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Monday, October 22, 2012

They've been trumped, too

The story of Donald Trump's golf course development in Scotland was shown on BBC2 on Sunday - You've Been Trumped. He had "tremendous support from environmental groups," said Trump. Local planning was denied by the council on the grounds that it interfered with a Site of Special Scientific Interest and was opposed by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, World Wildlife Fund and the RSPB. So much for Trump's truth.

Of America's 25 largest cities, New York is now the most unequal. The median income for the bottom 20% last year was less than $9,000, while the top one percent of New Yorkers has an average annual income of $2.2 million.  One in five residents of the Bronx is living in poverty, and the borough is New York City’s poorest. In a city where economic inequality rivals that of a third-world country New York City have just awarded Donald Trump -- yes, that Donald Trump of Aberdeen golf course fame -- the right to run a golf course in the Bronx which taxpayers are spending at least $97 million to build in what seems to amounts to a public subsidy for a luxury golf course. Trump has signed a 20 year deal to run and operate the Ferry Point Park Golf Course smack in the middle of New York City. It is a former garbage dump.

Trump's firm will not be held responsible to pay anything to the city for the first four years of operation. Upon the fifth year, Trump will only have to provide the city a minimum of $300,000 or revenue equivalent to 7 percent of gross receipts. And by year 16, he pays just 10 percent, or $420,000, to the city. The 20-year deal requires Trump to finance a $10 million proposed clubhouse for the Ferry Points golf course, while city tax dollars pay up $97 million. Last year, Trump's net worth was reported to be $7 billion. As for it being a "public" golf course, the deal allows Trump to use the course privately for a full day, as long as the parks department okays it. Fees are also expected to be as much as $125, almost three times the price required by nearby golf courses. Many low-income residents living in housing projects northeast of the site say golf is too expensive a sport for them to take up and that they would be better off with a larger community park. However, homeowners who invested in gated riverfront communities southeast of the site, in anticipation of property values skyrocketing, desperately want the course completed. One in five residents of the Bronx is living in poverty, and the borough is New York City’s poorest

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