Polo shirts are possibly the most ubiquitous clothing item of the 21st century, undergoing a long journey from aspirational 1930s sportswear to becoming the default smart-casual option for millions of men. We’ve researched and tested 14 of the best polo shirts and think that the best polo is the Sunspel Riviera with its great fit, unique fabric and strong range of over twenty colours. If you’re looking for an elevated take on the polo then the John Smedley Adrian Polo is incredibly soft and will smarten up your wardrobe. Finally, if you’re on a budget the H&M Cotton Polo Shirt is a good quality take on the classic item at an affordable price point.
The original garment as we know it was based on a design worn by French tennis star René Lacoste aka “the Crocodile” in the 1930s as a practical, flexible, comfortable sports shirt. Unfortunately, from the 1980s onwards, creeping “casual Friday” dress codes made the polo shirt with badly fitting chinos an American business-standard. Later, it was the uniform of golfers and delivery drivers, security guards, and coffee chain staff not to mention the sometime uniform of the American far-right, in almost a parody of conformity.
What saves the polo shirt from fashion irrelevance is its potential for reinvention. Its been reclaimed by subcultures ranging from punks to skinheads and mods. As the tie disappears and the suit becomes increasingly relaxed, the polo shirt has become a place to experiment with shirting alternatives and continues its long tradition of reinvention, molding itself to the zeitgeist. For our review we tried to cover this range, from semi-activewear to knit-fabric classics to find the best polo shirt overall, looking as always at specialists who’ve produced these styles year after year in an attempt to find an ideal.

Best overall

Sunspel Riviera Polo
With a smart fit, retro-inspired basket weave fabric, and a huge range of tasteful colours, the Riviera is on its way to becoming a contemporary classic.
$105

The Riveria was introduced by Sunspel in 2006 after a design by Linda Hemmings for the James Bond film Casino Royale. The Riviera became something of an instant classic for a brand which up until then had been known largely for its undergarments. The references here (as the name suggests) are much more Talented Mr.Ripley than contemporary sportswear but it doesn’t feel like a period piece either. There has been some clever thought put into taking the best of that golden era and updating it.
The fabric has a looser, wider weave than most piqué polos, and a nice spongy texture with none of the coarseness that some piqué can have. After researching I found that the brand created the fabric with a vintage lace making machine in Sunspel’s HQ in Nottingham, and none of the competition I tried have a similar quality.
The fit is trim but not overly slim. The sleeves fall flatteringly halfway down the bicep, the length is standard and it has the classic split tail. The sleeves didn’t pull up into my armpits and I still had movement through the body. The collar is a fairly small point collar that sits well when buttoned up but also folds down easily into a camp collar shape when undone which allowed it to be worn cleanly both ways. The buttons are a discreet tonal plastic and the placket is a simple 2‑button design. I’m a fan of the pocket design though in a practical sense it’s not good for much and makes the shirt much more of a casual style.
Colours are another area where Sunspel gets it just right. They always have a strong seasonal palette which this year covers 20 options including a deep chocolate brown (seen above) an intense Yves Klein blue and a great brick red. Compared to their competitor’s depressingly basic ranges of pastels and neons, this quiet tastefulness is refreshing and it means that season to season it will be easy to update your wardrobe with some new additions.
Through washing and wearing over a number of weeks, I noticed no noticeable shrinkage or discolouring and the fabric kept its softness (which wasn’t always the case, especially if a garment has been chemically softened). I also kept an eye out for loose threads and buttons but found no faults.
Which brings us to the final question of value. Polo shirts are an interesting category in this sense as they are so tied up to a certain idea of aspirational dressing — and priced accordingly. Our testing found that the general quality and feel of a £10 polo from H&M didn’t massively improve when compared to its £80 Lacoste equivalent. But that’s to ignore the fact that you are paying for what that £80 polo says about you, what it represents in our culture, and the semiotics of that logo — a francophile or a football causal, a preppy or a punk. That said, if you’re like me and the branded polos aren’t your niche but you want something that feels premium, then, for the cost, you will have a beautifully fabricated, European-made polo shirt of notably better quality than its competitors in the same price bracket and that’s enough for us to award it the top spot.

Downsides

The downsides for the Riviera really come down to preference. I could imagine if you want a more classic fitting polo you may find it too slim or if you want one without a pocket that could turn you off. But as for the construction of the shirt itself or its fabric I couldn’t find any faults. Even the plastic buttons which might in other brands seem like a cost-saving measure feels more like a thoughtful design choice. It’s also more sportswear-adjacent than actual sportswear, but that feels like a quibble and true of any of the major polo brands at this point.

Also good

John Smedley Adrian Polo
Made from incredibly soft sea island cotton, this knitted polo is perfect if you want a softer, more formal style of polo.
$298

The Adrian Polo from John Smedley comes a close second to the Sunspel Riviera. The main attraction is the sea island cotton fabric which is incredibly soft with the best hand feel of any polo I reviewed. The placket length and knitted collar means it feels much more like the elegant mid-century polo shirt than something that would be mistaken for a 21st-century corporate uniform, albeit with some nice updates that make it feel more contemporary than other knitted polos.
Smedley is to fine knitwear what Burberry is to trench coats, or John Lobb is to shoes and considered to be the best in the world in the category (it’s where the Queen gets her knitwear). The Adrian genuinely felt like a luxury. Everything from the feel of the fabric to the way it fitted just right with substantial ribbing on the waist and sleeves (near the bottom of the bicep) with just the right amount of tension spoke to the care and attention that had gone into making it. It’s also versatile, working just as well under the lapels of my suit when I got married a few weeks ago as it did in our 35 degree London heatwave when worn with a pair of shorts although, it is a bit too formal to work with tracksuit bottoms. Out of all the styles I reviewed it felt much more like a smart option.
What the Adrian definitely isn’t on the other hand is a piece of grab-and-go sportswear that can be washed and thrown on like a t‑shirt or folded up at the bottom of your bag for destination holiday. I found myself hand-washing the delicate fabric to avoid rips and the collar, though it stands well, needs shaping with an iron after washing. Like a lot of luxury items, it’s delicate and requires a bit more care and attention than most and at £145 it’s not quite affordable enough to be a staple. That’s not saying it’s bad value necessarily, you can see the care and attention that was put into it and it’s UK manufactured but it’s probably not what most people are looking for when it comes to an everyday polo shirt, and those not quite the all-rounder that could hold the top spot. If you’re more likely to wear smart trousers than jeans and prefer a knit jumper to a hoodie then this is the polo for you.

Budget pick

H&M Cotton Polo Shirt
A great price paired with good fabrication and quality, the H&M polo offers the best value for money with their straightforward take on the classic polo shirt.
$12.99

If you’re unconcerned with logos and just want a classic polo shirt as a wardrobe staple you could do a lot worse than the H&M Cotton Polo Shirt. The piqué is soft and drapes well, the fit is classic, and straight (though as is often the case with H&M group, a bit long for me). In a blind test, I’m not sure I could tell the difference easily between this polo and the Lacoste L.12 which it’s clearly based it’s detailing on. And at £9.99 it’s extremely good value. Ethical clothing site Good on You’s review gives the brand an “It’s a start” rating for it’s environmental and ethical credentials noting that it’s environmental record is consistently improving while some issues with it’s supply chain labor remain.

What to look for

Range of colours: More than most sportswear, polo shirts are about colour, and we wanted our staple pick to have a good range of quality seasonal colours.
Flexibility: We wanted a Polo that looked good with a range of clothing from the formal to the ultra-casual (a pair of shorts or sweats)
Fabric: Has to work well in the heat, for most people a polo is a summer item and anything too heavy or coarse wasn’t going to cut it for us, we tried a range of synthetics and cottons of different qualities.
Fit: Piqué and knitted cotton are unforgiving fabrics so having a good fit is key to making a polo shirt work.
Collar: Does it stand up well, does it look okay when unbuttoned? is it easy to fold down or does it look sloppy.
Length: Long enough to wear tucked in but not long enough to look sloppy on its own.
Sleeves: We wanted the sleeve length to flatter the bicep but not ride up too high into the armpits, we also wanted easy movement as you’d expect from sportswear.
Easy Care: The best polos, like all good sportswear, should be easy to wash and care for.
Aesthetics: We wanted a polo that was more than a billboard for logo’s or an anonymous boxy t‑shirt alternative, the best would have a strong aesthetic quality.

The competition

The Fred Perry M12 & M3's are the most solidly constructed of all the branded polos I tried, and I was particularly keen on the thick ribbing on the sleeves and collar and the wide, reinforced placket. The collar had a slightly wider spread than most and which I found more flattering. The fit is trimmer than Lacoste and the hem is square so overall it has a neater, less sporty look. It's also nice that it's been continuously made in the UK since its introduction in the 1950s. The M12's aesthetic with its twin tips on the collar and sleeves have deep roots in the mod, Britpop, punk and skinhead subcultures in the UK and it can be a bit overpowering if you're looking for something more casual, but I love the simplicity of the M3's laurel crest and it has the same fit. Our favourite if you're looking for a logo.
We ordered from Lacoste as they're the originators of the style. The Lacoste L.12.12 is their staple and comes in a huge range of colours. It's hard to judge it fairly as it seems to be the most duped of all polo styles—the Ralph Lauren polo is said to be a copy of their pre-60s model after the designer was disappointed with the synthetic blend polos they produced in the 70s. It has a straight fit, flattering sleeve and fairly flat collar. The fabric is softer than most piques and the split tail is nice but there is nothing particularly stand out, though the mother of pearl buttons are a nice touch. In terms of transparency, they were probably the most disappointing of the branded styles as there was absolutely no place of origin for manufacture, not even a "made in" on their label (though I believe they are produced in Peru).
The Lacoste Paris Polo Shirt is their more contemporary update to the classic style and it features a slightly smaller collar, a bit of elastane in the fabric (6%) and a longer, narrower hidden placket and tonal crocodile patch. It's an interesting update, but if you're going for something so subtle I'm not sure why you wouldn't go for something completely unbranded.
The Ralph Lauren Classic Fit Mesh Polo Shirt was an interesting variant. Its piqué was solid and soft feeling, It had a really thick placket and nice mother of pearl buttons, but it was largely indistinguishable from the Lacoste L.12 and its dupe status makes sense. It has a slightly lower stepped hem and a surpassingly slim fit for a "classic" style. It comes in a huge range of colours (some pretty dubious) and is the most expensive of the branded options we tried, coming in at £85. It's also shorter than most of the polos we tried so could be a good option for smaller guys.
Kent Wang is one of menswear's best-kept secrets and we're a big fan of the Kent Want polo shirt. It splits the difference nicely between the more casual sportswear elements and smarter styles like the Adrian with thick quality pique, mother of pearl buttons and a high spread collar designed to look good under a suit jacket or jumper. If you want something with the formality of the Smedley and the easy-care of a classic polo then this is probably your best option and it has some of the most tasteful colours of any brand we reviewed (as well as a wide range of long sleeve options). It should be noted that the fit is quite slim and it's worth sizing up.
The Uniqlo Airism Jersey Polo is sleek and technical without seeming dorky. It kept me from sticking to the sofa when the heat in London got to a high of 35°C (95°F). It would be the ideal choice for a warm-weather tech enthusiast and looked pretty cool and sleek worn with my black running shorts.
The other Uniqlo style I tried was the Uniqlo DRY PIQUE polo, which I was less of a fan of. It was fine but not particularly interesting fit wise and has a slightly coarse plastic-y feel to the fabric.
I tried ASKET's Pique Polo and while it has the brands great fit range (you can choose the length from small to large) was a disappointment overall. The piqué was soft and mercerized but also the most transparent of all the ones we tested which meant nipples showed through. The collar was strangely floppy and unstructured so looked messy when buttoned up but also had trouble sitting flat when opened and the placket looked visually off centre. As usual with the brand, the environmental and social tracing is excellent and I hope they can perfect the style.
Finally, I also gave the H&M COOLMAX Polo a try and while I might appreciate it if I lived in a much warmer country, the texture just suffered in comparison to the pure cotton pique of their standard polo.
This is a new guide from Typical Contents, the “wirecutter for clothes”. It’s by the team behind Epochs, a now defunct menswear blog.
*We’re reviewing categories of clothing in hopes of finding the best item(s) in that category. All items tested in this guide were purchased with our own money. This post does not contain affiliate links.
Check out our previous guides on boxer briefs, plain t-shirts, low top canvas trainers, and summer socks.

