Metropolitan Park hearing ends abruptly after clash
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Community members against the Metropolitan Park casino plan clashed with members of an advisory committee tasked with reviewing the project on Tuesday. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
By Ryan Schwach
The final public hearing for Mets owner Steve Cohen’s plan to bring a casino to Northern Queens was ended abruptly on Tuesday by the state committee tasked with reviewing it after a clash between community members opposed to the project and the committee's top official.
Local activists who have long criticized Cohen’s $8 billion casino plan dubbed Metropolitan Park erupted as the meeting approached its two-hour time limit set by the Community Advisory Committee on Tuesday. The activists, who oppose the plan for a litany of reasons, said they felt like their concerns were easily dismissed by the committee, which held its first hearing on the project earlier this month and will issue a crucial vote on it by the month’s end.
The meeting was quickly adjourned by the CAC’s chair, Queens Assemblymember Larinda Hooks, with at least 50 individuals still signed up to testify on the project.
It was the last hearing for Metropolitan Park, as it and other bidders hoping to score one of the three downstate casino licenses to be handed out by the state’s Gaming Commission at the end of the year moved past the community input period. Each bidder’s CAC will vote on the project they respectively viewed and soon issue a recommendation to the Gaming Commission. Queens’ other casino bidder – South Queens’ Resorts World New York City – also had their final hearing this week. The CACs, made up of local electeds and their representatives, are expected to give positive recomendations for both Queens proposals before they head to the commission.
Throughout the hearing on Tuesday, tensions remained at the surface while people spoke mostly in favor of Cohen’s plan to build a Hard Rock casino, a hotel, music venue, restaurants, retail and convention center and park space and other amenities in what is now Citi Field’s parking lot.
The developers claim the plan will create around 23,000 jobs – around 17,100 would be temporary, construction jobs, while the remaining 6,081 would be permanent jobs.
Metropolitan Park one of two bids for downstate casino licenses, is now out of the community input phase and into final voting phase from the Community Advisory Committees and the State Gaming Commission. Rendering via Metropolitan Park.
Cohen also committed in his proposal to funding improvements to the Mets-Willets Point 7 train station that, under his plan, would connect with Metropolitan Park. However, those changes would first require approval from the MTA.
Metropolitan Park has inspired those both in support and opposed to it. Those tensions came to a head on Tuesday.
Hooks, who has been in favor of Metropolitan Park even before she was elected last year, kicked out one casino detractor for calling a speaker a “sell out” after they spoke positively about the project.
The fighting only continued from there.
The meeting began to boil over when members of the community began placing petitions on the stage in front of the CAC members. Hooks asked security to remove the individuals.
Community members then yelled at Hooks and the CAC, chanting, “Shame on you,” as Hooks announced the meeting was over.
“We are not going to disrupt a public meeting in a manner that is happening because it's not going your way,” Hooks said before ending the meeting. “Please. I've asked for respect. You guys should have more respect, and you guys should respect everyone.”
Many of the people who clashed with Hooks on Tuesday have shown up at every public hearing to oppose the project over the past three years and argue that the casino would harm the Corona and Flushing communities – both environmentally and also financially through gambling addiction – and will only serve to benefit the billionaire Mets owner. They have also argued that the approximately $1 billion in community benefits promised by Cohen are not legally binding and that they do not trust him to follow through on the guarantees.
Those opposed to the plan said the frustration with the state’s review process for the casino had only been growing over the past several months.
“When people start yelling, it's because they don't feel like they're being heard,” said Rebecca Pryor, an organizer with the Guardians of Flushing Bay who has been a prominent voice in opposition to the casino plan. “It's not because people want to be mean to each other. It's because they don't feel like their voices have gotten heard.”
Pryor and other community members told the Eagle that they felt the meeting had been unfairly slanted towards pro-Metropolitan Park voices.
“The whole public process for this has felt really weighted towards the folks who are for this,” said Pryor. “We honestly are not being given the equal time to speak…We're not being given the equal respect that they're being given to others, and in fact, are being told we're disrespectful just because we're trying to speak and get our voices heard.”
Hooks, who walked out the meeting quickly after ending it, said she felt that the process had been fair.
“We have a process, it’s always the person on the losing end is going to say we weren't heard, but it's the same process for everyone,” she told the Eagle. “It was fair on both parts. It's a process, and the process was fine.”
“I think they just got mad because they didn't see it going their way,” she added while walking out of Borough Hall.
Prior to the frustration boiling over, it was mostly a parade of support for Cohen’s plan. Of the people who did speak, 85 percent spoke in favor, according to a Metropolitan Park spokesperson.
“We have already seen Metropolitan Park invest in local programs to make our community safe and strong,” said Mark Mauricio, a member of the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council and a hospitality worker. “If this project is successful, we will create thousands of permanent family, stable jobs for our New Yorkers like me, who also build new programs to help small businesses, parks, nonprofit organizations, vendors and more. Metropolitan Park is prepared to deliver on their promises and to give long, lasting benefits for Queens, and we owe that to our community to help that happen.”
