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Do You Think NY State Should Rename Donald J. Trump State Park?
- Yes
- No
- Undecided
With the former president’s impeachment trial underway, the New York State Assembly voted 14 to 7 to advance a bill that would rebrand the 435-acre park and remove signage advertising it along the Taconic State Parkway.
“Our parklands should be reflective of New Yorkers that we can be proud of, New Yorkers that have expressed our values,” Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, who sponsored the bill, said to Politico. “There are a lot of other New Yorkers who are worthy of the honor of having a park named after themselves.”
The state obtained the park in 2006 when Trump donated it after failing to build a golf course on the property due to the conditions of the land. When Trump donated the property, he reportedly did so with the mandate that his name be “prominently displayed at least at each entrance to each property.”
Assemblywoman Sandy Galef was among the first to call for the removal of Trump’s name from the state park following the deadly riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
“We want people to be comfortable using our parks. His name will discourage the public from enjoying all our state has to offer,” she wrote in a letter to New York State Parks Commissioner Erik Kulleseid.
“Monuments, landmarks, and parks can hold a symbolic meaning and in this case, a park named for Donald J. Trump can only represent the division he has sought to create in our country over the past four years.”
If the park is to be rebranded, names that have been floated out there include Heather Heyer, who was killed during a counter-protest in Charlottesville in 2017, abolitionist Sojourner Truth, and former Gov. George Pataki, a Garrison resident and former Peekskill mayor who was in office when the deal with Trump to secure the land was brokered.
“We’ve been working on this for a number of years, and I certainly am hopeful that it will get the green light and move forward,” Rozic added.
“At the end of the day, we want people to be able to appreciate parkland and be able to visit it without stigma, without shame, and we want to be able to be proud of our open spaces.”
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