A few of our stories and columns are now in front of the paywall. We at The Chief-Leader remain committed to independent reporting on labor and civil service. It's been our mission since 1897. You can have a hand in ensuring that our reporting remains relevant in the decades to come. Consider supporting The Chief, which you can do for as little as $3.20 a month.
No dice, say a coalition of Queens residents opposed to the construction of Metropolitan Park, Mets owner and billionaire Steve Cohen’s plan to turn 78 acres of parkland in Flushing into a massive casino complex.
“The problem with casinos is that it’s not a win-win situation. There’s a winner, and there’s a loser, and we all know that the house always wins,” said Queens native Nabil Ahmed Khatri, a member at the Muslim Center of New York, one of multiple community organizations protesting the plan.
“If Metropolitan Park is supposedly going to be making all of this money, where is that money coming from?” Khatri continued. “It’s coming off the backs of working class people who will become addicted to gambling because of this casino in their backyards.”
Metropolitan Park is one of eight casino proposals in a high-stakes fight for up to three state licenses to operate a casino in New York City. Last month, Governor Hochul signed legislation by State Senator John Liu that abandons parkland within Flushing Meadows Corona Park and allows for the development of a casino.
“The casino will bring a 20-acre park, 25,000 construction jobs, and 6,000 operational jobs,” said Liu, who represents a wide swath of northeast Queens. “There are over a billion dollars of additional amenities that people can enjoy without stepping foot into a casino.”
Displacement concerns
But community members say that these claims don’t hold weight, and argue that the casino will raise rents and push out working-class residents. “If you go to any small business here and you ask them, ‘what was the number one reason you shut down?’ they’ll say it was rent prices,” said Khatri. “Rents in Flushing are already increasing, and all this casino will do is exacerbate that problem.”
Community members also argue that any jobs that are offered will become inaccessible to current residents. “Who’s going to be able to afford to live close to those jobs when the development inevitably raises rents for its entire surrounding area?” said Kara Fan, a member of the Flushing Workers Center.
In May, 200 Flushing and Corona residents wrote letters opposing the casino. The Urban Institute affirmed these concerns, finding in a recent study that Metropolitan Park could cause housing and commercial rents to rise and force residents and small businesses to move out.
But the city reports says that following four years of community input and more than 1,000 meetings with community leaders 83 percent of those surveyed approve of the project. But critics say survey takers did not mention a casino, and instead only asked whether residents wanted more green space and jobs. When State Senator Jessica Ramos, who also represents portions of Queens, conducted community polls directly asking about the inclusion of a casino, 67 percent of residents were completely against it, citing several concerns about displacement and gambling addictions.
The Flushing and Corona area are also home to majority Hispanic and Asian communities, the latter of which have higher rates of problem gambling.
Liu did not shy away from these arguments, having previously spoken out against gambling in Asian American communities.
“Will this create some displacement? Yes,” he said. “Unfortunately, any kind of economic development initiative in New York City or any other city for that matter — there is going to be displacement.”
“The reality is that there’s gonna be three casinos. If they happen in other parts of the metro, we won’t get any benefits for Flushing,” he added.
Still, residents aren’t convinced. “Places like Hudson Yards and Times Square also have casino proposals. These places are much better options because they’re not in vulnerable, immigrant, working-class communities like Flushing, Corona, Jackson Heights, and Elmhurst,” said Khatri.
“On top of that, no other casino proposal in New York City is being proposed on public land. With Metropolitan Park, we’re losing public land and then building a casino on top of that,” he added.
As an alternative, the Flushing for Equitable Development and Urban Planning (FED UP) coalition has offered a different proposal for the existing parklands called Phoenix Meadows. The proposal showcases a vision for the parklands that creates much-needed green space without the luxury casino complex Cohen envisions.
Unlike Metropolitan Park, Phoenix Meadows would be funded by public monies, avoiding a scenario like the Barclays Center, when private developers failed to uphold their promises to meet community needs, including affordable housing.
According to Khatri, community organizations in Flushing are organizing a September town hall, inviting elected officials so they can answer directly to constituents’ concerns.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here