Jon Campbell

jcampbell1@gannett.com

ALBANY - A decade later, former Gov. George Pataki has some regrets about having Donald Trump's name plastered on a state park.

In an interview Thursday with Time Warner Cable's "Capital Tonight," Pataki said he is "unhappy" Trump's name adorns Donald J. Trump State Park, which straddles the Westchester and Putnam county border in Yorktown and Putnam Valley.

Pataki appeared at an event with Trump in 2006, when the celebrity real-estate developer donated a 436-acre property to the state. Trump had previously sought to develop it into a golf course.

Since then, Pataki -- who dropped his short-lived bid for the Republican presidential nod in December -- has become a sharp critic of Trump, the current front-runner for the GOP nod.

"I don’t know that you go back and change it, but he donated I think it was 140 acres in Westchester County, which is great for the taxpayers and it’s great that it’s a park," Pataki, who lives in Garrison, Putnam County, said. "I wish it didn’t have his name on it."

The land donation was actually two separate parcels, one of which was 154 acres in Westchester.

The property, however, was never developed into a full-fledged park, though a sign on the Taconic Parkway directs motorists to Trump's namesake park.

Trump's campaign-trail comments about Mexicans, Muslims and women have spurred calls in New York to change the name of the park, including a push by Democratic legislators and an online petition that begs the state to change it to "anything else."

A spokeswoman for Trump told The New York Times that his donation agreement with the state requires the park to be named after the developer. In a statement to the Associated Press, Trump said: "If they want, they can give me the land back."