New poll shows support for Citi Field casino
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A new poll commissioned by Steve Cohen and his development team found that of Queens residents polled, a vast majority support bringing a casino to Citi Field’s parking lot. Eagle file photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
A majority of Queens residents are ready to go all-in on the plan to bring a casino to Citi Field, according to a new poll commissioned by the development group behind the plan.
New Green Willets, the group led by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, recently released a memo of a poll conducted by Schoen Cooperman Research, which found that of the 600 polled Queens residents, 68 percent said that they would be “more likely to support the project with gaming as the necessary economic engine.”
Around 70 percent of respondents said that they, in general, support development of the 50-acre parking lot outside of Citi Field. Cohen, who purchased the Mets in 2020, has quietly been lobbying city and state officials in his attempt to secure one of three downstate casino licenses expected to be handed out by the New York State Gaming Commission in the coming years.
“The main takeaway from our findings is that there is very strong support borough-wide for building something that improves upon the space surrounding Citi Field,” the polling memo read. “The majority of respondents were already aware of the discussions around reimagining the area around Citi Field in Queens, and even before being told potential ideas or concepts, 70 percent of respondents agreed that ‘something new should be built’ on the site.”
Support for the project jumped to 78 percent when residents were given more details about what other elements could be included in the development, including park space, a food hall, a hotel with a live music venue and casino, community space, athletic facilities, a waterfront connection, public transportation improvements and new jobs.
“The most popular benefits of the project include access to public green space, local job creation, and improved public transit and parking infrastructure,” the memo read.
A spokesperson for New Green Willets declined to share the demographic breakdown of the poll and additional questions asked of residents that were left out of the memo.
Beginning last fall, Cohen and his team began hosting a number of “visioning sessions” at Citi Field and at numerous community facilities throughout the borough.
In total, the developers held 15 meetings and have had over 200 private meetings with community leaders.
Cohen is in competition for one of the casino licenses with about a dozen different developers, who have respectively put forth plans to bring casinos to Times Square, Long Island, Manhattan’s East Side and Coney Island, among others.
Two of the three licenses are expected to go to existing racinos, including Resorts World Casino in Southeast Queens.
Despite the poll’s findings, a vocal group of Queens residents have expressed strong opposition to the plan to bring a casino to the corner of Northeast Queens.
Several environmental groups and community advocates in Downtown Flushing have rallied several times against the proposal, expressing concerns over its environmental impact and the negative effects of gambling.
“The proposed City Field casino is an environmental injustice,” Rebecca Pryor, the executive director of the Guardians of Flushing Bay, said during a March protest in Flushing. “It is a 50-acre public parkland land grab for the commercialization of a casino project that will only benefit the pocket of a billionaire.”
“Our communities deserve neighborhood projects…that prioritize environmental justice communities rather than preying upon them,” she added.
There’s also the question of the project’s legality.
The 50-acre lot surrounding Citi Field was first leased to the team by the city in the 1960s. Though the land is currently used as parking lots, it is designated as parkland – a designation that comes with a host of restrictions about what can and cannot be built on top of it.
A previous effort by the former owners of the Mets to build a shopping mall on the lot was shot down in an Appellate Court in 2017, after it was ruled that the mall plan didn’t meet the land’s “public trust doctrine,” which requires that any project built on the land serve an explicit public good.
But there is a work around.
In late March, Queens Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry introduced the bill to allow New Green Willets to lease the city-owned land and build a casino atop it.
A casino is central to the bill – and likely to any development that may or may not take place on the land. The last section of the legislation states that the lease with New Green Willets will be terminated “if construction of a gaming facility on the parklands…is not commenced within fifteen years of the effective date of this act.”
A Senate version of the bill has yet to be introduced.