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8 Reasons why I dislike Kasumi Yoshizawa

Hello, this will be very lengthy and full of probably unpopular opinions. I just finished P5R last night and I immensely enjoyed it, 10/10 would do NG+. I have mixed opinions about the True Ending, but I also have a ton of opinion about our new girl, Kasumi Yoshizawa. During the play-through, I was waiting for the turning point that I'd grow to like her, but nah, it never comes. So here's why:

1. First impressions: Lack of originality.
First time I saw her design I immediately compared her with P3's FeMC. And it's not because of the ponytail alone, it was the red eyes and the whole happy-go-lucky, cheerful vibes. Although I grow to like her overall design--the little details are nice, such as her iconic red ribbon, red shoes--I despise her Metaverse costume. The leotard is a refreshing new piece of outfit that no thieves had before, but her costume overall is too similar with Joker. I have no idea why the game-makers think it'll be a good idea. I've read somewhere that Joker needs a female counterpart for Smash Bros, could that be the reason? Either way, I'm not game. Also, it does make sense that since she saw Joker's Metaverse costume first before her awakening, so... maybe she's inspired, somewhat, but that just emphasizes the lack of conviction in her character, which leads us to point #2

2. Lack of conviction?
This might be a stretch. So Kasumi is introduced pretty early in the game as a perfect, athletic honor student. But despite Kamoshida's warning of "stay away from [Protagonist]", she's in no way hesitant to get close to us, especially after we help her a few times beforehand. I like that character trait. She doesn't waver from other people's judgement. Also, she stands to her own opinion. When conversing with Akechi and protagonist, she doesn't hesitate in telling she doesn't support Phantom Thieves, which is hella refreshing tbh. But then when we enter the new palace with her and Morgana, she awakens to her power--which is problematic and I'll elaborate more in the next point--with a costume that is clearly inspired by Joker, the epitome of Phantom Thief. I know it's a small detail, but as a gymnast, especially since her gymnast outfit is beautiful, where is your originality, Kasumi? Even Haru knows it's similar, she says so in Mementos.

3. Awakening and Persona
Let's get to her awakening. She was being being pressured by everyone, she has to be the best, she has to win the gymnast competition, and people keep talking about her privilege. She faced "Sumire", who we thought was the dead sister. IF she was indeed Kasumi, it makes perfect sense, since her dead sister became her source of motivation. But now we know she was actually facing herself. Oh hey, it's actually reminisence of Persona 4! Accepting your dark side to unleashed your true self. But noooooo Sumire instead says "I AM KASUMI YOSHIZAWA" and awakens her Persona. With that being said, she awakens her Persona based on "Kasumi"--based on a twisted cognitive orchestrated by Maruki. And I personally think it's wrong in so many levels because Persona is a manifestation of one's resolution. One has to be strong, and fully accepting their true selves. For example, in Persona 4 Teddie was so insecure about his identity that his own shadow actually manifested, challenging him unless he finds his true self. Even Haru needs another kick in her motives before she fully awakens Milady. But here, this... person with fake facade can actually get a Persona? What a convenient plot point, all the while downgrading other thieves' awakening. Oh, and if Cendrillon is "Kasumi"'s Persona, shouldn't Sumire awaken her own Persona when she accepts herself? No? She'll hold unto Kasumi's Persona? Okay.

4. Cinderella? More like Little Mermaid.
This is unrelated to her character per se, but I think her character arc fits more as Little Mermaid than Cinderella. Little Mermaid, or let's just say, Ariel made a deal with the witch to get a pair of legs, and to have a new life on the land, leaving her past. For Sumire, she wants to be her perfect sister Kasumi. But she had to give something up in return, in Sumire's case, her identity and pain. Ariel is also very selfish of her own wishes, refusing to go back to her past, which is fitting for Sumire. Also, the ending fits better because in the end, she doesn't really return to her old self (elaborate in point #5), she still wears Kasumi's signature ponytail, she doesn't wear glasses anymore, but she makes peace with her past.
(Although I do like Cinderella's character regarding her NOT being a Trickster. I read somewhere that Cinderella is not a Trickster, therefore it shouldn't be a Persona at all. But actually, it shows how Sumire is NOT a part of Phantom Thieves, and will never be, because she doesn't really have the will of rebellion.)

5. Character Arc
Hooboy, this will get (more) subjective and rant-y. Like I mentioned before, at first Sumire's introduced as the perfect honor student. She's cheerful, optimistic, confident, uhh she can eat huge meals and is still stick thin (even though it makes sense, she's an athlete lol but still, when it comes to this, it boils down to a cliche trope). And I was waiting for her downfall. I was literally thinking, "What's the catch?" There must be something beneath this perfect character. I remember at some point she failed her meet, finishing second or third in the competition and I thought oh this is it! No. She's still cheerful. She's still strong! Lovely. Then comes her downfall prior to her awakening, she's not doing well, she's pressured, she's positively stressed, but no! She won't let words come to her. Come, Cendrillon! At that point I was already exasperated, and a little sickened by these overwhelming positivity. What a Mary Sue, I thought to myself.
And then third semester comes. This is it! This is the plot twist I've been waiting for, the biggest downfall for Sumire Yoshizawa, right? True. When she literally begs for Joker not to change back the reality, I love her so much. That's the struggle I want to see, because I know it'll be a good character development. The less perfect sister striving towards accepting her insecurities. Joker gives her a moment to reflect, and in less than few days suddenly she's ready to join the mission. Suddenly she's like, yeah I'm over it and I'm ready to fight for my own justice yadayadayada. And then... she's back. Yeah, Cendrillon got this second awakening kind of thing, but on the outside, she's still Kasumi. With her Kasumi outfits, and her happy go lucky character. Back to square one. Honestly, I didn't even pay attention to her confidant from rank 6 to 10. It's very underwhelming, and boring, even. So yeah.

6. The tropes.
While I'm at it, let me continue my opinions. All the ladies in Phantom Thieves are basically badasses. All of them are hella independent and I LOVE it. The Phantom Thieves has no cute, assertive girls, which is honestly surprising since Persona is a Japanese game, and stereotypically they always have that ONE cutesy assertive character. This is where "Kasumi Yoshizawa" comes. The cute respectful kouhai/junior someone Ryuji can be a senpai for. Someone Protagonist can save from creepy man (Cleaning day). The other tropes being big eater but never get fat. Also, that special magical girl transformation? Whatever floats the fanservice I guess.

7. Presence and/or placement?
Atlus tries too hard to make this lady likable, to be the best girl. It's almost like a bad marketing, since they push her to the point it's too in front of your face. For example, we just had to be reminded that she's an gymnast athlete. One of Oracle's dialogue while being NAVI is "Just as expected from an athlete!" Like we actually forgot about it. Meh. Her random appearances, such as Sumire was suddenly in Hawaii, I don't mind. But the major ones are how she has to be THAT closely affiliated with Protagonist, like, how come Joker is her only friend? Considering her pushy attitude, despite people talking behind her about her honor student status, having no friends is too far-stretched. And I can't help but thinking Atlus wants to pair Sumire with Joker because 1) she's the only one who actually confessed her feelings to the protagonist, 2) the showtime. I... have no words to explain how much I dislike her and Joker's showtime.
I think the reason why her presence bothers me so much is because it feels forced. I know the third semester is supposed to be her time to shine, but she's overshadowed by Akechi, and for good reasons too, because that plot twist about Akechi is mind blowing, and no twin sister drama can defeat that, sorry Kasumire. We only see her in metaverse what, like 4 times in total? She could not build any dynamics with Phantom Thieves in such short time. It's so painfully clear that she doesn't belong in PT, even more than Akechi. Also, my last point--
8. Casino.
How the heck did she get there? She's no Futaba, she's not Fuuka (P3) or Rise (P4). Her Persona is no navigator, I mean if it is, then she should be Joker and Crow's Navi in the last palace, shouldn't she? If not, HOW the heck did she get into the Casino, specifically finding Joker?! If she's only following PT, then she would see the battle with Sae, and afterwards the Phantom Thieves spread out. Once again I ask, H O W the heck did she find Joker? Plot convenience? Mary Sue Powers? Ugh.
Thank you for reading my rant until the end. If anyone wants to share their opinions, I'm all ears! I have so many things to discuss since I just finished the game too lol
Edit: typos

Ghost Adventures Episodes in Chronological Order

Unfortunately there's no 100% agreed list of GA seasons and there never was one. Various platforms and Travel Channel affiliates provide contradictory episode listings. It was discussed numerous times over the years, recently we had yet another discussion on the matter. Somebody asked me on PM if I can share with them the chronological listing I've been using, so I've decided to post it here as well. Keep in mind this is not an "official" list, but it's a recommended one if you want to binge watch the whole show from beginning to end or if you're a new fan looking for specific episodes.
This is a list of Ghost Adventures episodes in order based on the original air date. I've been keeping it since I began watching the show during the first season and it mostly overlaps with the wikipedia listing, and a few other season lists. It includes every single episode, including all specials and compilation episodes. "Extra Pulses" are not added since there is no additional content compared to the original episodes. For the first 7 or so seasons this is how The Travel Channel listed their seasons before they nuked their site and started grouping them by production date and not air date. A few things of note:

Ghost Adventures: The Beginning is The Documentary movie with a couple minutes of bonus footage. It was aired on the same day as the first episode of the series.
To make matters even more complicated early seasons have alternate episode titles for some of the episodes. I've included the more common ones.
The early compilation episodes were episodes with different edit and new narration compared to original ones, and were used as a bridge, while the GAC were filming new content. Later Travel Channel would just split the production in two seasons - Autumn-Winter and Spring-Summer periods.
Years ago Travel Channel listed episodes under new seasons if 2 or more months had passed since the last aired episode, and before the new content announcement.
In recent years they've been doing a lot of specials with an overlapping theme like "Haunting of Vicksburg", some sites list these episodes as a complete season.

