Fear and Loathing in Trump SoHo

There's an excellent profile of Trump SoHo in this week's New York magazine--which happens to come awfully close to suggesting that the building is seriously tied to mob money. But its most swaggering and cold-hearted quote doesn't come from Mr. Trump himself! "We don’t want airline hostesses here," says neighborhood activist Sean Sweeney, the director of SoHo Alliance, explaining his opposition to the building, "or people coming from Europe or Asia for a couple of weeks."

Then there's this mean zinger: "Who was the first buyer in that building—a Croatian-Swedish soccer player?" (It's Inter Milan star Zlatan Ibrahimović, a Swede born to Bosnian parents). "Trump represents everything we hate. Bad taste. Déclassé. He’s uptown, we’re downtown, and never the two shall meet," Mr. Sweeney says.

To be fair to Mr. Trump, he chimes in with a quote that's nearly as offensive: "In New York, I can build a box as-of-right [within existing regulations]. Or I can get a creative design, go through 10 years of community boards, and still get refused 32 to zero. Given that choice, I’ll build a box." Great attitude.