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He runs a dry cleaners at 66th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Ifdeveloper Donald Trump's vision is fulfilled, one day the world'stallest building will rise in his neighborhood, on a site by the Hudson River that seems deserted and forgotten now, ringed by a fence for four blocks.
"I'm all for it," he says.
But many community activists in his West Side neighborhood are not. They hate the concept of The World's Tallest and don't think much of the overall project that Trump announced last November and dubbed Television City.
And they don't think much of Trump himself.
Not so the owner of the Lincoln Terrace dry cleaners, a bluff, hearty man who says his first name is George but declines to give his last. His response to why he favors the idea is succinct:
"Money," he says, smiling at a visitor. "Never say no to money. Not when you're in business."
The drycleaner is not alone among the many businessmen in the neighborhood affected by the project who favor it.
"If we don't do it, we will be frozen in the same spot," said Joseph el-Tahawy, who owns Bobb Discount pharmacy at 2079 Broadway. "You can't step in front of history."
The project, if completed, would certainly be of historic dimensions. In addition to the world's tallest building - 150 stories high - it would include six other 76-story apartment towers flanking the main structure, a 40-acre park, and more than three million square feet of studios and offices for television networks and companies.
The World's Tallest would rise at West 66th Street, but the entire project would run from 59th Street to 72nd Street, on 77 acres of prime real estate that was once the Penn Central rail yards.
Trump bought the site for more than $90 million from Lincoln West Associates, who had planned a less grandiose project for the site, known as Lincoln West, which never got off the ground because of community opposition. Leaders of that opposition cited the strain on city services that an influx of new residents in the area would bring.
Westway was another massive complex that was eventually stymied by strong community opposition, but it's too early to tell whether the struggle against Trump's proposal will...