Season 1
Start: October 17, 2008
End: December 5, 2008

Ghost Adventures: The Beginning (Special Episode)
Bobby Mackey's Music World
Houghton Mansion
Moundsville Penitentiary
Riddle House
Sloss Furnaces
Former Psychiatric Hospital
Edinburgh Vaults
Old Idaho Penitentiary

Season 2
Start: June 5, 2009
End: July 24, 2009

Preston Castle
Castillo de San Marcos
La Purisima Mission
Magnolia Lane Plantation
Birdcage Theater
Eastern State Penitentiary
Moon River Brewery
Ancient Ram Inn

Season 3
Start: October 30, 2009
End: January 22, 2010

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum LIVE (Halloween Special Episode)
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum LIVE: Post Mortem (Special Highlights Episode)
Pennhurst State School and Hospital
Poveglia Island
Ohio State Reformatory
Remington Arms Factory
Washoe Club and Chollar Mine
Linda Vista Hospital
Execution Rocks Lighthouse
Prospect Place
Clovis Wolfe Manor
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum LIVE: The Cutdown (Special Behind the Scenes Episode)
Poveglia Island Special (Special Episode with 30 minutes of additional footage)

Season 4
Start: September 10, 2010
End: June 10, 2011

Best Evidence (Compilation Special Episode)
Scariest Moments (Compilation Special Episode)
Gettysburg
Rolling Hills Asylum
Return to Bobby Mackey's Music World
Waverly Hills Sanatorium
Stanley Hotel
Hill View Manor
Vulture Mine
USS Hornet
La Palazza Mansion
Fort Chaffee
Amargosa Opera House
Old Fort Erie
Villisca Axe Murder House
Kell's Irish Pub
Pico House Hotel
Return to Goldfield Hotel
Bonnie Springs Ranch
Longfellow's Wayside Inn (Valentine's Day Special Episode)
Salem Witch House
Jerome Grand Hotel
Yorktown Hospital
Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum
Sacramento Tunnels
Hales Bar Marina and Dam
Kentucky Slave House
Tooele Hospital
Loretta Lynn's Plantation House

Season 5
Start: September 23, 2011
End: December 16, 2011

Ashmore Estates
Mizpah Hotel
Old Town San Diego
Winchester Mystery House
Lizzie Borden House
Letchworth Village
Return to Virginia City
Rocky Point Manor
Rose Hall
Old Charleston Jail

Season 6
Start: February 24, 2012
End: July 20, 2012

Horror Hotels and Deadliest Hospitals (Compilation Special Episode)
Wickedest Women, Houses of Terror and Bloodiest Battlefields (Compilation Special Episode)
Shanghai Tunnels
Peabody-Whitehead Mansion
Copper Queen Hotel and The Oliver House
The National Hotel
Return to Linda Vista Hospital
The Galka Family
The Riviera Hotel
Hellfire Caves (Special Episode)
Fort Horsted (Special Episode)

Season 7
Start: September 14, 2012
End: April 19, 2013

Central Unit Prison
Excalibur Nightclub
Point Sur Lighthouse
The Palmer House Hotel
Black Moon Manor
Sedamsville Rectory
Cripple Creek
Dead Men Walking (Compilation Special Episode)
Brookdale Lodge
Tor House
Union Station
Death By Wild West (Compilation Special Episode)
Crazy Town
Clinically Dead (Compilation Special Episode)
Killer Nightlife (Compilation Special Episode)
Do Not Disturb (Compilation Special Episode)
Home Sweet Hell (Compilation Special Episode)
Wyoming Frontier Prison
Sailors' Snug Harbor
Passport to Hell (Compilation Special Episode)
Dungeons and Demons (Compilation Special Episode)
Bewitched and Bothered (Compilation Special Episode)
Obsessions and Possessions (Compilation Special Episode)
New Orleans
Market Street Cinema
Armies of Darkness (Compilation Special Episode)
First Timers (Compilation Special Episode)
Goldfield Hotel Redemption
Glen Tavern Inn
King's Tavern

Season 8
Start: August 16, 2013
End: November 15, 2013

Pioneer Saloon
Black Swan Inn
Tuolumne Hospital
Missouri State Prison
Yost Theater and Ritz Hotel
Haunted Victorian Mansion
Up Close and Personal (Compilation Special Episode)
Exorcist House
Alcatraz
Mustang Ranch
Thornhaven Manor
Transylvania (Halloween Special Episode)
Battle of Perryville

Season 9
Start: February 15, 2013
End: July 12, 2013

Sharon Tate Ghost
The Myrtles Plantation
George Washington Ghost
Bannack Ghost Town
Fear Factory
Heritage Junction
Battle of Los Angeles
Netherworld: Paris Catacombs (Special Episode featuring only Zak, aired in the middle of the season)
St. James Hotel
Fox Hollow Farm
Haunted Savannah
Overland Hotel and Saloon
Old Licking County Jail

Season 10
Start: October 4, 2014
End: March 7, 2015

Queen Mary
Lemp Mansion and Brewery
Zozo Demon (Nick's last regular episode)
Island of the Dolls (in the og edit it was mentioned Nick couldn't make it for filming)
Ireland's Celtic Demons (Halloween Special Episode, Nick's last appearance as part of the GAC)
Bell Witch Caves (new intro, Jay and Bill introduced as permanent GAC investigators)
Sallie House
Nopeming Sanatorium
Apache Junction
Return to Tombstone
Demons in Seattle
Texas Horror Hotel

Season 11
Start: August 22, 2015
End: November 7, 2015

Edinburgh Manor
Old Montana State Prison
Manresa Castle
Old Lincoln County Hospital
Haunted Harvey House
Los Coches Adobe
Grand Canyon Caverns
Haunted Hollywood
Odd Fellows Asylum
Clown Motel and Goldfield High School
Deadwood: City of Ghosts (Halloween Special Episode)
Lava Hotel Springs Inn

Season 12
Start: January 30, 2016
End: August 6, 2016

Black Dahlia House
Secret Scientology Lab
Bracken Fern Manor
Return to the Riviera
Chinese Town of Locke
Star of India
Leslie's Family Tree Restaurant
Hell Hole Prison
The Domes
Nevada State Prison
Return to Winchester Mystery House
Stardust Ranch
The Haunted Museum

Season 13
Start: September 24, 2016
End: January 14, 2017

Colorado Gold Mine
Mackay Mansion
Palace Saloon
Reseda House of Evil
Dorothea Puente Murder House
Route 666 (Halloween Special Episode)
Hotel Metlen
St. Ann's Retreat
Twin Bridges Orphanage
Dumas Brothel
Zalud House
Dakota's Sanatorium of Death
De Soto Hotel and Concordia Cemetery (Spliced Part 1 of the Route 666 Halloween Special)
Goatman's Bridge (Spliced Part 2 of the Route 666 Halloween Special)

Season 14
Start: March 25, 2017
End: July 15, 2017

Stone Lion Inn
Freak Show Murder House
Samaritan Cult House
Double Eagle Restaurant
Silent Movie Theater
Exorcism in Erie
Skinwalker Canyon
Upper Fruitland Curse
Witches in Magna
The Viper Room
Asylum 49

Season 15
Start: September 23, 2017
End: January 13, 2018

Golden Ghost Town
Ogden Possession
Haunting of Vicksburg: Mcraven Mansion (Special Episode)
Haunting of Vicksburg: Demons and Dolls (Special Episode)
Haunting of Vicksburg: Spirits Under Siege (Special Episode)
Haunting of Vicksburg: Champion Hill Battlefield (Special Episode)
Museum of Madness (Halloween Special Episode)
Annabelle's Curse (Halloween Special Episode)
Albion Normal School
Museum of the Mountain West
Pythian Castle
The Titanic Museum
Wolf Creek Inn
Eureka Mining Town
Sin City Exorcism
Phelps Dodge Hospital
The Slaughter House

Season 16
Start: March 24, 2018
End: July 14, 2018

Ripley's Believe It or Not
The Alley of Darkness
Kennedy Mine
Old Gila County Jail and Courthouse
Hotel Leger
Enchanted Forest
The Washoe Club Final Chapter
Lewis Flats School
Kay's Hollow

Season 17
Start: October 6, 2018
End: January 12, 2019

Graveyard of the Pacific: Astoria Underground (Special Episode)
Graveyard of the Pacific: Norblad Hostel (Special Episode)
Graveyard of the Pacific: Commander's House (Special Episode)
Graveyard of the Pacific: Cape Disappointment (Special Episode)
The Haunted Museum LIVE (Halloween Special Episode)
Idaho State Reform School
Westerfield House
Crisis in Oakdale
Tintic Mining District
Terror in Fontana
Riverside Plane Graveyard
Curse of the River Bend: Mineral Springs Hotel (Special Episode)
Curse of the River Bend: McPike Mansion (Special Episode)

Season 18
Start: February 23, 2019
End: July 20, 2019

Gates of Hell House
Palomino Club
Lutes Casino
Melrose Hotel
Binions Hotel and Casino
The Woodbury
Crescent Hotel
St. Ignatius Hospital
Mount Wilson Ranch
Panic in Amarillo
Union Hotel
Idaho State Tuberculosis Hospital
A Haunting in Scottsdale

