NYC's Trump place apartments to drop name amid tenant outcry

Published Wed, Nov 16, 2016 · 02:57 AM
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[NEW YORK] The Trump Place apartment complex on Manhattan's Upper West Side is about to drop the president-elect's name after an outcry by residents.

The three rental buildings - at 140, 160 and 180 Riverside Blvd. - will be renamed for their street addresses, landlord Equity Residential said Tuesday in an e-mail. "We are assuming a more neutral building identity that will appeal to all current and future residents," the Chicago-based company said. The Trump Place name is emblazoned on the apartment buildings in gold letters, which are set to be removed this week.

Almost 600 people had signed an online petition urging the landlord to "Dump the Trump Name." Equity Residential spokesman Marty McKenna said Tuesday that the company had a contractual obligation regarding the use of the name, and that the period of the contract has ended. The landlord has never paid the Trump Organization for use of the name, McKenna said in an e-mail.

"We're very pleased, people felt really good that they could do something," Linda Gottlieb, one of the petition's authors, said in a phone interview. "It was an empowering way to protest. It wasn't a random protest, it was a very specific protest." Donald Trump was elected 45th president of the US on Nov 8. During the campaign, the Republican candidate offended groups including Mexicans, Muslims, the disabled and veterans. A video from 2005 that showed him bragging about making lewd advances prompted women to say he'd harassed them - claims he has strongly denied.

"The building is beautiful, the service is impeccable," Marjorie Jacobs, a resident in the buildings, told Bloomberg in October. "But the name is very embarrassing. I'm embarrassed to tell people where I live. I tell them 180 Riverside Blvd." Amanda Miller, a Trump Organization vice president, said in an e-mail that the name change was mutually agreed upon and "simply the enforcement of a pre-existing agreement which has been in place for years." In New York County, which is the island of Manhattan, 87 per cent of votes cast in the presidential election were for Trump's opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, according to data compiled by Politico.

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