Steve Cohen’s bid for a casino at Willets Point is on life support after Jessica Ramos, a state senator who represents the area, announced she would not back legislation to allow Cohen’s project to move forward. Cohen had hoped to circumvent Ramos in the Legislature, but the Democrats there are deferential to any member who has an important land-use consideration in their district. Ramos, quite simply, will not be overridden.
There has been a predictable outcry from proponents of economic development that Ramos, a proud progressive, is scuttling an important project over narrow ideological concerns. Other Queens Democrats, including Borough President Donovan Richards, have been boosters of Cohen’s $8 billion casino proposal, which would add on a hotel, concert hall and park space on the parking lot west of Citi Field. Since the lot lies on city parkland, the billionaire hedge-funder and Mets owner must persuade both the state Senate and Assembly to pass a bill to “alienate” the land and allow development.
Ramos said she would introduce a new bill that would alienate the parkland, but only for a convention center, hotel and park — a compromise Cohen’s team has said would make the project a non-starter. But why? Why couldn’t Willets Point survive with a new hotel and nicer parkland, not to mention the affordable housing and soccer stadium that will soon be constructed?
What, exactly, is a casino offering northern Queens?
There are moral and logistical arguments to be made against further casino expansion — local businesses certainly don’t benefit from all the money getting spent at video machines and food courts within a casino’s walls — but there’s also the more pressing reality that the market is oversaturated in the Northeast. Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to hand out three new licenses for downstate casinos, which may or may not generate the promised tax revenue and job targets, but the greater truth is that Cohen’s proposal never made much sense.
Queens already has a racino at Resorts World, in Ozone Park, which could easily be upgraded to the status of full casino with table games. The same is true of Empire City in Yonkers. If licenses are already going to be doled out to downstate bidders, why not start with those where gambling is already allowed?
Cohen, who is used to getting his way, never really cared about this logic. Even if Ramos decided to alienate the parkland for him, there was no guarantee he would get his Willets Point casino, which would still need to win one of just three licenses the state plans to award next year. Even if he did, his project would have probably ended up cannibalizing Resorts World, a few miles south on the Van Wyck Expressway.
There will be kicking and screaming about jobs lost and dreams deferred, but there’s plenty of development happening next to Citi Field already. More pressing are the city’s housing needs. A nearby City Council member, Shekar Krishnan, voted against the recent rezoning of Willets because only 1,400 units of affordable housing will be paired with the soccer stadium.
Given the enormity of the project and the tax revenue the city is sacrificing because Mayor Eric Adams chose to lease the land rather than sell it, a harder bargain could have been driven on the housing front. The city must find a way to create and subsidize more affordable housing on that land — and in the rest of the borough.
In the meantime, Hochul and local politicians have to stop defaulting to casinos as viable, long-term economic development models. Given the number of gambling options that exist already, including mobile sports betting, it’s unclear if any of the downstate casinos, when they come online, will deliver on revenue targets. The upstate casinos opened under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo have been relative duds. There’s more money to be made in the Tri-State, but also far more competition for dollars and attention. Casinos are never going to be a safe bet.
Ross Barkan is a journalist and author in New York City.
Ross Barkan , 2024-06-03 20:37:56
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