Thanks, another lesson in government’s incompetent thanks to its sheer size.
I love how Trump keeps repeating his Wollman Rink story at his rallies. My favorite highlights:
1. He completed the project weeks before the deadline and under budget.
2. It took him only 3 1/2 months, when others failed for 6 years, and expected another 2 years at least to complete it, leaving the site in Central Park a shambles and an eyesore.
3. Of the approx. $1.8MM he spent to get this project done (if my figure is correct), most of the money was spent digging out and removing the cement and debris and failure of the past projects. The actual new rink construction was a relatively minor portion of the budget.
4. He bought in an advisor from Montreal, Canada who knew how to build a skating rink; the previous failed contractor was from Florida.
5. MY FAVORITE PART: The failed contractors could not pour a level cement foundation for the rink. As you know, if you’re going to pour water and freeze it, you want the surface to be as perfectly level and flat as possible. The previous incompetents poured sections at a time, and there were large differences in heights over the entire surface of the rink. So some lower sections required water so deep it would not freeze, to make up for sections that were higher. Trump’s plan was ingenious: He filled the surface of concrete in ONE CONTIGUOUS POUR, necessitating many, many cement trucks lined all the way up to Harlem, presumably on Fifth Avenue, also known as Central Park East, all prepared to parade into the construction site with fresh wet cement, and keep pouring until it was done in one shot. IT WAS A TWENTY-EIGHT HOUR POUR. He used lasers as tools to make sure it was level.
In The Art of the Deal, there is a great photo of Trump taken in October 1986, the month before the official opening and ribbon-cutting, proudly standing alone on the vast surface of the perfectly level new rink with Midtown Manhattan in the background. It’s a sight to behold.
Trump is simply amazing.