Season 19
Start: October 5, 2019

Serial Killer Spirits: H. H. Holmes Murder House (Special Episode)
Serial Killer Spirits: John Gacy Prison (Special Episode)
Serial Killer Spirits: Axe Killer Jail" (Special Episode)
Serial Killer Spirits: Ted Bundy Ritual House (Special Episode)
Curse of the Harrisville Farmhouse (Halloween Special Episode)
Albion Castle
Cerro Gordo Ghost Town
Pasadena Ritual House
Horror in Biggs
Franklin Castle
Union Brewery of Death
Nightmare in Antelope
Goodwin Home Invasion
Haunted Hollow Forest
The Chinatown Poltergeist
Beneath the Bonanza

[ No Spoilers ] Mod Release: Project Variety

It took 11 months and frequent all nighters, but my biggest mod for Mass Effect 3 is done. Project Variety is a significant overhaul for the games; modifying over 290 files. It basically contains everything I could add to the game over the last year ( Which is a lot). Below is the list of changes. Sorry for the wall of text.
Imgur Album Link: https://imgur.com/a/ngo4hCj
Nexus Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffect3/mods/691
In addition, I owe u/Mgamerz an enourmous debt for his ME3explorer fork. Without it, this mod would have not been possible. It saved me a lot of time in development. u/LavaCreeper is also thanked for discussing ideas with me during development.
Citadel
The Citadel has received the most significant change in this mod. In the vanilla game, the Citadel was dominated by humans. It took the combined number of Asari, Turians, and Salarians to equal the amount of humans. This makes no sense seeing as humanity is still the new kid on the block. Other races have been on the station for millenia and it would be more immersive for them to have a bigger population on the Citadel. For example, species like the Hanar, Elcor, and Volus have had their population drastically increased. Turian Females make an appearance as well and can be seen as C-Sec officers and civilians. The complete set of changes for the Citadel is listed below.
Salarians have been added to Docking Bay D24
Salarian C-Sec officers have been added
Salarians in Purgatory no longer wear armor and instead wear civilian clothes
Salarians in the Refugee camp no longer wear armor and instead wear civilian clothes
More Asari have been added to Docking Bay D24
Asari C-Sec officers have been added
Asari no longer wear Alliance uniforms or armor in Purgatory
Asari soldiers now wear their military uniforms instead of armor on the Citadel
Female Turian Civilians have been added
Female Turian C-Sec Officers have been added
Male Turians now wear casual clothes at the hospital
Human soldiers now wear their uniforms instead of armor on the citadel.
Vorcha Refugees have been added
Some human civilians now wear casual clothes instead of armor in places like Purgatory and the hospital.
C-Sec now uses the Argus instead of the Avenger across the Citadel
Elcor have been added across multiple floors
Hanar have been added across multiple floors
Krogan have been added across multiple floors. They mostly are in Purgatory or the refugee docks, but diplomats start showing up at the embassy after the genophage is cured.
Quarian civilians have been added. Before anyone asks, I know that they were recalled to the flotilla before the war with the geth. The Quarians I added could be interpreted as being exiled or not wanting any part of the war.
The embassy has unique photo frames now. Bailey and Udina have different pictures on their desks.
The awkward camera animation when Shepard talks to the Ismar Frontier Prototype doctor has been fixed.
Shepard can now take the side of the person arguing with the receptionist about President Huerta. Dialogue has been restored to accommodate this. Khalisah Al Jilani has a new outfit.
The pictures on the wall of the missing are now unique. Picture that were cleary Kirrahe, Thane, and the Turian councilor have been replaced with more unique pictures.
The shuttle that the councilors evacuate to during the coup is now a C-Sec shuttle instead of an Alliance one.
Purgatory gets a new 20 minute soundtrack instead of a 2 minute one. 7 new songs have been added.
Citadel Missions
The human bodyguard for Zymandis has been replaced with a drell. Hanar officials are provided Drell bodyguards in accordance with the Compact.
Kasumi’s face can now be seen. It is no longer covered by shadows
The leaders of the Blood pack are now Krogan.
Menae
Menae has received a significant overhaul to immersion.
Female Turian soldiers have been added to the level
The turian soldiers now use Phaestons instead of Avengers.
The bug where Shepard’s equipped weapon was combined with an Avenger after first talking with General Corinthus has been fixed.
Sur'kesh
Sur'kesh has received a significant enhancement
The STG now uses lore accurate weapons instead of N7 Weapons, Mattocks, and Phalanxes. This primarily means Venom shotguns. No more Eclipse armored Salarians in the base.
Wrex no longer magically switches between a Claymore and a Katana.
Kirrahe no longer magically switches between a Scorpion and a Mattock
Cerberus soldiers will no longer switch between using a Locust in the cutscenes to using a Hornet in combat.
A Cerberus Centurion in one of the cutscenes no longer uses a submachine gun but instead uses a Mattock.
Krogan Arc
The missions during the Krogan arc have received enhancements as well.
Turians on Tuchanka now use Phaestons
Krogan on Uttuku now use Claymores instead of Avengers
Grunt no longer has an Eviscerator and instead uses a Claymore in the final cutscene.
Grunt now wears a more armored version of his loyalty armor
Krogan during Priority Tuchanka now use Claymores instead of Eviscerators.
Grissom Academy
The changes to Grissom Academy include fixing bugs, making Jack look like her role as teacher, and more.
Cerberus Troopers now use accurate weapons during the cutscenes.
Pressly no longer just stands there doing nothing while Jack and Shepard rescue Rodriguez
Jack no longer punches Shepard if he/she decide to destroy the Collector base. She only punches Shepard if she was romanced or if the Collector Base was saved.
Jack now wears outfits more appropriate for a teacher. It was ridiculous that she would wear such a revealing outfit in front of teenage students. She now wears a leather jacket on Grissom and on the Normandy if you use Expanded Galaxy Mod. She changes clothes once Shepard meets her at Purgatory and wears armor during the holo call on Earth.
From Ashes DLC
Eden Prime now has unique paintings
The soldiers guarding Javik now wear armor
Javik now has a new casual outfit and wears it during non combat situations
Gellix
Gellix has received many changes, primarily aimed at making the scientists look like they are actually in hiding from Cerberus.
All Cerberus logos have been removed.
The scientists now wear clothing that is not the cerberus uniform. This can range from anything from the scientist outfit to the refugee clothing.
Jacob now wears recolored Inferno Armor during the mission.
The Scientists’ shuttles are no longer Cerberus branded.
In one of the cutscenes, the Cerberus trooper no longer switches between a Locust and a Hornet
Accurate Cerberus units are now present during the the opening cutscene. A Guardian is actually using the shield now. In addition, the troopers are now using Hornets instead of Mattocks.
Ardat Yakshi Monastery
Samara now wears armor during the mission. It made no sense why she would go into a potential war zone waring such skimpy clothing. She wears a more appropriate uniform while on the Citadel.
Rannoch Arc
The Rannoch Arc contains numerous changes as well.
The geth heavy weapons are now actually of geth design rather than human designed heavy weapons.
The Quarians who crash landed on Rannoch now use weapons unique to the Flotilla like the Arc Pistol.
Admiral Gerrel no longer does that weird neck turn when talking with Shepard after the geth dreadnought.
Quarians in the Geth Consensus mission now use Quarian weapons instead of Vindicators.
Thessia
An Asari soldier now uses a Disciple instead of a Katana.
Shepard no longer gets an email from Kai Leng following the mission. Instead, he gets an email from Asari High Command.
The Marauders no longer use Revenants during one of the cutscenes. they use Phasteons like everywhere else.
The fight with Kai Leng on Thessia is now skippable (Optional File)
Horizon
Changes on Horizon are primarily focused on the Lawson Sisters
Miranda now wears her aap armor during the mission. It made no sense why she would try to go to Horizon in her normal clothing.
The textures for the armor are high res. Unlike the other Miranda armor mod, this one skips over the scene with the unchangeable bik file. This means immersion is not broken. Miranda also ties her hair up as women with long hair typically tie their hair before combat situations.
Oriana Lawson’s face has been changed to make her actually look like a twin of Miranda.
Henry Lawson now used a Talon instead of a Paladin
Tertiary Codex
A, new, third codex has been added. It replaces the rather useless manual. The primary purpose of the tertiary codex is to bring in EU and relatively obscure lore into the game. My stance on EU lore is that as long as it does not conflict with in game lore, then it is valid. For that reason, things like the events of Mass Effect: Deception will not be included. Things that do not conflict with lore like the Cerberus Daily News Network have been added. That being said, the writing in the codex is not exactly the best it can be and much of it is borrowed from the Mass Effect Wiki. If anyone with writing experience wishes to help, feel free to contact me.
Immersive Loading Screens
The original gameplay based loading screens have been replaced with loading screens that contain current events and facts about the lore.
The Fate of Decian Chellick
The lore about the Executor in Mass Effect 3 is completely messed up. Fore one thing, in Mass Effect 2, a news report by Emily Wong says that Chellick is executor; not Pallin. There is also cut dialogue that references Chellick as executor that can be heard if you play with Mass Effect 2 recalibrated. Finally, Bailey contradicts himself in his dialogue. In one instance he says that he is unaware why he was promoted to commander. In another, he says it was because he killed Executor Pallin; who should not be Executor anyway according to Mass Effect 2 content. The EU regarding Bailey and Palin follows this dialogue chain which creates even more of an immersion break. With that being said, this is how Project Variety handles the situation of the Executor.
Chellick now has an entry in the Tertiary Codex mentioned above
Bailey no longer talks about Pallin in one of his early conversations
The human executor during the coup has been replaced with Chellick
The secondary codex regarding the coup, that mentions Pallin, has been edited.
Accurate Cutscene Weapons
Anyone who has played Mass Effect 3 knows about the cutscene weapons. Having an Avenger and Predator replace Shepard’s and company’s weapons during the cutscenes is one of the most annoying and immersion breaking part of the game. In Project Variety, this has been fixed for the most part. Shepard and his/her squad will now use accurate weapons during the cutscenes in the base game and the DLC. Bye Bye Avenger and Predator. There are some caveats however. Some cutscenes could not be fixed due to compatibility issues with other mods and because of technical reasons. These are listed here.
The confrontation with the Virmire Survivor during the coup
The scene after Brooks and CAT6 are defeated during the Citadel DLC
Some scenes during Rannoch: Geth Fighter Squadrons
There is another caveat. If you do not have the right weapon equipped during some of the cutscenes, it will look very weird. To mitigate this issue, I have provided a list with cutscenes where you have to have a certain weapon equipped. This list is called Project Variety Gun Cutscene.pdf
Spectre Weapons
The Harrier, Black Widow, Paladin, and Wraith are now listed as Spectre weapons. Their descriptions have been edited accordingly. The Harrier and Black Widow also have new textures to correspond with their new Spectre affiliation.
Leviathan DLC
The Leviathan DLC has received multiple changes.
The paintings in Bryson’s office are now unique from the rest of the game
Ann Bryson now changes outfits as the storyline progresses
The Leviathan no longer states that all Reapers are designed after Harbinger’s image. This is immersion breaking because in Mass Effect 2, it was clearly shown that there were different designed Reapers. Edi also mentions that Reaper ships are unique post Priority: Tuchanka
The two NPCs, besides Ann Bryson, that show up in Shepard’s Leviathan induced Hallucination have been replaced by Anderson and The Illusive Man.
Omega DLC
The Omega DLC has received some changes as well
Aria now wears armor for the duration of the DLC. There is no reason for why she went into a warzone wearing civilian clothing.
Aria’s entire army is now armored as well
The infamous buggy Aria speech at Talon headquarters has been fixed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs7oDLijPXI&t=3s
More unique weapons at Aria’s bunker.
Accurate cutscene weapons for Cerberus soldiers during the DLC.
No more Cerberus logos on the turrets guarding Aria’s bunker.
Talon soldiers at their headquarters no longer use N7 weapons.
Shepard’s weapons no longer disappear while he is leaving Omega.
Citadel DLC
Citadel DLC has received many changes to increase its uniqueness and fix annoying issues.
The apartment now has unique paintings
The apartment now has unique picture frames. This means that each picture frame has a unique photo.
The apartment now has brand now Statues and shelf decor designed to replace clearly reused assets.
The casino now has unique paintings
There are now NPCs who wear shorter dresses during the casino infiltration mission.
Female Turians are present on the Silversun Strip
Javik no longer brings his guns to the casino infiltration mission.
Kasumi now wears a dress and shows her face while she attempts to rob the casino. Her previous outfit was too suspicious.
Kasumi’s henchmen now wear casual clothing instead of armor
Jack gets a new casual outfit, for the duration of the DLC, which is based off of Grissom academy.
Jacob gets a new casual outfit for the duration of the DLC.
Zaeed gets a new casual outfit for the duration of the DLC.
Traynor gets casual outfit for the duration of the DLC.
Joker gets casual outfit for the duration of the DLC.
Cortez gets casual outfit for the duration of the DLC.
Samara gets casual outfit for the duration of the DLC.
Ashley and Brooks no longer wear fugly dresses during the casino mission. They are no longer twinningor matching Shepard as well.
Cortez now wears armor during the beginning of the Archive mission. There is no way he could transition into armor that quickly.
Miranda, Jacob, Samara, and Jack wear armor while in the Arena.
The salarians in Javik’s meetup no longer wear armor.
Quarians have been added to the Silversun Strip
The low quality models for squadmates that Shepard did not pick during the Archive mission have been upgraded to have better models and textures. If you have ALOT, some of them will be improved further.
Miscellaneous Changes Shepard and company can now max out all their skills at level 60
Shepard now loots the Cerberus Ciphers off a Cerberus Engineer. This was done to match his dialogue with the CSEC officer on the Citadel DLC.
Bilal Osoba’s body can now be found on Benning, next to his dog tags.
Press F12 to toggle Flycam
Press F1 to toggle freezing the game
Press F2 to toggle the HUD.
Press NumPad 7 to get more credits
Press F3 to take screenshots. This will ignore reshades such as the Gravis Reshade. Screenshots are stored in Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect 3\BIOGame\Screenshots. Screenshots are in the bmp or bitmap file format. Press NumPad 8 to instantly level up to level 60.
Skip the security scan on the Normandy
Andromeda References
Several references to Mass Effect Andromeda have been scattered through the mod.

