Name: Donald Trump-Ed Koch Feud, PBS, 1987
Uploaded: 2016-10-25T21:49:33.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Donald Trump-Ed Koch Feud, PBS, 1987' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-10-25. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Donald Trump-Ed Koch Feud, PBS, 1987' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-10-25. Transcript available.

...headquartered in Midtown Manhattan at Rockefeller Center.
NBC is anticipating a huge rent increase when its lease comes up.
So, the network is looking for other space.
Donald Trump would like NBC to move to this site, on the west side of Manhattan,
land Trump bought four years ago at a bargain.
He wants to create what he calls Television City,
the largest studio complex in the world,
complete with office space, condominiums, and stores.
But NBC has other offers, too.
One is to move across the Hudson River to less expensive headquarters in New
Jersey.
But neither Mayor Koch nor Donald Trump wants to lose NBC to New Jersey.
Why is it so important that NBC stay in New York?
Thousands of jobs, hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes,
and perhaps almost as importantly, and maybe more importantly,
NBC has a name, an image, a prestige,
that you really just don't get with another company.
And it's a very important thing, I think, for New York, that NBC stays in New
York.
But New York City has trouble competing with New Jersey's lower construction
costs and lower rents.
New Jersey has offered NBC rent in the $20 a square foot range.
Average office space in New York is $30 to $50 a square foot.
When you're talking about Manhattan, which is the most prized land in the world,
I believe.
I mean, it is the international capital of the world.
Then you obviously have to pay a premium.
We can never be competitive dollar for dollar with New Jersey,
because they don't have the same costs that we have.
The area that has been offered is the Meadowlands.
I'm not going to be pejorative, but there's nothing there.
And you can sell it very, very cheap.
The trick to keeping NBC in New York is keeping the networks rent down,
a goal both Donald Trump and Mayor Koch share.
So if that's the case, why are they fighting?
It has to do with the size of tax abatements,
the real estate tax reductions that developers get from the city on new
construction.
To offer NBC a low rent,
Trump says he needs tax abatements from the city on the whole 76 acres he owns,
not just the nine acres NBC would build on.
City Hall says Trump's plan would cost the city too much money.
Well, if I made our negotiating team give away incentives three times greater
than what we've done for anybody else,
why wouldn't everybody else be standing in line saying,
me too, me too?
Instead, the city offered NBC two tax incentive packages,
one covering real estate tax abatements and reduced energy costs
if NBC decides to stay and renovate its current space at Rockefeller Center.
The second option is a similar deal that NBC could use at any other site in
Manhattan,
including Donald Trump's site.
We're saying to NBC, here are the financial incentives.
Take them wherever you want to, to any developer,
and then squeeze that developer.
Trump, who used to be welcome at City Hall,
then accused the mayor of trying to convince NBC
of going anyplace except to Trump's place.
While the mayor denied that,
Trump claims there was a reason for the animosity.
Last winter, Trump built a new skating rink for the city in Central Park.
Trump says Ed Koch was embarrassed.
The city of New York had that rink closed
for almost seven years renovating.
It was a total disaster.
You know it.
I know it.
Everybody knows it.
I got fed up watching it, and I offered to build it.
The city finally, finally said yes.
And I built what they couldn't do in seven years.
I was able to do in a matter of months.
Back then, their relationship was still cordial.
Together, they even celebrated the opening of the skating rink.
But six months later, Trump called for Koch's resignation.
The mayor, no shrinking violet himself,
immediately reminded the press that just two days before,
Trump had praised him.
This was Donald Trump last Wednesday.
I just maybe want to add a little something to the story.
A very good man.
A man that I have little skirmishes with every once in a while,
but I think he is a very good man and a very good mayor.
Will the real Donald Trump please stand up?
How do you explain that?
The problem is people don't understand sarcasm.
The Koch-Trump dispute has received so much publicity
that the New York Daily News invited readers to vote on the positions of New
York's two Goliaths.
Readers sided with Trump nine to one.
The mayor sarcastically said he hoped those voters could all afford to live in
Trump Tower,
the high-priced luxury apartment building Trump built on Fifth Avenue.
Despite the good theater and the one-liners,
a lot of New Yorkers are wondering what all the fuss is about.
If NBC wants to broadcast live from Secaucus, let them, some say.
Ray Horton is a business professor at Columbia University
and president of a watchdog organization called the Citizens Budget Commission.
New York City, as I said earlier, has gotten along just fine
without the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants.
And I'm sure if, in fact, NBC is to leave, and I doubt that they do,
but if they were to leave, I suspect that New York City would continue to
endure even without NBC.
While no one is afraid New York won't endure, there is concern about corporate
flight.
In the last 18 months, approximately 28 companies have taken all or part of
their operations out of New York.
And when businesses leave, the city loses revenue
from income tax, sales tax, real estate tax, and commercial occupancy taxes.
But Ray Horton says this does not signal the city's economic collapse.
The people who moved out, in general, have been replaced by new offices and
expanded offices
that were even wealthier than the people who moved out.
So, in balance, it's been an upgrading process that's been good for the city.
Primarily, it's been manufacturing companies who have moved out
and financial service companies that have moved in.
In fact, the city's unemployment is the lowest in 14 years, just over 5%.
And Mayor Koch is as proud as NBC's Peacock
that over 300,000 jobs have been created while he's been mayor.
In addition, a recent study polling chief executive officers around the country
ranked New York City as the seventh most desirable place to locate a business.
Yet, J.C. Penney, the manufacturing company, recently announced it was moving
from its posh 6th Avenue address to Dallas to be more centrally located in the
country.
This building is probably the best business location in America.
This is a fine, exciting city and one that we've headquartered in since 1914.
But the penny company doesn't need to be here.
It really can operate almost anywhere and more effectively in the center of the
country.
Much of the corporate flight has to do with New York's booming real estate
market.
Companies can actually cash in on buildings they own and make a lot of money.
You bought this building in New York 10 years ago for $55 million.
What's it worth today?
Well, number one, it was a great buy.
And I would guess that it's in the $400 million range.
Do you know who I am?
The mayor and his economic development staff are working hard to keep companies
in New York.
We've helped over 400 firms stay here and grow here.
If you make it in New York, you deserve a lot of credit.
British Airways was one company that almost left.
But because of a special tax incentive program offered to companies moving to
the outer boroughs, the airline decided to relocate in Queens.
While New York is not the only city trying to deal with corporate flight, it is
the only city to get such widespread attention.
Donald Trump recently played himself in a made-for-TV movie called "I'll Take
Manhattan".
Mr. Trump.
Donald, hi.
Thank you for coming.
I really need to talk to you.
And the mayor has done cameo performances in everything from movies to rock
videos.
And the mayor has done cameo performances in New York.
The mayor has done a great job.
And the mayor has done a great job.
And the mayor has done a great job.
And the mayor has done a great job.
And the mayor has done a great job.
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And the mayor has done a great job.
And the mayor has done a great job.
And the mayor has done a great job.
And the mayor has done a great job.
And the mayor has done a great job.
Now, how have you the chutzpah to say that this government has been anti-development?
That's an outrageous comment on your part.
And I can prove that you're wrong.
I don't think I have to be ashamed of what we've done.
Trump, however, says the mayor should be ashamed.
I would say he's got no talent and only moderate intelligence.
If I've done anything, I've gotten NBC focused on by the city of New York.
And I think that's very important, I think it's vital.