Upper New York Buildings Remove Trump Name
Trump has made lots of money leasing his name due to its brand power, so there are buildings that bear his name which he does not own. He also made a good deal of his money in real estate developer before his name brand blew up as a result of his reality TV show and many hotels, residential buildings and officer towers bear his name. Many people prior to Trump’s run for president liked being associated with a residence associated with the Trump brand and most would think that more would be elated that they lived in a building that bore the name of the president of the United States but one group of tenants fought to change that, and on Tuesday, they won.
Residents of a three apartment complexes on New York’s Upper West Side named “Trump Place” filed a petition in October to have the name removed from their buildings, saying they were embarrassed to be associated with Trump, according to the Washington Post .
On Tuesday, the company that owns the buildings acquiesced and told the residents that the buildings will be renamed after their addresses — 140, 160 and 180 Riverside Blvd. — and Trump’s name would be removed from the buildings.
Equity Residential senior regional manager Mary Pawlisa, is on record saying, “The purpose of this change is to assume a neutral building identity that appeals to current and future tenants. Using the street address for the building name is popular practice in NYC, and our well-known Riverside address makes it easy for visitors to locate the building.”
Over 600 people signed the online petition to “Dump the Trump name” and take down the “Trump Place” lettering, saying they were appalled by Trump’s “treatment of women, his history of racism, his attacks on immigrants, his mockery of the disabled” and other issues.
Linda Gottlieb, one of the petition’s organizers, expressed, “We’re very pleased, people felt really good that they could do something. It was an empowering way to protest. It wasn’t a random protest, it was a very specific protest.”
Trump has not owned the property for more than a decade yet they continued to bear his name. A spokesperson for the Trump Organization said the decision to change the name was mutual.