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"We on the West Side are glad it's in our area," said City Council member Ronnie M. Eldridge. [Donald Trump], the titanically boastful and feisty dealmaker of the 1980s who had scorned many of the civic groups as not reflecting the desires of the community, was replaced yesterday by a conciliatory Trump humbled by his financial problems of the 1990s.
When asked if the compromise is a blow to his ego, Trump turned to [David N. Dinkins], asking what he thought. "No, it should be a boost to your pride," Dinkins quipped. "I went with the punches, but they were good punches," Trump said.
Newsday Photo by Donna Dietrich-Mayor David N. Dinkins and Donald Trump discuss Trump's revised West Side development plan yesterday.
A slew of critics who vowed for years to bury Donald Trump's development vision for the Upper West Side came to City Hall yesterday to praise him.
Speaker after speaker who had fought bitterly against plans for the huge "Trump City" development along the Hudson River spoke glowingly of the sharply scaled-down replacement that a kinder and gentler Trump had negotiated with some of them since December.
"We on the West Side are glad it's in our area," said City Council member Ronnie M. Eldridge. Trump, the titanically boastful and feisty dealmaker of the 1980s who had scorned many of the civic groups as not reflecting the desires of the community, was replaced yesterday by a conciliatory Trump humbled by his financial problems of the 1990s.
His Trump City plan for the 76-acre former Penn Central railyard site between 59th and 72nd Streets was replaced by a project that he grudgingly let the civic groups dub Riverside South for the time being. He stood alongside Mayor David N. Dinkins, Borough President Ruth Messinger and a few dozen local legislators and civic and community representatives, all of whom had opposed the previous plan.
"The mammoth Trump City proposal no longer exists and a new exciting vision is being created for the Penn Yards," said Catharine Cary, executive director of Westpride, which has fought the project for years with the help of fundraising theme parties and celebrities. Cary pointedly listed the elements that have vanished, including the "massive" regional shopping mall, the wall of 60to 70-story towers at the river's edge, the 7,400-car garage and, the feature that became the lightning rod of criticism, the 150-story world's tallest building.
Instead of seething or snapping back as he might have in the old days, Trump fidgeted and turned pink, as though he had been caught cheating on a test, and then, after mention of the tall building, retorted mildly, "Not here," suggesting there may be another site. Cary quickly responded, "Watch out, L.A.," referring to a project Trump has been trying to develop in Los Angeles.
When asked if the compromise is a blow to his ego, Trump turned to Dinkins, asking what he thought. "No, it should be a boost to your pride," Dinkins quipped. "I went with the punches, but they were good punches," Trump said.
State Senate Minority Leader Manfred Ohrenstein (D-Manhattan) said that even though he was supporting the compromise, he was still not convinced it needed to include 8.3 million square feet of developed space - down from 14.5 million - and would question that in the city approval process. Trump murmured sheepishly, "It is" needed.
Still, some critics remained.
"I am opposed to the 8.3 million square feet of development," State Assemb. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat whose district includes part of the upper West Side, said in a phone interview, adding it is more than the 7.3 million square feet in the "Lincoln West" plan that failed before Trump took over the site. "It's too dense," he said.
Trump said in an interview before the City Hall news conference that the site will be developed piecemeal as a series of individual projects. "It will develop with the economy," he said. "I may sell a portion to individual developers who would use individual architects." He said the new $2.5 billion plan includes 5,500 apartments, down from 7,600.
Despite all the concessions made by Trump, and support from the civic groups, the city and the state, there are no firm assurances or financial commitments that the project, or the diversion of a highway that would make way for a new 23-acre waterfront park at the site, will ever be built. "We recognize there is some risk," Dinkins said.
Newsday Photo by Donna Dietrich-Mayor David N. Dinkins and Donald Trump discuss Trump's revised West Side development plan yesterday.
(Copyright Newsday Inc., 1991)