Mets owner Steve Cohen’s Metropolitan Park plan commits over $1B in community benefits if casino gets green light from state
Okay- So the 1 billion dollars to the community is only if the casino gets greenlit. Why cant everything else that Mr Cohen wants in the area still be put there if there isn't a casino? Why not just help out the community and just be a nice guy instead having to get something to give something? I still don't having a casino across the street from affordable housing and a school that are being built right now.
This is from QNS.com
Before presenting the details of the $8 billion Metropolitan Park proposal at a town hall meeting at the New York Hall of Science Thursday night, a representative of New York Mets owner Steve Cohen and Hard Rock International held a briefing at Terrace on the Park, where they outlined the $1 billion in specific community benefits that are part of the plan to transform 50 acres of parking lot just west of Citi Field into a year-round entertainment complex.
The project would build a casino and entertainment complex that would include 25 acres of new public park space, the creation of a Taste of Queens Food Hall, a concert venue, the modernization of the Mets-Willets Point 7 train station and the creation of a Community Impact Trust to serve community needs, contingent on the group receiving one of the three downstate gaming licenses from New York State in the next year or so. The plan is also subject to getting the approval of legislators in Albany, since it involves the development of public land.
“We have learned through three years of conversations with the people who live and work in Queens that serving the interests of the communities surrounding Citi Field must be at the center of this project,” Cohen said in a statement following the briefing. “Committing over $1 billion in benefits and transit improvement is critical to achieving a shared vision for the area we can all be proud of.”
The community benefits package, Cohen’s team says, would support responsible gaming and improve youth and senior services, including $10 million for a health clinic in East Elmhurst; $10 million for a youth and senior center in Corona; and $5 million for addiction and mental health services in Flushing. The project has the backing of many local leaders.
Read the full story here
Why can't any of the community stuff be done without having to have parkland be given to a billionaire? Is Mr Cohen going to buy said land including the land that the stadium is on? That would help with the budget concerns of NYC. Then they can develop other land nearby for more parkland also? I think there are ways to make this work, but again I am not too keen on a casino being built next to a school and affordable housing.
I am going to be 1000 percent transparent. If Mr Cohen asked me about my opinions about the Casino development while talking about possibly(pipe dream) doing something with the QBC, I would tell him how I feel about it. End of day, if a casino gets built would it irk me? Kinda. It's the same way Fanatics irks me, I can't do anything about it.
