From the NY Post-
It’s a high-stakes game of Flushing Hold ’em.
An obscure city panel threw a wrench into plans for a new casino at Citi Field when it on Tuesday tabled approval of the facility’s design after angry residents, including members of the Democratic Socialists of America, flooded a meeting with objections.
The nine-member Public Design Commission was supposed to only review how the new casino and its grounds were supposed to look and accommodate the public — but critics at the meeting attacked the project by Mets owner Steve Cohen over objections to gambling and how it would affect the area.
And even though those kinds of complaints were not supposed to be entertained by the board because the casino already has full state approval, the commission unanimously voted to table action on approving the designs, thus potentially delaying the project.
The $8 billion Cohen-Hard Rock Metropolitan Park casino is expected to open in 2030. It’s not clear how long the tabling of the design approval will delay the project, though reps for the casino tried to downplay the effect.
Done reading back at the NY POST? Cool. Here is what I am thinking. Where were all these folks when the Casino Plans were first mentioned? Where were they when the Casino was up for approval? It is like everyone woke up once the Casino got the go ahead. Now they are trying to stop a runaway train. What is the actual end goal? One could surmise yes, it is not to get a casino built by Flushing Meadows Park, by just built affordable housing on 126th street and by two sports stadiums that are supposed to be family friendly. One could also surmise that these groups waited for the Casino to get approval so they could try to hold up construction so they could get concessions(whatever they think is right) for their groups. If these groups did care(not saying they didn't or did) why didn't they try to stop this all along?
Thanks to Mark for putting this on my radar.
No comments:
Post a Comment