After banning 'Star Wars' slot machines, Disney spends millions to change Florida gambling law to "protect" its theme parks and properties - including Galaxy's Edge

Today, I heard about recent efforts by Disney against the gambling industry. I thought you guys would be interested in hearing about it, as it also heavily involves Star Wars...and particularly, Disney's plans in 2019 for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, and the Star Wars hotel, at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
It also involves Disney's existing, popular offering "Star Wars Day at Sea", and other Star Wars-related plans for its cruises in 2019, which is parly based out of the Port of Miami in Miami, Florida, and Port Canaveral (Orlando, Florida).
The tl;dnr of it is as such: (broken down into smaller sections)

Before Disney purchased Lucasfilm, Lucasfilm had allowed the construction and use of character-themed slot machines, and other gambling aspects, as related to the Star Wars brand. This was presumably done for Lucasfilm to make money off of licensing fees and royalties.
Disney, after buying Lucasfilm in 2012, "phased out" (re: banned) Star Wars and Marvel slot machines at casinos, and online gambling games, after being "exposed" as [now] owning them by New York Times reporters Lizette Alvarez and Michael Snyder. They have done so to protect their "family-friendly" brand, of which they now consider Star Wars to be a part of.
Casino owners and online vendors were against the move, saying it would hurt their businesses by taking away some of their slot machines / online gambling games.
Casino owners in Florida, seeking to expand their business(es), formed pro-gambling-growth groups, designed to try and stimulate local economies and businesses by building new casinos across the state. This would presumably include in tourism-heavy areas, such as Orlando (of which Walt Disney World is a major feature) and Miami (which is a major port for Disney Cruise Lines).
Disney has now collaborated with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the latter of which is a major gambling monolith and owns the Hard Rock franchise, to try and pass law to change current Florida rules. The change would make it harder for people to build and open new casinos in, and around, their properties (including Disney's currently-in-production Star Wars Orlando theme park, Galaxy's Edge) by making it so that 60% of state voters would have to vote "Yes" on gambling and casino expansion in the future.
Disney has spent an estimated $17.5 million, in conjunction with the Seminole Tribe, since 2015 to combat gambling expansion in Florida. (Source) Disney donated $5 million to anti-gambling expansion efforts in April 2018, which the Seminole Tribe matched. (Source)
Disney also donated $400,000 to support the campaign of Florida governor candidate Adam Putnam, who supports Disney's anti-gambling expansion stance.
Disney has invested an estimated $1 billion in the construction of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. As the theme park is doing something never before done - building a land around an entirely new environment within the franchise, rather than an existing one - they are taking a huge financial risk. Their anti-gambling expansion efforts are also related to protecting their financial interests in Galaxy's Edge, as well as their planned Star Wars hotel and resort.

