Walter Cronkite blasted Donald Trump’s controversial U.N. project as a daylight-blocking “monstrosity” yesterday – but The Donald noted that Cronkite lives in a massive high-rise.
In an impassioned plea at a city hearing, Cronkite said the proposed 861-foot-tall Trump World Tower “is grossly out of scale with the neighborhood and is contemptuous of the diverse, primarily residential community that it would disrupt.”
But a Trump executive fired back, telling reporters the retired news anchor lives in a 50-story high-rise at U.N. Plaza that he said dwarfs the same residential neighborhood.
“The very buildings Mr. Cronkite lives in completely obliterate the light and air on Beekman and Mitchell place. So, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,” said Trump Vice President Abraham Wallach.
Cronkite was among dozens of East Side residents who turned out for a hearing before the Board of Standards and Appeals, where they are trying to overturn building permits for Trump’s residential tower.
The opposition includes some of the city’s movers and shakers, including former Diners Club CEO Seymour Flug, oil magnate David Koch, filmmaker James Ivory and Alberto Vilar, manager of the Amerindo Technology fund. Vilar has kicked in $100,000 to fund the battle against Trump.
The appeal charges that the city violated its own zoning codes in permitting Trump to buy air-space rights from neighboring properties to build a residential tower 300 feet higher than what is allowed by law.
“It shows blatant disrespect for the United Nations and the world community,” said Cronkite.
“How can we allow an institution as important to the world and New York as the U.N. to be forever dwarfed by this outsized and illegal tower?”
Trump already has begun construction on what he has said will be the world’s tallest residential building.
The five-member board, appointed by Mayor Giuliani, isn’t expected to vote on the appeal until August.