, suddenly you’re living in Rum Palace.
SL love your idea, I would like the letters
“T & P. removed. Barcardi would approve!
But let’s say it was just the “T” that fell off in the wind. Then what?
“Trump Place” looming in large letters on the east face of the building on Freedom Place at W. 70 St. disrespects the history of the Freedom Place name and the memories of three civil-rights martyrs who are memorialized on that corner. Freedom Place was so named to recall Freedom Summer, the 1964 movement for African-American voter registration in Mississippi. Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner, three participants in Freedom Summer, were murdered by the KKK for their activism. Their memories are kept alive by a plaque to be found on the east side of Freedom Place at W. 70 St. Proclaiming that corner to be “Trump Place” obliterates the meaning of the street’s official name and disrespects the memories of the three civil-rights martyrs. That’s reason enough to remove the Trump Place desgination
West Sider Bernie: You ought to get together with Mr. Kabak, who posted a remarkably similar comment up the chain.
I hope that both of you are planning to vote in the upcoming election!
“What’s in a name? asked Shakespeare in “Romeo and Juliet” Plenty, apparently, when it comes to public repudiation of Donald Trump!
I will trade any one of the upset people living in Trump Palace for my apartment on the Upper West Side. Right now. I will ease your pain instantly and I will suffer living in Trump Palace. I’ll even pay your moving expenses. Deal?
So you don’t mind all the amenities and services and gold plated bathroom fixtures that Trump’s name helped get you and now you are morally outraged and want his name removed? It was OK when he was just a philandering playboy because your kids could be proud of that legacy I suppose? I’m sure when you were bragging to your friends a few years ago that you lived in Trump Place and paid 10K for the honor of renting there, this never crossed your mind. Such hypocrisy. It’s laughable.
Remove the name – it is deplorable that we have upper westside buildings plastered with his disgusting name on it as well as the westside highway and Wollman Rink. Get that hideous orange sex offender iurmt of iour city! Maybe when he is in jail finally his name will be removed from this city.
I can’t stand the guy, but I believe that Trump played a big part in actually getting Wollman Rink refurbished and didn’t get a lot of financial benefit from it. I was there this summer and it was painful seeing his name, but I don’t totally begrudge him that.
uh why would he be going to jail? because u don’t like him? sowee world does not revolve awound you puddin.
To be totally consistent…some other necessary name changes:
Delancey street: James De Lancey, New York lieutenant governor and Supreme court judge. Presided over a 1741 slave “revolt” plot, sentenced 13 slaves to be burned at the stake, hung “his” own slave
Chambers Street: John Chambers…also presided over the slave revolt trail as a judge
Van Cortlandt park: Stephanus Van Cortlandt, New Amsterdam’s first local born mayor, owned many slaves
Washington Square, GWBridge, etc: George Washington, slaveowner
Madison Avenue, Madison Square Garden, etc: James Madison, slaveowner
and finally:
New York City itself: Wasnt named after the city of York in England but after James II, Duke of York, headed the Royal African Company, formed specifically to supply Virginia planters with captive labor.
THANK YOU, “drg” for your tremendous knowledge of our wonderful city’s history, even its ‘darker’ aspects.
Of course, judging the past by today’s values is always a risky leap; it’s sort of like going back in time and saying
1) to Lincoln: “Mr. President, it’s not such a good idea to visit Ford’s Theater tonight”.
2) to Julius Caesar: “Hail, Caesar, but ya know what they said about the Ides of March. And also Something Less-Than-Funny might Happen On the Way to the Forum”
etc. etc. etcerahhhhh
I think most importantly is getting rid of Columbus Ave and the statue in the Circle. More than any slave owner, Columbus embodies genocide like no other person on our planet, not even Hitler.
Why does it cost so much to change the name of a building?
I was wondering the same thing. My wild guess is there’s a buyout negotiated in the license.
Makes total sense that if the brand reduces the building’s desirability and market rents, which is arguably the case already, management would want to change the branding. This is already being seen with the Trump hotel brand. One night leases at hotels show market perception shifts very quickly, much faster than one-year apartment rental leases or condo resales.
Oh please. What a bunch of whiners. Get a life.
What? They thought he was a paragon of virtue when they moved in? Trump was always a crass, racist NYer if you cared to look before you signed the lease. Do penance in church, not with this ridiculous petition. Silly people.
Must everything be politicized? There are more important things to worry about. Those residents need to get a life.
I’d like to see the board present their plans to the shareholders for a special assessment in order to get this done. That would be an interesting meeting. Of course the renters are all in because they’re drama queens and don’t have any financial skin in the game.
i would change it if i were them – i wouldn’t buy in a Trump building. I would actually look into a class action lawsuit against him for driving down property value.
This is absurd. You bought in the building knowing very well it’s name. Must we change the name of anything that offends us? “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”. What delicate little flowers we are…
From paragraph two: “Brick Underground got ahold of a letter…”—‘ahold’ is NOT a word.
No one realized what a jerk Trump is when they bought/rented in these buildings with TRUMP emblazoned over the entrances? I’ve seen these units – Trump Tacky with a capital “T”. Hideous, cheap parquet floors and deep pile carpeted bedrooms.
Are the toilets golden?
The board elected by ALL of the residents of 220 voted this idea down. If this really bothers them then A:They should not have bought their apt. B: Do what Keith Olbermann did in July, sell it and move.
Or C: Trade apts with me. I realize some already suggested that here so pls put me on the waiting list for the 1st Riverview apt the is open.
Changing the name would add more value to the buildings. At this point, having TRUMP on the building is like having KKK on a building–some people would not buy.
KKK? Why bring Hillary’s affiliations into this discussion? #robertbyrd
These people have a point: Why would you want to live in a building named after a LOSER?
I totally understand why these folks want to get rid of the name on their building, but rather than argue the politics of it, I thought I would offer a value engineered way to change the name without having the added cost of replacing the letters, by moving them around.
I dropped the letters into the handy scrabble cheat algorithm and a list popped out. After the comedy of The Crumpet, Crapple and Muppet subsided, as well as the bizzare prospect of Templar…… only one apartment-ish name remained.
The Apertum. That’s my recommendation.
Start a crowdshare fundraiser to pay for the cost of removing his name