Most of the pro-casino speakers were members of various unions or community groups that lauded Cohen’s promise of community benefits or the work he’s done in Queens since he bought the Mets in 2020.
“For over 70 years, we've watched Queens families struggle with the same challenges, and Metropolitan Park finally addresses those,” said Tracy Donnelly, the CEO of the Child Center of New York which is based in Queens. “This isn't just development, it's an $8 billion investment shaped by Queens for Queens.”
Karl Rickett, a spokesperson for Metropolitan Park, said the community support speaks for itself.
“From the overwhelming support at both public hearings to approvals by six out of six community boards, the City Council, and the State Legislature, it’s clear the community backs Metropolitan Park,” he said in a statement.
Metropolitan Park isn’t the only casino that’s seen intense support and opposition during CAC meetings. A plan to bring a casino to an area next to the United Nations in Manhattan saw opposition during its public hearings, as did a plan to bring one to Times Square, which is opposed by a group of Broadway supporters.
Queens community members testified at Borough Hall this week during the final public hearings on the two plans to put casinos in Queens.Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
One project that has seen little pushback is Resorts World.
During the final hearing for Resorts World’s plan for their own casino expansion, which took place in the same room less than 24 hours before Metropolitan Park, every person who testified did so in favor of the project.
Speakers from community groups and local unions, as well as many Resorts World employees, spoke highly of the company’s existing contributions to the community since opening in 2011.
Resorts World’s pitch is mostly an expansion of the gaming already provided at the racino, and includes the opening of 800 gaming tables and the addition of 6,000 slot machines.
The proposal also includes plans to build 2,000 hotel rooms, a 7,000-seat arena, 30 bars and restaurants, a spa, a day club, a convention area and 12-acres of public green space. Resorts World claims the project would create up to 24,000 jobs.
Resorts World has also committed to putting $1.5 billion into community benefits, including $150 million toward infrastructure improvements, $50 million toward its proposed “innovation campus” and $25 million to its existing charity program, Resorts World Gives.
Resorts World is now out of the community input phase and into final voting phase from the Community Advisory Committees and the State Gaming Commission. Rendering via Resorts World
“We support Resorts World because we know the community understands the value of working together to achieve common goals, and has demonstrated that for the past 15 years, "said Frank Gulluscio, who spoke on behalf of Community Board 10.
Similar to Metropolitan Park, many community nonprofits spoke in favor of the project.
“For years, they've been a staple partner in our community,” said Patricia Robinson, the CEO of the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation. “Through their grants, they've invested more than $3 million into organizations that I've seen serve families, seniors and youth. They're not just writing checks, they're standing shoulder to shoulder with local groups and proving that community investment is at the core of.”
What comes next?
The CACs are expected to make their recommendations by the end of the month.
Gaining the CAC’s support is crucial for all bidders. Four of the six CAC members have to vote in support of the project in order for the Gaming Commission to consider it for a license.
Metropolitan Park’s committee is made up of Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, Hooks, City Councilmember Francisco Moya, Governor Kathy Hochul appointee Gregory Anderson, the deputy director of state operations in the governor’s office, and Lin Zeng, the director of the Department of City Planning’s Queens office who was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams. The last member appointed to the committee was George Dixon, who was tapped to the position by State Senator Jessica Ramos.
Ramos, who has been highly critical of the project, declined to introduce legislation in Albany last year that would have allowed Cohen to build on Citi Field’s parking lot, which is owned by the city, leased to the Mets and technically designated as parkland. State Senator John Liu introduced the bill to grant the permission to Cohen, along with Hooks, who took on the bill following the retirement of her predecessor Jeff Aubry, in the assembly.
Resorts World’s committee is comprised of Richards, State Senator James Sanders, State Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato, the governor’s deputy director of intergovernmental affairs on Long Island, Stevens Martinez, Nicole Garcia, who serves as the Queens borough commissioner of the city’s Department of Transportation, and Betty Braton, the chair of Community Board 10.
All of the local community leaders on the CACs – including Richards, Moya, Hooks, Sanders, Amato and Bratton – at one point or another have said they support the casino plan they are now tasked with reviewing.
While neither Hochul nor Adams have voiced their support for any individual project, they’ve been largely supportive of the effort to bring a casino – or three – to the five boroughs.
Each of the CACs’ recommendations are due on Sept. 30.
The other bidders hoping to win one of the three casino licenses include: the Avenir, proposed to build on Manhattan’s West Side; Bally’s, proposed to be built on the Ferry Point golf course in the Bronx; Caesars Palace, planned for Times Square; The Coney, proposed for Coney Island; Freedom Plaza, proposed to be built next to the United Nations building on 1st Avenue in Manhattan and MGM Empire City, the existing partial casino in Yonkers.
The Gaming Commission is expected to award three bidders with a license in the final days of 2025.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the number of construction and permanent jobs Metropolitan Park is expected to create.
