Tavern on the Green was more than simply a restaurant. It is a truly historical property. A restoration to its original grandeur is important, in my estimation, to the cultural vibrancy of New York City and Central Park itself. The venue had attained mythical and iconic status before the shuttering of its doors broke many hearts in this city. There is no better man not just to simply restore Tavern on the Green to its original grandeur but perhaps even elevate its prominence and iconic status into the stratosphere. Tavern on the Green, under Trump’s leadership, will undoubtedly become the place to go again.
If you are looking for evidence, one only need take a look at Trump Wollman Rink today to recognize that the man is a visionary business man who is able to find profit making opportunities where others often do not. Trump is simply a man who gets things done and is especially civic minded when it comes to understanding what is essential to maintaining and elevating the character and vibrancy of New York City. Trump is a billionaire who has never lost touch with that which concerns the average working man nor the humble roots of and work ethic instilled by his father Fred Trump. You see the commitment, discipline and fierce determination instilled in him by his father, passed down by Donald Trump to his children. You may envy their lives or their lifestyles but his offspring have also worked hard to pave their own way.
Donald Trump is a controversial figure who certainly has his detractors; many of whom perhaps resent that he does get his fair share of media attention, not all of it flattering. But those quick to marginalize him, his accomplishments and his import to New York City are truly, in my estimation, clueless. As a New Yorker you have to respect the man, his entrepreneurial skills and what he means to this metropolis. Trump is good for business. Trump is good for New York. As far as I am concerned you can rename it Trump on the Green. (Update: thank you Curbed for running with my title, a day later)
EPILOGUE: There is an unspoken wrinkle to this story which the media has not focused on and that is simply that Trump projects get done because the man, although he is a capitalist, does not expend a tremendous amount of energy demonizing the American worker or attempting to paint organized workers or their leadership as criminal. He bargains in good faith with all the leverage he can bring to bear. There will always be tension between labor and capital in America, as there ought to be, as each fights for a better deal for themselves. Trump understands the issues and that “Unions fight for pay; managers fight for less; consumers win.” In this new age, as we begin to move forward to compete in a more competitive global economy, my hope is that we advance our society through productive discussions and negotiations that empower both capitalists as well as the worker. That is the only way we will ever increase and sustain productivity.
The Snowstorm of 2010 simply will not go away even as evidence of the storm remains piled on streets across the city, and I am referring more to the uncollected trash than what still remains of the snow. The Blizzard of 2010 has now become the subject of a federal inquiry. Amidst mounting criticism of the mayor by a rather angry citizenry, issues continue to brew at large about the relative accountability of City Hall, its agents and assigns and what kind of expectations New Yorkers, in all boroughs, can fairly place on its elected representatives entrusted with managing the metropolis, especially in a time of crisis or emergency. Administration mea culpa’s are certainly welcome but attempts to scapegoat Sanitation Department workers may ultimately obfuscate the central issue here, at least in the minds of the public. Today’s New York Daily News, New York’s hometown newspaper, is leading the charge against City Hall framing the issue in a clear fashion for local citizens. How clear? Crystal.
My comment (or the full crux of it which had to be edited/shortened) on the story on the New York Daily News online:
I, like many New Yorkers voted for Mayor Mike Bloomberg three times based largely upon his perceived ability to build on the Giuliani legacy. His administrative expertise and much vaunted managerial skills (as CEO & Founder of Bloomberg LP), backed up by the most talented and capable people with public and private sector experience, would allow City Hall to run the metropolis with the smooth efficiency of a well oiled machine, or at least this is what we hoped. On paper this may have been one of the most skilled administrative teams ever assembled and given the opportunity to run City Hall and manage the city. So then what gives?
The snowstorm on Christmas weekend was hardly a surprise and not without warning. So the central issue here is who among the mayor’s staff of deputies or quasi deputy mayor’s was actually still in town or even assigned to be in town? Did the Mayor in effect dial it in with all key deputies outside the metropolis on Christmas, including the Mayor himself who will not reveal his whereabouts, although most suspect he was at his retreat in Bermuda. All the while Stephen Goldsmith was in Washington and Howard Wolfson was vacationing in London and Bloomberg’s main deputy Patricia Harris was also out of town. In a post 9/11 world, on Christmas weekend with a crippling snowstorm headed towards the metropolis, it is simply beyond unacceptable and perhaps literally criminal for New York not to have a leader or his assigned deputy in town. And with all due respect to political operative and deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson’s spin, it does matter who was here and who was not. If it turns out that nobody was in town designated to be in charge and accountable at City Hall on the eve of this snow storm, it may end up being more than Bloomberg’s Waterloo. Whether or not anyone was on hand to label this a snow emergency or if it was a result of a conscious choice to save money as a result of the looming budget crisis and a prayer that we could avoid catastrophe is something we ought to know before this storm gets used to undermine an undermanned work force to break a union. Because an administration which was derelict in its own duties and responsibilities may hardly have the standing to hold accountable those they mismanaged. The rest of the New York press should be following the lead of the New York Times and Daily News with a similar vigilance on this issue and lead an inquiry.
