Icing the puck
While Manhattan DA Cy Vance and his investigators sift through the financial records of Central Park’s Wollman Rink for Trump Organization malfeasance, the Parks Department concession that first brought Donald Trump fame in 1986 must be restructured to maximize New Yorkers’ benefit. Trump has milked the cash-only Wollman (and maybe bilked the public) long enough.
Back then, after rescuing the rink from six years of city ineptitude, Trump repaired it in a few months’ time, creating his can-do-guy myth. His latest fiveyear contract expires this month, despite Mayor de Blasio’s foolish showboating attempt to cancel it early, following the Trump-inspired Jan. 6 attack on Congress. Seeking a new operator not tied to insurrection, the city requested proposals from bidders. It did so even though an obvious manager was staring it in the face: The Central Park Conservancy had already sought to oversee Wollman and fold it into their rebuilding of the park’s northern rink, Lasker, which was also under a Trump concession.
The conservancy, which has successfully maintained the park for 40 years and plowed in $1 billion in philanthropic investment, is starting a full do-over of Lasker, which doubles as a swimming pool, adding $100 million in private money to the taxpayers’ $50 million. When the new Lasker is complete in 2024, the conservancy will manage the ice during the November to March skating season as well as programming the facility the rest of the year beside the July/August swimming sessions. And for the first time, the toilets will be free to use.
They offered the same for Wollman, guaranteeing $50 million in private new capital funding and rehabbing the place once Lasker is finished. Likewise, Wollman would become a year-round attraction, with restrooms available to the public at no charge, unlike during Trump, when only paying skaters could relieve themselves.
Instead, City Hall demurred and called for seal bids for Wollman, which are now being reviewed. Unless one of those bids promises more than $50 million, go with the conservancy.