Even Pokémon seekers won't set foot in Trump Tower

Despite its status as a &#039;Pokestop&#039; in the popular Pokemon Go game, Trump Tower seems to be lacking players looking to &#039;catch them all.&#039;

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

published 15 July 2016

Pokémon Go has completely overtaken New York City — for as far as the eye can see, there are glittering Pokéstops with lures to draw rare and unusual Pokémon into the hands of trainers. (If this is all gobbledygook to you, click here.) Perhaps nowhere in the city is more overrun than Central Park, which lies just steps from Trump Tower.

But despite its status as a Pokéstop, Trump Tower is virtually a Pokémon wasteland. When one Kotaku reporter ventured to the landmark to look for fellow trainers, she found… none at all:

Men with shiny shoes, teenaged girls, conspicuous tourists, women with Prada shopping bags, and whoever happened to be outside when the torrential downpour began all collected in the building's foyer, [staring] at their phones. I stalked the perimeter of the crowd. Tinder, yes. Texting and Facebook, all right. No sight of the Pokémon logo.[...] I went up and down a half-dozen flights of escalators. Nothing. Back on the second floor, peering over the Starbucks customers' shoulders, the weirdness of the situation hit me. Hundreds of people walked in and out, faces glued to their phones, but not a single Pokémon trainer. I descended the escalators and ran back outside, frantically hoping to find common ground with anybody at all. [Kotaku]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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