The Walt Disney Company is one of the most successful media conglomerate companies in the world. Just about everyone has heard of the Disney theme parks stationed in Florida, California, and abroad. Just about everyone has seen classic Disney films like Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast. Not everyone knows about Disney's relationship with the gambling industry, however, and it is a noteworthy one.
Over the years, Disney has acquired the rights to several major entertainment companies and their licensed characters. In 2009, Disney bought the Marvel Entertainment company, creator of the famed Marvel comic books and a slew of popular superhero characters. In 2012, it purchased all rights to LucasFilm, the parent company that created the Star Wars brand.
Disney announced its plans to phase out all Star Wars and Marvel-themed casino slot machines in the United States last fall. The multimillion dollar company has the power to do this, because it now owns all rights to these brands.
According to a Disney spokeswoman, the character-themed slot phase-out is not a new decision. As part of Marvel's “integration” with Disney, she said the decision was made several years ago to let the machines gradually fade out through attrition. Only a few Marvel license agreements remain at this point, and they are set to expire within the next several years. Star Wars-themed slots will also trickle away, but it will take a few more years for that process to complete.
[...] Disney wields a certain amount of power over casinos, both on land and online, because of these acquisitions. Instead of promoting Star Wars and Marvel characters via slot machines, the company prefers to use their likenesses in movies that serve to perpetuate the Disney brand.
As the owner of LucasFilm, Disney has another trilogy of Star Wars films currently in the works. [...] Fans can expect to see Disney continue to advance their brands through avenues other than the gaming industry.
Disney has made its opinion of the gambling industry known in Florida: It does not support the addition of more resort casinos to that area. Not only does Disney plan to phase out Marvel and Star Wars-themed slot machines, it also hopes to prevent the development of new casino resorts in the state.
As it stands today, Orlando's Walt Disney World is the top tourist attraction on the globe. Over 50 million people visit the entertainment resort every year and partake of theme parks like Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios. From a business standpoint, it makes sense that Disney would not want another tourist draw infringing on its potential customer base in the Orlando area.
Disney denies that self-interest is its main motivation for opposing new casinos. Andrea Finger, a spokeswoman for the company, said the corporation opposes casino expansion for “many reasons.” One of the primary reasons is the fact that Florida is a “family friendly” vacation spot; adding more casinos to the landscape would tarnish that. Finger lauded Florida's efforts in “research, innovation, and entrepreneurship” and indicated that adding more casino resorts would create an “inconsistent” atmosphere in the state.
Finger made no statement suggesting that Disney is protecting its own interests by objecting to more casinos. This inference has been made, however, by critics based on the connection between Disney and its Marvel and Star Wars slot machines that recently came to light.
Critics also cite the fact that increased Florida casinos might steal valuable convention contracts from the Mickey Mouse company. At this point, Disney hosts approximately 700,000 square feet of convention space in its Florida resorts.
Disney's ownership of Marvel and LucasFilm slot machines was brought to the public's attention by New York Times reporters Lizette Alvarez and Michael Snyder. Critics immediately began shouting hypocrisy at the fact that Disney, a vocal gambling opponent, owns and profits from character-themed casino slot machines.
The Times reporters asked Disney whether its ownership of the slots “undercut” its casino gambling stance. A spokeswoman responded that the company's affiliation with the casinos was only temporary, and that it would take a few years for current slot machine contracts to expire.
[...] When Marvel and Star Wars-themed slots do eventually disappear from casinos, their absence will be a blow to the gaming industry. Casino patrons are drawn to the colorful games touting Spider Man, Darth Vader, and other exciting Hollywood characters. Until the machines are completely phased out, the characters will continue to entertain casino patrons both online and on land.
The online gaming industry will definitely be affected by Disney's prohibition. The Spider Man Slot game, for example, is an enticing game for online gamblers that was introduced in 2012. Other Marvel-themed online slots include Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Thor, and Wolverine Slots. The eventual loss of these games will leave a gaping hole in customers' palette of gaming choices.
[Possibly in response to Disney's decision], a group called the Associated Industries of Florida launched a new pro-casino campaign. This group is lobbying for more casinos in the area as a means of promoting jobs and stimulating the local economy. Analysts expect the battle between Disney and pro-casino lobbyists to become more heated as politicians compete for voter support in the upcoming election. (Source)
[However, Orlando isn't the only city that Disney is engaging in anti-casino efforts with.] The biggest challenger standing between [the city of] Miami and casinos is a mouse.
Walt Disney World, the giant resort near Orlando whose four theme parks draw more than 45 million visitors a year, has made preventing "destination" casinos a top priority. And few, if any, businesses carry as much weight in Florida as Disney, which employs more than 60,000 workers, generates nearly $600 million a year in tax revenue — and doled out more than $2 million to political candidates and causes during the past election cycle.
Some analysts say Disney — and, by extension, Orlando's entire tourism industry — has good reason to be wary of casinos. Though adult-oriented resorts in South Florida are unlikely to appeal to Disney's core audience of families with young children, they could siphon away travelers in narrower segments that are also important to the resort, from South Americans to conventions to weddings.
"Disney has lots of little pockets or niches that they're really good at getting market share in. And it adds up," said Duncan Dickson, a professor at the University of Central Florida's Rosen College of Hospitality Management. "Disney doesn't want another Las Vegas anywhere close to them. Who needs the competition?"
[Case in point, Disney also has Disney Cruise Lines, based in both Miami and Port Canaveral (Orlando).] Disney Cruise Line has revealed it will extend its popular "Star Wars Day at Sea" program through 2019, with the addition of nine cruises -- each of which will include a Star Wars-themed sea day, complete with special programming and restaurant menus. Family-friendly activities include Star Wars character meet-and-greets, movie nights (featuring new releases), Star Wars trivia, and a Jedi training show, where kids can learn lightsaber skills and battle Darth Vader.
Throughout the day, restaurants and bars also will serve themed foods and cocktails. The sea day will end with a fireworks show and deck party, hosted by Star Wars heroes and villains. All cruises span seven nights and depart from Port Canaveral (Orlando), Florida. (Source)
[...] Disney has always opposed efforts to expand gambling, [citing it as being againts its "family-friendly" image].
The Walt Disney Co., one of the most brand-protective companies on the planet, does not want to jeopardize its kid-friendly reputation by any association whatsoever with casinos and the taboo images they often conjure. The company's cruise line is the only major operator to sail ships without onboard casinos, which are typically one of the biggest generators of on-board spending.
"We've studied this issue carefully and remain opposed for many reasons," said Disney spokesman Mike Griffin, "including the fact that it is inconsistent with Florida's brand as a family-friendly destination, and with the efforts we've long supported to diversify Florida's economy through research, innovation, and entrepreneurship."
The legislation to be considered in Tallahassee would authorize three "destination" casinos in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Each would boast a luxury hotel, shops, restaurants, convention space and casinos with every major game, from blackjack to roulette and craps. Any company awarded a casino license would have to spend at least $2 billion building the facility.
Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts, both based in Las Vegas, and Genting, a Malaysian-based resort developer, are among the companies expected to seek licenses. Genting has already spent more than $300 million to buy bay-front property in downtown Miami and has announced plans for a $3.8 billion resort.
All have promised they will create thousands of jobs in South Florida, making the deal attractive to lawmakers hoping to lower the state's 10.6 percent unemployment rate.
Analysts say anyone that invests that much capital to build a resort also will have to spend lavishly to market the property. At a minimum, that will force Disney to ramp up its own spending on advertising, eroding its profit margins.
"Anytime you've got to fight and compete with more marketing dollars, which you know these folks have in abundance, it makes Disney's job that much harder to battle against," said Vicki Johnson, a tourism-marketing expert in Orlando.
More specifically, casinos could prove attractive draws in key markets for Disney. Executives at Genting, for instance, have said they would market heavily in Latin America.
Latin America — particularly Brazil, its biggest country — has become one of Disney World's most valuable markets in recent years. This summer, even as overall attendance at the resort was about flat with a year ago, Disney officials said traffic from Brazil was up by a double-digit percentage.
Though Disney doesn't disclose exact attendance numbers, national data show that visitation from Brazil is up 27% to more than 833,000 so far this year. And though Miami is the most popular destination for South American travelers, Orlando is growing more rapidly.
Disney says its business from Brazil is predominantly family-leisure travel, the group least likely to be swayed by casinos. But some industry followers say lavish resorts, when combined with the boutique shopping already in Miami, might be enough to peel away some of that business, especially Brazilians with older children or none at all.
"All of a sudden, it really cuts into their [Disney's] South American markets," Johnson said.
Group meetings and conventions business is also a growing profit center for Disney, which has nearly 470,000 square feet of meeting space spread among its hotels. It also routinely picks up lucrative private parties and other business tied to shows using Orange County's massive, publicly owned convention center.
Finally, allowing casinos in South Florida could lead to pressure to build more in other parts of the state. Already, some hoteliers in Orlando — led by Harris Rosen, owner of three major convention hotels — have made rumblings about bringing casinos to Central Florida. And officials at Port Canaveral — Disney Cruise Line's home port — are interested in casinos, too.
"Once they get their foot in the door, what's next? Orange County is going to say, 'Well, if it's legal in Dade County, why isn't it legal here?' " said Dickson, the UCF professor.
Disney has worked to enlist broader business groups to fight the casino legislation, most notably the Florida Chamber of Commerce, even though more than half of the businesses represented on the chamber's board of directors say they are neutral on the issue.
And the opposition from Disney has put casino boosters on the defensive during the past few days.
"Florida's identity cannot be changed because one casino or two destination resorts open in Miami-Dade County," said state Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, who is sponsoring the casino legislation in the Florida House of Representatives.
"Florida will always be the Sunshine State," he added. "The dominant trademark of Florida will always be Disney World. I don't think they have anything to worry about when it comes to that." (Source)
There have been multiple attempts to garner support in the state legislature for non-Native American casinos and other forms of gambling expansion in the state. Currently, the Seminoles control the ability of Florida to expand full-fledged casinos per their current compact. And the power of the Seminoles in the state is substantial.
In order to change current law, there must be a constitutional amendment backed by the voters of Florida. There is one such opportunity on the ballot for the November 6, 2018 election.
The Casino Gambling Initiative, if approved, would give voters the exclusive right to authorize casinos going forward, casinos being comprised of card games, slot machines, and other casino-style games. All ballot measures in the future would then require a citizen-initiated process by which a number of signatures of registered voters must be obtained for ballot consideration.
Currently, however, the Seminoles reserve the exclusive right to offer blackjack, craps, and roulette in Florida, which would present a problem that would have to be addressed. The agreement with the Seminoles was signed by Governor Rick Scott in 2015, and is effective for 20 years.
While this may end up in a legal fight, poker rooms are not an exclusive right of the tribe, and would not be an issue.
If Amendment 3 passes in November by 60% or more of the popular vote, a new day may begin for casinos in Florida. This will also drastically increase the opportunity for poker rooms throughout the state. (Source)
The US Supreme Court repealed the longstanding federal sports betting ban known as PASPA (Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act). The landmark decision allows states to dictate their own sports wagering laws.
That means sports betting could be coming to Florida casinos, should the legislature pass market regulations. But Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam said this week that if he’s elected, he would oppose such legislation.
[Putnam also echoes Disney's reasoning.]
“I’ve always been one who has said we don’t need to expand the footprint of gambling in Florida,” Putnam declared at a campaign stop. “It’s not who we are as a state. We’re a family-friendly vacation destination. We’re a small business-oriented state.”
“If I lived in the middle of the desert in Nevada, [like Las Vegas], maybe I would grasp onto whatever straw or life raft somebody threw me,” he continued. “But we live in Florida, and we’ve got unlimited opportunities, and we don’t need to sell our state short.” (Source)
Earlier this year, Disney also gave $400,000 to Florida Grown, a committee supporting Putnam's gubernatorial bid.
[...] Disney officials would not agree to an interview, but in a statement, Jacquee Wahler, vice president of Walt Disney World Resorts, wrote, “We support candidates who understand issues important to our company, and demonstrate strong support for business and tourism in Florida.” (Source)
[Meanwhile, Disney is busy constructing what it hopes will be its next big moneymaker: Galaxy's Edge, a Star Wars-themed land in Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Orlando. Disney also plans to construct a Star Wars-themed hotel and resort adjacent to Galaxy's Edge.]
The ongoing success of high-profile films, like the Marvel and Star Wars franchises, can play a big role in the theme parks ability to tap into new characters and storylines for rides and shows.
Experts have said the success in theme park rides today are built on characters and properties that resonate with visitors outside the park. Thus new lands themed after popular franchises have proven to be a boon — like Disney's Star Wars and Frozen attractions, and Universal Orlando Resort's success with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
[So far this year], the theme parks division for the quarter saw a 13% increase in revenue to $4.87 billion, up from $4.29 billion for the same time last year. The division also saw a 13% increase in revenue for the first six months of the year to $10.03 billion, up from $8.85 billion for the year-ago period.
According to the earnings report:
"Results included a benefit from a shift in the timing of the Easter holiday relative to our fiscal periods. The current quarter included one week of the Easter holiday, whereas the entire Easter holiday fell in the third quarter of the prior year. Higher operating income at our domestic parks and resorts was primarily due to increased guest spending, attendance growth at Walt Disney World Resort and higher sponsorship revenue, partially offset by increased costs.
Guest spending growth was due to increases in average ticket prices, average daily hotel room rates and food, beverage and merchandise spending. The increase in costs was primarily due to labor and other cost inflation, an increase in depreciation associated with new attractions and higher technology spending." (Source)
[Driving this growth are Disney's planned new additions, including Galaxy's Edge, which is currently under construction ("labor costs").]
Disney’s new Star Wars land won’t open until next year, but it is not too early to declare that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will be the most ambitious theme park land ever built.
The numbers alone might justify the claim. At 14 acres each, Disney’s twin Star Wars lands will be the largest the company has built at the Disneyland and Walt Disney World resorts. Disney has not confirmed a budget for Galaxy’s Edge, but the project is believed widely within the industry to be costing at least one billion dollars. (Source)

