Petitions add names to remove Trump name from park

Online petitions to try to convince Gov. Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature to strip Donald Trump’s name from a state park continue to attract signatures. The organization MoveOn reports that its petition calling for Donald J. Trump State Park to be renamed has accumulated over 72,000 new signatures since June, with the petition having 109,808 signatures as of Oct. 8.

The site Change.org has three separate petitions on the subject and as of Oct. 9 they had attracted a total of 256,062 signatures.

As of Oct. 9, the New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation’s website did not include Donald J. Trump State Park in its list of state parks.

Donald J. Trump State Park covers 436 acres in Westchester and Putnam. In the late 1990’s Trump bought 494 acres for $2.75 million and planned to build a golf course. He did not receive approvals for the project but did create a residential compound for his family. In 2006, Trump donated 436 acres to New York state for a park to be named after him. According to a financial statement that was required for his 2016 presidential campaign he took a $26.1 million tax deduction for the donated land. The park straddles the Town of Yorktown in Westchester and the Town of Putnam Valley in Putnam.

In promoting its petition, MoveOn says, “Donald J. Trump State Park carries a name that does not represent our values as a community. And yet a New York state park carries the name of a man whose actions have deeply divided our nation, who incited a deadly insurrection to try to overturn a democratic election, who continues to promote lies and profit off of it, and whose tarnished legacy has left a dark mark in our history.

“Join us in supporting the call to rename Trump Park and make a positive change for our future!”

MoveOn contends that times have changed and that with criminal charges against Trump, “it’s clear that honoring his name is no longer appropriate.”

Back in 2015, two Democrats in the State Legislature, Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assemblyman Charles Lavine had introduced legislation that they called the “Anything but Trump Act,” asking for the park to be renamed. It failed to make it into law. Assembymember Dana Levenberg whose District 95 includes parts of Westchester and Putnam, noted that the park could become one of the most prestigious in the state’s parks system but many people feel that the Trump name is an “impediment to its improvement, deterring interest from donors and visitors.” In 2023, Levenberg and State Sen. Brad Hoylman of Manhattan reintroduced legislation to rename the park. The legislation did not make it out of committee.