I am willing to give the Mayor a pass on many issues, but New Yorkers have a right to know whether they have a leader who is both local and accessible on weekends. Whether or not this ends up being Bloomberg’s Waterloo or his handling even defensible is beyond the point, what lesson will be learned here for citizens of the metropolis in terms of what they have a right to expect, is the bigger question. If not, maybe the next Mayor ought to be someone who sometimes is not to inconvenienced to spend some time with his or her family in or around the metropolis or even vacationing around the state, in say the Finger Lakes regions, the Adirondacks, the Catskills, say even scenic Town of Warwick in Orange County, the Hamptons or perhaps like Rudy Giuliani, enjoying a cigar at Club Macanudo. Maybe there ought to be a few more born and raised New Yorkers who’s families are local, rather than transient political operatives and interim Manhattan transplants, in the upper levels of management at City Hall so that there is a greater likelihood that a few folks are truly just a Bridge & Tunnel away during the holidays. Say what you will but this never would have happened on Giuliani’s watch of the city.
EPILOGUE & REFERENCE LINKS (Updated): The pieces referenced and linked below by major media outlets on the brewing scandal over the Bloomberg administration’s handling of the 2010 snow storm continue to come in since the writing of this blog.
Fast forward to the last week of December 2010. The snowstorm of 2010 and the administration’s response to the weekend blizzard may, however, have been his Waterloo, with the NY Times evoking the image of Mayor John Lindsay’s handling of another storm. One could argue from looking at the troubling pictures that even an idiot with a tripod, could see that this ‘Napoleon did surrender’ (you will have to excuse the reference, I am an Abba fan). If nothing else, it seems to have empowered his critics and emboldened political opportunists positioning themselves for the post Bloomberg era, even if others are more forgiving. Nuance would remind folks that here at the close of the decade, nine years after 9/11, 2 years after the financial collapse and in the midst of the most troubling economic data and highest levels of unemployment in post WW II America, New York City remains one of the most vibrant and important cities in the world. The world still wants to visit New York City. Simply put:
New Yorkers have the highest standards. We expect so much and can be the most critical and unforgiving; a people willing to rip our heroes off their mantle, put some ketchup on them as we eat them for lunch with a bag of chips and wash them down with a Diet Coke.
To the Mayor’s credit, he has not deflected criticism entirely but rather acknowledged that he is dissatisfied with the emergency response, even as the focus for his team is now on clearing the unplowed streets and “we’ll do the post-mortem afterwards”. Should a future post-mortem on this blizzard lead to some uncomfortable questions about the efforts and overtime of municipal employees, consider that in an economic malaise a billionaire Mayor, painted as an elitist by some of the the very forces who may be to blame for the murky clean up effort, would place himself in an uncomfortable position should he have decided to point fingers rather than wait for conclusive evidence of wrongdoing. With all due respect to the elected officials who questioned publicly the preparedness of the Office of Emergency Management and the Department of Sanitation, they need to balance their public advocacy vs. political opportunism, in terms of their future mayoral ambitions, before getting up on a soapbox.
To those who will view the snowstorm of 2010 as Bloomberg’s Waterloo, while I may see your point, with trepidation, I beg to differ. Mike Bloomberg though inconsistent at times has seemed on some level to be a student of history who may have already learned a lesson of Mayor Beame’s mayoralty. Bloomberg became a Partner at Salomon Brothers on Wall Street shortly before Beame took office. While Beame meticulously managed the books in a manner evading bankruptcy, Bloomberg came in with a broader vision to remake the metropolis; not merely to assume power. He had already tremendous career success on Wall Street and founding and serving as CEO of one of New York’s most prolific home grown companies in Bloomberg LLP. Bloomberg himself ascended into office shortly after 9/11 and immediately began building upon the legacy of the administration of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, modernizing New York City in a visionary manner that has literally transformed the metropolis. (See: The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York, and the Genius of American Life by Fred Siegel | Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City by Andrew Kirtzman)
Like any politico Bloomberg has had his setbacks and the handling of the blizzard of 2010 and its full impact of the blizzard, will be remembered as one of them, but what has often emerged from those setbacks has been a man and an administration even more determined to right the course and prove the naysayers wrong. Any and all failure(s) or perceived failure(s) become temporary. This is something that in future administrations charged with managing the metropolis we may come to miss enormously. The Mayor is at his greatest strength when he sheds the cloak of omnipotence and accepts and acknowledges interim failures or learning experiences that will make him and his team more efficient in the future. Although candidly this is not something he has often been willing to do. Strong leaders recognize that it is not a sign of weakness to admit publicly that in hindsight one would have prepared differently, unless your leader is a bumbling fool in which case such postures taken too frequently will only serve to prove the obvious. Bloomberg is, however, not at the risk of being perceived as incompetent even by his greatest detractors. Being perceived as more humble and human can not hurt his standing with citizens, even with those who sometimes question his vision.