How Gotham Gave Us Trump

How Gotham Gave Us Trump
by [email protected] (Michael Kruse) via POLITICO - TOP Stories
URL: http://ift.tt/2sXVg3O
Trump Tower opened in 1983—a gleaming, ostentatious building in a grimy, troubled city. At its base was an orange marble atrium with a waterfall and a clutch of boutiques that sold only the highest-priced jewelry, shoes and clothes. Outside, it was impossible to find a subway car not covered with graffiti, and a growing homeless population jangled cups for change; inside, the tower’s apartments were billed as “totally inaccessible to the public” and meant exclusively for “the world’s best people,” developer Donald Trump crowed. And in the aftermath of the fanfare-fueled debut of his eponymous tower—his grandest achievement as a builder, the most singular and physical manifestation of his ego and ambition—Trump walked into the bank of shiny gold elevators and ascended to his triplex penthouse.
If that elevator ride marked his ultimate arrival in New York, it also was a departure of sorts—up and out of the dirty, rattled, crime-ridden metropolis in which he came of age. In the 1970s, the city had teetered on the brink of bankruptcy and been terrorized by a serial killer. In the 1980s, murders soared toward 2,000 a year, and muscled volunteers calling themselves the Guardian Angels patrolled the subways in red berets in an effort to put frightened riders at ease. This was a nadir of New York—and Trump used it to his advantage, leveraging the city’s anxiety and uncertainty to secure the tax breaks that helped kickstart his career.
Ever since, his view of New York, and of urban areas in general, has remained as hardened as Mafia concrete. The Trump take on the city was evident in 1989, as he fanned the racially charged public frenzy around the Central Park Five rape case. Almost a decade later, it was on appalling display in his revealing pit stop as “principal for a day” at an impoverished South Bronx elementary school. During last year’s campaign, it inspired his statistically flimsy rhetoric about urban blight. And in the White House, it has informed his budget proposals that will punish cities in particular.
Almost uniquely among famous city-dwellers, Trump has made his bones railing against cities, constructing escapes from them, taking from them while complaining about them—and, most remarkably, in his bid to be president, describing America’s now often prosperous cities in an alarming, arm’s-length way that resonates with many white rural voters and suburbanites but with few people who actually have lived in a city at any point in the past decade or more.
“How could a guy who lived in New York have these provincial, redneck attitudes?” says Ken Auletta, who grew up in Brooklyn and writes for the New Yorker. “I’m not sure I have an answer—other than, obviously, he lived apart. He got into his elevator.”
What went wrong between Trump and cities? The roots of this antagonistic relationship go back to before even Trump Tower. Trump grew up in perhaps the most suburban setting possible within New York’s municipal boundaries, in a columned mansion in quiet, leafy Jamaica Estates, Queens. His real estate developer father had his office in Coney Island in Brooklyn. But in 1971, at 25, Trump left to pursue wealth and fame in what he considered the most important arena—Manhattan. He chose to live on the tony Upper East Side.
The city, for the admittedly shallow, ever-transactional Trump, was a place not to be experienced so much as exploited. The interest was not mutual: To most of New York’s elite, whose acceptance he sought, Trump was far too brash and gauche. He was an outer-borough outsider, bankrolled by his politically connected father. He wanted to be taken seriously, but seldom was. “He’s a bridge-and-tunnel guy, and he’s a daddy’s boy,” Lou Colasuonno, a former editor of the New York Post and the New York Daily News, said in a recent interview. “There were people who laughed at him,” former CBS anchor and current outspoken Trump critic Dan Rather told me. While his loose-lipped, in-your-face approach appealed to blue-collar types in spots in Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens, many in Manhattan, Rather says, considered him “repulsive.”
For Trump, as inhospitable as he found the city on the street, the parlors of high society were equally problematic—and he created a refuge. It was some 600 feet in the sky, where the faucets were gold, the baseboards were onyx and the paintings on the ceiling, he would claim, were comparable to the work of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. At the top of Trump Tower, biographer Tim O’Brien told me, he could live “at a remove from the city and its amazing bloodstream of ideas and people and culture”—“encased,” added fellow biographer Gwenda Blair, “within this bubble of serenity and privilege.”
Out his bronze-edged, floor-to-ceiling windows, Trump could see Central Park to the north and the Hudson River to the west. He could see south to the Empire State Building and the twin towers of the World Trade Center. He could see the tops of yellow cabs and the tiny people moving around on the sidewalks some 60 stories down. What he could not see, though, or hasn’t, is the transformation that has taken place, as New York morphed from what it was in the ’70s and ’80s into the cleaner, safer enclave for the smart and the rich that it is today. The trend has held throughout America as well, as rural and suburban areas started to sag while urban cores became hip engines of growth and innovation.
Cities changed. Trump did not.
How, at a moment when American cities are at a peak of wealth and success, can Trump argue so persistently against them? The answer starts with the New York that made him.
The deal in the ’70s that launched Trump, the refurbishment of the decrepit, aging-brick Commodore Hotel into the sleek, glass-wrapped Grand Hyatt by Grand Central Station, would not have happened—could not have happened—if New York hadn’t been a barely functioning hellhole. It required his father’s money, credit and clout. Just as definitively, it depended on his father’s long-standing relationships with the mayor (Abe Beame) and the governor (Hugh Carey), both of whom had deep Brooklyn ties. But it was the precise timing that led to the tax breaks, and they are what made it work. “It is made possible,” says Kim Phillips-Fein, the author of Fear City, her acclaimed, recently published book about New York in that era, “in large part by the city’s fiscal desperation.”
The Manhattan Trump inserted himself into was at a low point, reeling and vulnerable, and the city as a whole was listing. In October 1975, President Gerald Ford said he was “prepared to veto any bill that has as its purpose a federal bailout of New York City.” “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD,” read the blunt headline in the New York Daily News. Only two months later, Ford in fact would pledge $2.3 billion in federal assistance to the city, but budget cuts nonetheless necessitated layoffs of public employees in New York for the first time since the Great Depression. That included cops. “WELCOME TO FEAR CITY,” warned flyers distributed by the protesting police union to arriving tourists.
In 1976, an elderly couple who had lived in the Bronx for more than 40 years killed themselves. “We don’t want to live in fear anymore,” they wrote in their joint suicide note. And 1977 was worse. The serial killer David Berkowitz, or “Son of Sam,” murdered six people and wounded another nine before he was caught that summer—“NO ONE IS SAFE,” blared the front of the New York Post—and the citywide blackout in muggy mid-July triggered rampant looting that was seen by many as evidence of an angry, anxious populace, a city on the edge. “This wounded Paris, this hemorrhaging Athens,” Jack Newfield and Paul Du Brul wrote that year in their book, The Abuse of Power: The Permanent Government and the Fall of New York.
This is the context in which Trump was able to cross the Queensboro Bridge in a Cadillac convertible and ultimately secure “the most extraordinary structure of city and state tax breaks ever arranged,” in the words of the late Wayne Barrett in the Village Voice—unprecedented public subsidies of some $360 million over 40 years. “He leveraged the fear that was rampant in New York, of the city going bankrupt, of racial unrest, of manufacturing fleeing, of imminent collapse,” Blair says. The city helped Trump much more than Trump helped the city. But ever one to tell and sell his story before others can backfill facts, Trump pitched his breakthrough deal as an act of civic-minded selflessness. “I think we’ve proven people still have a lot of confidence in the city,” he said in 1977 to a reporter from the New York Times.
The Commodore Hotel he plucked for $10 million from the scrapheap of the bankrupt Penn Central railroad sat at 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, adjacent to Grand Central Terminal—an area that now feels like most of the rest of money-soaked Midtown Manhattan but at that point felt “like shit,” says Barbara Res, who was working for Trump on the Commodore project. There were cat-killing rats in the basement of the hotel, she recalls, and prostitutes operating out of its rooms. City leaders worried the area would turn into another Times Square, which had become a low-class bazaar of peep shows and pornography dives. “The Commodore was really run-down, and Grand Central was in really bad shape,” Res says. “You didn’t think of it as a nice part of New York at all.”
For Trump, this beleaguered city was a personal stage as well, a kind of backdrop against which he could shine. Clad in three-piece, flared-leg suits, riding around Manhattan in a limousine with DJT license plates driven by a laid-off cop playing the role of armed-guard chauffeur, Trump preferred East Side bars and hot spots frequented by fashion models—Harper’s and McMullen’s and Maxwell’s Plum, and the sweaty, celebrity-spotting bacchanal at Studio 54, where he “would watch supermodels getting screwed,” he would say later to O’Brien, the biographer, “well-known supermodels getting screwed on a bench in the middle of the room.” Trump wasn’t out to get drunk—he was, and is, a teetotaler—but to be seen.
If he had expected New York to grant respect the way it had handed out tax breaks and opportunities for sheer publicity, he was mistaken. Critics in the pages of the Times called him “overrated” and “totally obnoxious.” It bothered him that he could put up such a glossy building and still be so readily dismissed as an arriviste. “If I were Gerry Hines in Houston,” he told Marie Brenner for a profile in New York magazine in 1980, referring to the billionaire real estate entrepreneur in Texas, “I would be the most important man in the city—but here, you bang your head against the wall to try to get some nice buildings up, and what happens? Everybody comes after you.”
But Trump attacked New York, too. He had, for instance, valuable art deco friezes jackhammered off the face of the Bonwit Teller building during its demolition—even after he had promised to donate them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a literal and visceral assault against the exact sort of New Yorker who found him so distasteful.
They were “nothing,” Trump said. They were “junk.”
They were not, said a man from the Met. “They were irreplaceable architectural documents.”
“Obviously,” huffed an editorial in the Times, “big buildings do not make big human beings.”
The building that took the place of Bonwit Teller was Trump Tower, a branding achievement that, once finished and polished, made Trump a new echelon of famous around the country and even the world. In the city, though, it did not broadly elicit the esteem from the elite that he craved.
An anonymous sniper in a story in Town & Country described him as a “corporate vandal.” The Timessaid his critics called him “a rogue billionaire, loose in the city like some sort of movie monster.” As Trump grew increasingly acquisitive in Atlantic City, people in Manhattan diminished him as “a casino operator in New Jersey,” essentially de-New Yorking him.
“He was,” says Pete Hamill, the longtime columnist who had stints as the editor of both the Post and the Daily News, “an object of mockery.”
Early ad copy for Trump Tower apartments embraced the escapist imagery of the elevator. “You approach the residential entrance—an entrance totally inaccessible to the public—and your staff awaits your arrival,” the come-on cooed. “Quickly, quietly, the elevator takes you to your floor and your elevator man sees you home. You turn the key and wait a moment before turning on the light. A quiet moment to take in the view—wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling—New York at dusk. Your diamond in the sky. It seems a fantasy. And you are home.”
