Rich people problems. They can change the rules anytime it suits them. Its good to be rich white people and have such hard decisions to make. Pity the town of Palm Springs! Pity the Orange Cheeto!
Meanwhile nothing changes and the cash keeps flowing in while regular people just shake their heads and raise there fist in anger. Look away and let the rich white people settle this amongst themselves is what they are saying.
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Residents have also previously argued that when he got permission to turn the 126-room mansion into a club 28 years ago, Trump promised through an attorney that he would not live at Mar-a-Lago. But Marion said that provision was left out of the final written agreement in exchange for Trump’s pledge to be financially responsible for preserving the property if the club fails.
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My bold.
Pardon me, but “pledge,” “promised”??? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
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[Trump attorney John] Marion also threw out a seemingly friendly warning to the protesting neighbors: Be careful what you wish for. If by “the slightest” chance Trump gets booted from Mar-a-Lago, Marion said, he would likely move into one of the other nearby homes he owns. The Secret Service bubble that now resides behind Mar-a-Lago’s gates would be on their street, he said.“There would be barriers in front of that property. There would be guards and Secret Service personnel. … There would be dogs sniffing vehicles,” Marion said. “It would be a horrible imposition for them (the neighbors) if they got what they wanted.”
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The upshot:
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The five-member council took no action on the question… It’s unclear if the council will address the issue further, although an attorney representing the residents asked — with no response — that he be allowed to give a fuller presentation in April.
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Kick the can down the road. Trump SOP.
most cities don’t control the power system but they control water and sewage and trash pickup. I doubt it would be legal for the city to cut his water without a court case as long as he pays the bills .
The town atty - Randolph - said there is no reason Cheeto can’t live there. IME, that is sufficient for most local boards - law, facts, and common sense be damned. Then, it is up to the citizens to file lawsuits.
…and (6) somebody else pays for all this. In this their interests were mutual.
The whole thing suggests to me that at that point in the negotiation Trump had them where he wanted them and he knew they knew.
Though, to be fair, how the town, neighbors and their representatives would reasonably deal with a 1993 Donald J. Trump, celebrity real estate developer, would be justifiably different from how they would in regards to the 2015-2020 candidate and sitting President, or the 2021 former President. In 1993, you say “eh, so the short-fingered vulgarian may stick around when NYC gets too cold, big deal. We can just pretend we don’t see him if he crosses our path. Just as long as we don’t get swamped with traffic and the house is not torn down” and carry on. In 2021…
Yeah, really. But, hell, never mind Trump if I want to secure some future behavior from the $#@^&* Pope as part of a business deal, I’m having him or his representative put it in writing and sign it. Again, at the time it was probably seen as " hey, if in 20 years he wants to just retire here, we’ll deal with it then; the important thing is he commits to not tear it down or sell it for development".
people in that area should have plenty of cash to sue if they decide to go that route
It’s always fun to watch a legal maneuver that tries to repeal the laws of physics. Or the laws of economic physics.
Mar-a-Lago, as a residential estate, is unmaintainably expensive. Even for a successful Trump. As a revenue-producing venture it might be break even, barely. Back when it and its owner were popular with the rich folks.
Trump’s now in financial trouble though it may take a year or more to really manifest. So now what does he, or the city, do with it? Nobody will buy it as a residence. Nobody will buy it as an untouchable landmark. Assuming there’s some debt with it as collateral, what creditor will want to foreclose and then own an albatross? I expect Trump to stop paying the taxes and dare the city to foreclose on their lien.
Ultimately, that block of land needs to be low-maintenance wilderness / fallow swamp, or needs to be redeveloped in a way that makes economic sense for somebody to back. Those are the only outcomes consistent with economic physics. How much legal wrangling happens along the way will be interesting to watch. But dumb; very dumb.
Convert it into at least three separate living quarters. Very exclusive retirement village?
Remember how they got Al Capone.
Agreed. It is forever tainted now. Let it sink into the swamp. Or maybe burn down, fall over and then sink into the swamp.
I think I feel a song coming on…
That wasn’t what I meant, but you raise a good point.
What I meant was that once a facility, any facility, becomes a historic landmark or on the register of national historic places, or the City / County / State / whoever declares that it must be maintained as-is in perpetuity to honor some historic something-or-other, it becomes an economic albatross.
A government can choose to own and operate a facility and land as a museum or park in perpetuity. A private profit-driven entity cannot.
The whole flail with Mar-a-Lago back 30 years ago was the city wanted to maintain the historic landmark as a historic landmark. But on somebody else’s nickel.
Trump figured a way to do it on the cheap and probably planned to stiff the city even then. It’s taken longer than folks expected, but those inherently dishonest and uneconomic chickens are now roosting there and shitting all over everything.
Though I do like your idea that it’s now developed a new historic taint; the taint of the Traitor in Chief. Which renders it unsaleable since nobody will touch such shitstained merchandise. And as such, the whole land area should be scorched earth converted back to being natural swamp.
Cleanse it first with fire, then with water. Leave it beneath the surface of the ever-rising sea for all eternity. Look upon his works (nothing) and despair of them.
Nice reference to Shelley!
"Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
AIUI, buildings with landmark status generally only need to preserve the exterior so the interior is pretty much fair game, as long as any changes do not affect the exterior.
One of my relatives owns a home on the national register and couldn’t replace the leaky windows without special dispensation.
The problem here is the sheer size of the grounds and buildings versus the dollar value of the land if repurposed and the tax costs of leaving it useless.
All these are truly yuge. Even before Trump used the phrase.
somebody bought OJs former house in LA and tore it down and built a new place there. Same could happen at Mar a Lago OJ moved to Florida for tax reasons before he did his prison stint for kidnapping.
I wonder when this was taken. Somebody’s been driving on the lawn!
Sorry, guys. Trump wins.
Do you suppose the town could hire some men with no necks and colorful nicknames to try and… persuade Donny to move elsewhere?
No. They’re probably scared when they hire a new gardener.