Much Worse Than Members Knew

The article reporting that the Princeton Club of New York has closed confirms my view that club leadership flagrantly abused the trust of its members and exploited their forbearance, trust, and good will for nearly two full years, starting in March 2020 as the pandemic lockdown descended on New York. During that entire period, communication from leadership to the members — of whom I have been one for over a decade — consisted of a single email from President Loomis asking for “voluntary” contributions to help tide the Club over. (I was naive enough to make a donation, quite humiliating in hindsight but more than ample evidence of the trust members reposed in the club.) 

In the meantime, the club has continued to bill full dues, totaling thousands of dollars over that period for a typical member — for zero services rendered. Yet management has kept the club’s dire financial straits completely secret, up to and through President Loomis’ flagrantly untrue statement late last month that the club was closing for “a week.” Then and only then did I learn — on Bloomberg News — that the mortgage was being auctioned and the club would be shuttered for good. 

Earlier this year, I sent several follow-on, personal emails to President Loomis asking for updates on the club’s situation; all went unanswered. Perhaps that should have been a red flag to me, and indeed I recount these events with a sense of shame that I could have been so trusting for so long, but I long ago chose to live my life premised on relationships and not transactions. 

All told, this presents a track record of duplicity, gross abuse of members’ trust and loyalty, and financial exploitation on a large scale, that cries out for accountability and consequences. I for one hope a gifted plaintiff’s lawyer takes a deeper look at this travesty of mismanagement.