Once ensconced in his tower—Trump’s office was on the 26th floor, and he and his first wife and their three young children moved into the penthouse in early 1984—his vantage point had literally changed. George Arzt, a prominent public relations man in Manhattan, then was a reporter for the Post, and Trump, he told me recently, used to call him a lot. “And he would say, ‘I’m looking down from my office … ’” A close former employee would get similar calls from Trump from the penthouse. “One of the things he does a lot,” this person said in a recent interview, “is look down.”
Trump looked down at Wollman Rink, the ice skating facility in Central Park, which the city had spent six years and $12 million trying unsuccessfully to renovate—and he decided in 1986 he should be the one to fix it. Mayor Ed Koch and the city accepted his offer, and he did repair the rink, in less than six months and some $800,000 under budget. In the end, Trump not only celebrated what he had done—he highlighted what the city had not. “I guess it says a lot about the city,” Trump said at the grand opening, “but I don’t have to say what it says.”
He looked down in the mid-1980s, too, at his plot of land over on the West Side—on which he wanted to put six 76-story buildings, 8,000 apartments and the world’s tallest skyscraper. It never happened, partly because Ed Koch refused his request for a billion-dollar tax break. Trump, as always a mixture of public-subsidy suckler, self-appointed savior and plainspoken critic of the city, lambasted the mayor—“a moron,” “a disaster.” “Greedy, greedy, greedy,” Koch retorted. “Piggy, piggy, piggy.”
From the opening of Trump Tower until earlier this year, when his address became 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Trump never moved. In the three and a half decades he lived at 721 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York, “one of the greatest residential addresses in the world,” he would say, the city below him changed dramatically.
New York’s comeback from the trauma of the ’70s was bumpy and unbalanced. Wall Street in the ’80s boomed, as did Trump’s Fifth Avenue, but the homeless population spiked, poverty continued to punish slums in Brooklyn and the Bronx, and the fear of crime still gripped the city. When the white vigilante Bernhard Goetz shot four black teens who allegedly tried to rob him on a train in Lower Manhattan in 1984, many New Yorkers all but cheered. A tip line set up by the Daily News was inundated with calls professing sympathy and support—for the shooter. “It did not seem to matter to the callers that the blond man with the nickel-plated .38 had left one of his four victims … with no feeling below the waist, no control over his bladder and bowels, no hope of ever walking again,” the newspaper wrote a week after the crime. “To them the gunman was not a criminal but the living fulfillment of a fantasy.”
Such was the psyche of the city in 1989, when a 28-year-old white, female, Wellesley- and Yale-educated investment banker was beaten and raped in Central Park. Five black and Hispanic teenagers were arrested, charged and convicted—wrongly, on coerced confessions, it eventually turned out. At the time, though, the case became “a milestone in the public’s sense of helplessness,” as the Timesput it. News coverage clamored about these “wilding” teens, “animals on a feeding frenzy.” “WOLFPACK’S PREY,” said the headline in the Daily News. The judge who sentenced them said in court that they had made Central Park a “torture chamber of mindless marauding.” He lamented that “the quality of life in this city has seriously deteriorated.”
Trump, who in the ’70s had identified the city’s insecurity and fear and found a way to benefit from it, now tried to do so again. He paid a reported $85,000 to put in four New York newspapers a full-page ad that called for the death penalty. “What has happened to our City?” he wrote in the ad. “What has happened to the respect for authority, the fear of retribution by the courts, society and the police for those who break the law, who wantonly trespass on the rights of others? What has happened is the complete breakdown of life as we knew it.” He seethed about “roving bands of wild criminals” and “crazed misfits” and longed for a time when he was a boy, when cops in the city roughed up “thugs” to give people like him “the feeling of security.”
“The ad for the first time reveals all the rest of the things that anybody would want to know about Donald Trump,” columnist Jimmy Breslin wrote the next day in Newsday. Trump had “destroyed himself” with the ad, Breslin wrote, “for all demagogues ultimately do that.”
The more complicated, uncomfortable reality, though, is that what Trump said in his ad about the Central Park Five was not universally unpopular around the city. Far from it. And he might not have been beloved—but that didn’t mean he wasn’t being listened to. The ad spawned stories in the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today, as well as a spate of letters to the editor in New York.
It read like a crystallization of how he saw the city, that city, in the ’70s and ’80s—and it reads, in retrospect, as a searing preview of the race-based, law-and-order rhetoric that powered his presidential campaign.
“Mayor Koch has stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts,” Trump said in the ad. “I do not think so. I want to hate these muggers and murderers … and I always will.”
“Let’s all hate these people,” he said on CNN, “because maybe hate is what we need if we’re gonna get something done.”
The convictions in 1990 of the innocent Central Park Five coincided with surprising news of a different sort: that Trump’s own balance sheet was even worse than the city’s had been. The riches-to-riches kid from Jamaica Estates actually was billions of dollars in debt. “CASH-TASTROPHE,” screamed the Daily News. Arzt, the Post reporter who by now was the head of New York’s Fox affiliate, did a whole week of special shows on Trump’s collapse. He couldn’t help but notice that his ratings more than doubled. “He is a ratings generator,” Arzt told me recently. “People like entertaining, and he’s entertaining—and there are a lot of people who hate him.” Some of the surge in viewership, Arzt figured, was simple schadenfreude.
To the consternation of those who loathed him, though, this was not the end of Trump. As he spent the first half of the ’90s trying to avoid filing for personal bankruptcy—he pulled it off, of course, thanks to family money, permissive banks and corporate bankruptcies—New York and other cities began to boom, while leaving behind the areas at their outer reaches, practically reversing the dynamic that defined the socioeconomic tides of Trump’s formative ’70s and ’80s. Once-derelict downtowns became trendy, glistening capitals of commerce, juice bars, yoga studios and million-dollar condos. Harlem’s first Whole Foods is set to open in July.
But Trump’s view of cities did not appreciably keep pace with this shift. Throughout his presidential campaign, he talked to his crowds about the “horrible” “inner cities,” the “terrible” “inner cities,” the “crime-infested” “inner cities,” the “inner cities” that were “sad,” the “inner cities” that were “suffering,” the “inner cities” that were “almost at an all-time low,” the “inner cities” that were “more dangerous than some of the war zones that we’re reading about.”
“You look at the inner cities,” he said in Florida less than a month before the election, “and you see bad education, no jobs, no safety. You walk to the grocery store with your child, and you get shot. You walk outside to look and see what’s happening, and you get shot.”
“We’re going to work on our ghettos,” he said in Ohio less than two weeks before the election. “The violence. The death … ”
American cities have problems, to be sure, but people who live in them didn’t recognize the way Trump talked about them. And on November 8, cities rejected him. And the city in which he was born and raised and in which he has lived and worked his entire adult life rejected him resoundingly. Every borough other than Staten Island posted a landslide against him—Hillary Clinton garnered 88 percent of the vote in the Bronx, 86 percent in Manhattan, 79 percent in Brooklyn, 75 percent in his native Queens. He was booed at his own polling place—Public School 59, on 56th Street, less than half a mile from Trump Tower. The first native New York president since Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected by people not in the city, but in depressed, drug-ravaged small towns and outer suburbs—by people whose profound disconnection from urban America left them open to the twisted version of the “city” that Trump described.
“It’s amazing,” says Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University. “He operates out of New York City, but his Weltanschauung”—Trump’s worldview—“is a suburban golf course, a suburban country club.”
“New York is either going to get much better or much worse, and I think it will get much better,” Trump had predicted in the Times back in 1976. But he added: “I’m not talking about the South Bronx. I don’t know anything about the South Bronx.”
In 1997, he had a chance to learn—on a trip to P.S. 70 to be “principal for a day.”
Trump was seven years removed from his near-fatal, early-’90s failures—and still seven years away from his NBC-aided full resuscitation in the form of “The Apprentice.” He had talked about running for president in the late ’80s, and he would talk about it again in 1999 as a member of the Reform Party, but mostly he was known for being known at the time, famous for being famous, and publicity was his fuel.
In this respect, his visit to the school made sense. It was set up through a program run by an organization called PENCIL—Public Education Needs Civic Involvement in Learning. The point, the president of PENCIL told the Times, was twofold: to give students a burst of inspiration from a person seen as a success and “to bring in people who should see the schools and who wouldn’t otherwise.” Trump fit the bill. He had told the Times, after all, that he had “never even thought about” sending his children to public school, which he explained was “one of the advantages to wealth.”
P.S. 70 was home to 1,700 students crammed into classrooms meant for 300 fewer students. All but 3 percent of the children were poor enough to qualify for free lunch. The chess team was having a bake sale to rent a bus to take them to a national competition in Tennessee.
Thousands of successful and prominent people had been PENCIL “principals,” giving schools money and books, as well as their attention and time. Trump, on the other hand, came off to the educators in the South Bronx like a Victorian lady forced to walk through a slum, clearly ill at ease with the real grit of street-level urbanity. Trump was scheduled to stay all day. He ended up leaving before noon.
Before he departed in his limo, on a tour of the school, according to a report from The 74, a news organization covering education in America, Trump took a tissue from his pocket and used it so he wouldn’t have to touch the railing on some stairs. In the cafeteria, a mop-wielding science teacher on lunch duty joked to Trump, “How are you with mopping up vomit?”
“I don’t do vomit,” said Trump.
At the bake sale for the chess team, he dropped a gag $1 million bill into a basket—then gave them a relatively meager $200 instead.
Hundreds of fifth-graders gathered in the auditorium to listen to Trump. “Is there anyone here that doesn’t want to live in a big, beautiful mansion?” he asked them, the Timesreported. “You know what you have to do to live in a big, beautiful mansion?”
“You have to be rich,” one student offered.
“That’s right,” Trump said. “You have to work hard, get through school. You have to go out and get a great job, make a lot of money, and you live the American Dream.”
“Money does not buy happiness, but it helps,” he said to the students. “Always remember that.”
And he asked them to write their names on pieces of paper so he could pick 15 of them to come get a free pair of sneakers at the new Nike store in Trump Tower—a building smack in the center of rich, bustling, flourishing Manhattan, a building, he told them, that was in “the inner city called 57th and Fifth.”

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The Battle of Pickup Lines: Part 1 STEVE HARVEY - YouTube

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