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Do You Think NY State Should Rename Donald J. Trump State Park?
- Yes
- No
- Undecided
The state Senate approved a bill this week that could have led to New York stripping the Trump title from the rarely frequented Donald J. Trump State Park on the Westchester-Putnam border.
The Senate approved a new, scaled-down version of the legislation with the hope of getting it passed before the Legislature wrapped its annual session at the state Capitol this week.
However, the Assembly didn’t take up the matter before its session at the state Capitol ended early on Friday morning, June 11.
“New York’s Senate just gave Donald Trump an early birthday present: we’re stripping his name from a state park,” Sen. Brad Hoylman, the bill’s lead sponsor, said following the passage by the Senate. “Trump has dishonored the state and should not be honored with a state park named for him.”
The land is considered a “passive park,” which is not listed on the state’s list of State Parks, and has largely been dormant for years with limited amenities.
Earlier this year, Assemblywoman Sandy Galef also called for the removal of advertising for the park on the Taconic State Parkway, essentially wiping away the park, which hardly registers to the state as is.
Galef said that since Trump did not sign the appropriate documents with the state when he donated the 436 acres of land for the park - he signed with former county officials in 2006 - the state has the grounds to step in and make the change.
“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,” Galef said earlier this year.
Trump made a veiled threat to sue the state to get the land back because it wasn’t being used as a park, though he never moved forward with any potential lawsuit.
Potential Names under consideration if the park is eventually rebranded reportedly include Heather Heyer, who was killed during a counter-protest in Charlottesville in 2017, abolitionist Sojourner Truth, or 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.
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