The casino debate hit fever pitch in Coney Island on Tuesday night.
At a public hearing held by a community advisory committee, local residents, business owners, advocates, and protesters crammed into the Coney Island YMCA to share testimonies for and against “The Coney,” a $3.4 billion casino development proposal seeking to turn the People’s Playground into a gambler’s paradise. According to a clip from CBS, the hearing—presumably meant to field some level of discourse over the proposal between the community, council members, and the developers behind the casino plan—quickly erupted into a tense, loud, and picket-sign-slinging standoff demonstrating a pretty clear ideological divide in the neighborhood, probably best summed up by the two dominant signs of the night, “Stop the Phoney” and “Yes to The Coney.”
Those in favor of the casino point to the project’s promise of new jobs and a Coney Island economy cycle no longer dependent on the season. But others are reluctant to “connect a casino with progress,” as resident Rachel Morrison noted. There’s also a good deal of concern over the cultural impact of a project of this scale—calling for a 25,000-square-foot “entertainment space,” more than 100,000 square feet of convention space, plus 20 restaurants, a hotel, and, of course, the casino itself—and whether the juice is worth the squeeze on longtime residents and ailing, outdated infrastructure. “What we’re really being asked is to accept a future where our streets are privatized, our residents are displaced, and everything that makes Coney Island ours is traded for the profit of the developer,” said Roman, another resident testifying at the hearing.
The community advisory committee—comprised Borough President Antonio Reynoso, state Senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, and city Councilmember Justin Brannan, as well as reps for assemblymember Alex Brook-Krasny, Mayor Eric Adams, and Governor Kathy Hochul—is slated to hold one last public hearing next month before voting on whether to endorse “The Coney” casino proposal, which is vying for one of three licenses the state will award by the end of the year.
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