In recessionary times, where there is pain and anguish at the middle and lower levels of society there will rarely be sympathy for billionaires who have a lifestyle that most cannot identify with. Nor are we willing to consider perhaps the current economic climate may have left the city with budgetary issues. When we examine the history of America and New York, robber barons, industrialists, builders and philanthropists 20, 50 and 100 years from now, Mike Bloomberg will be an interesting figure to examine. To not recognize Boss Bloomberg in this context and to consume oneself with class rage against the success of Mike Bloomberg will not advance the interests of the city or of our own individual lives even it if it is an interesting distraction and makes for heated discussions at your favorite watering hole. And even those who say Bloomberg’s ego is too large, you need to ask yourself, when in the history of the world have the people ever wanted a leader who did not have a strong ego and a decided vision for governance? The phrase “grow a pair” has never been rephrased to “your pair is too big”. In the words of Tony Montana, “Amigo, the only thing in this world that gives orders is balls. Balls. You got that?”
New York City gets rarely gets impacted by weather in the manner that we have with the snowstorm of 2010 and it has certainly showed some of the cracks in the perceived invincibility of our metropolis and maybe even our fearless leader, but this too shall pass and I suspect this administration and future ones will learn a lesson from it. We must also, however, come to appreciate that there are also limits to financial resources of any government entity and differences of opinion on the productive and efficient use thereof. Waterloo? For me, its just a song. The best Mayor ever in New York history? The jury is still out, although one could argue that ultimately Bloomberg will be judged on how well he built on the Giuliani legacy, whether he went on a liberal Lindsay’esque walkabout in his efforts to rebuild and renew New York or did something else entirely.
EPILOGUE & REFERENCE LINKS (Updated): The pieces referenced and linked below by major media outlets on the brewing scandal over the Bloomberg administration’s handling of the 2010 snow storm continue to come in since the writing of this blog.
The apple never falls far from the tree. Nicholas Brooks, who was frequently intoxicated, may turn out to be just another American Psycho or Preppie Killer who strangled his beautiful and talented girlfriend Sylvie Cachay and then calmly went downstairs at the exclusive SOHO HOUSE to have a drink with someone “he met in the lobby” only to conveniently return upon the arrival of the Police. If so, it is truly like a scene out of the Bret Easton Ellis novel or reminiscent of the Robert Chambers affair because of the duo’s unhealthy relationship. The evidence does not add up to an accidental death. It gets more intriquing when you consider that the unemployed child of privilege Nicholas Brooks who was living with three roommates in the East Village, may have become far more dependent financially on his successful fashion designer girlfriend who according to her parents had broken up with him. His father who is free on bail pending trial no longer has the same access to resources he once did because of the littany of charges he faces for his own crimes and the civil suits which have or will be filed against his estate should he ultimately be convicted. The fact that Sylvie Cachay may have been taking Xanax, may or may not be relevant. That a highly successful fashion designer and entrepreneur was dealing with anxiety does not make her rare. That her unemployed boyfriend may have resisted being dismissed by his sugar mamma shortlly before her death even if the autopsy conducted is inconclusive. The irony of the Soho House’s Policy restricting professional types like I-bankers in favor of the creative types (creative enough to kill someone and get away with it perhaps?) is that you in effect may just have to co-brand Members Only bodybags for some of your guests.
You do not poke me in the eye, call me a bigot and then tell me that you seek interfaith understanding. In the words of Winston Churchill: “The hottest part of hell is reserved for those who, at a time of grave moral crisis, steadfastly maintain their neutrality.”
Thanks Julie for your excellent due diligence. You see when I envisioned Wall Street Rising I was not really hoping that from the rubble of 9/11 we might build a Mega Mosque, I was sort of hoping for Twin Towers. But then again, I might think differently if I were “Half Baked.”
