Posted on 09/04/2015 5:39:12 AM PDT by dennisw
Before Donald Trump became a celebrity, before he became The Donald, even before he was regularly pilloried in the pages of the old Spy magazine as a “short-fingered vulgarian,” New Yorkers knew his name thanks to one thing in particular. Not the in-and-out-of-bankruptcy real estate empire he inherited, or his flamboyant love life, but the Wollman Rink in Central Park.
I do think his largely interchangeable opponents underestimate his appeal at their peril.
What’s the Wollman Rink, you ask? It’s a skating rink at the south end of Central Park that, like just about everything else in New York City, had fallen into decrepitude by the 1970s — the stinking, filthy New York City immortalized in such films as Death Wish and The French Connection. In 1980, the city announced it was closing the popular spot for renovations that were to last a couple of years; by 1986, the rink was still “under construction,” costs had soared to over $12 million, and the work that had been done was faulty; the rink had come to symbolize the futility of government at all levels. Up stepped Trump with a challenge to mayor Ed Koch: let him take over the rink and he would have the work completed in a few months and the place open to the public before the end of the year.
He did. Here’s how it went down, as chronicled in the pages of the New York Times.
I can still remember libs in NYC fulminating about this. Well, he doesn’t have to pay attention to city rules and regulations! He can avoid the red tape unlike the city! Blah, blah, blah as Jeb Bush likes to say.
Trump as a callow yoof, with Henry Stern, in 1986 at the Wollman Rink
You must read the rest of the article to find out how Trump rebuilt this skating rink in three months. After NYC had wasted five years and millions of dollars trying to repair it and made a total mess of it
Trump can build a border fence just as fast as the Wollman skating rink and this is what the illegal alien lobby (of Republicans and Democrats) fear the most
Today he said he’d be willing to take in Syrian refugees. Not happy at all with that statement.
They will bring up that Trump’s ice skating abilities are poor. LOL. He has 5 kids, and lives in NYC. How poor can they be?
Obama is refusing Syrian Christians. Trump would not. O think that was the point.
I think we've come to a point in this country where the politicaians simply can't get it done anymore. They're corrupt, incompetent and unmativated to change. Someone like Donald Trump needs to come in and clean up after the clowns...and lead the charge that runs the bums out of town.
Trump has spoken a few time of changing refugee policy so that Christian Arabs would be allowed in. The Obama admin ignores them and just about the only Arab-Syrian-Iraqi refugees coming in are Muslims.
Our current refugee policy is 100% corrupt and run by money grubbing churches and Jewish agencies who make great money from bringing them in. With 70% or so of refugees being Muslim these days
I’m dead set against bringing them in. All I see in the photos are dead women and children and pushing men cramming into planes, trains and automobiles. They seem to have the typical middle eastern male supremacy thing going. I saw one push a young woman out of the way as he got on a train. They may be Christians but they are anti-Semites who probably will all go on the dole in Germany. Hungary is doing the right thing.
remember it well...my dad was NYPD for 23 years and spent the middle part of his career in Central Park in SEU (street enforcement unit)...
they used to have a summer concert series called Schaefer Central Park Music Festival then Dr Pepper Central Park music festival which was held at Wollman Rink...from the time i was in the 5th grade until early high school i sat on the stage for a LOT of those shows thanks to my dad..
we were suppose to see Don McClean one Saturday but there was a flash flood which ended up ruining the PA system and they had to cancel a bunch of shows...the damage from the rain eventually destroyed the skating rink and for six years the place turned to ruins (they eventually moved the music festival to Pier 86 (?) near the Intrepid...
Trump eventually came in and six months later the rink was up and running...
bama is refusing Syrian Christians. Trump would not. I think that was the point.
:)
This story, well-known to native New Yorkers, is reason to take Trump seriously.
Yes and Jeb will whine that Trump doesn’t use rented shoes when he skates..
I read the comments after the article- quite informative. One talks about Trump’s assistant back then, “Louise Sunshine”...from the poster’s view, she was the brains and competence behind the scenes. Apparenly she went on to be quite successful on her own.
“Today he said he’d be willing to take in Syrian refugees. Not happy at all with that statement.”
That’s his border wall construction team.
“Yes and Jeb will whine that Trump doesn’t use rented shoes when he skates..”
Yes and Jeb will whine that Trump doesn’t use rented shoes made in Mexico when he skates..
I guess that really IS his hair! :-)
Isn't that the very essence of a good manager - someone who can pick good or great people to implement the bigger ideas that he, himself, thought of or promised?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.