Hey gang, check out this wonderful piece from HellgateNYC which has my kind of snark and sarcasm called….

Let the Great Mets Parking Lot Casino Schmooze-Fest Begin!

If you vision it, it might come [a private casino on public parkland].

 

So I am going to excerpt a little bit because I know nobody bothers to click on links in the 2020s. and most people just want to hear about free agents.  But you SHOULD READ THEIR ENTIRE PIECE, but since you won’t, let me educate you a bit…

 

Mets owner Steve Cohen’s quest to build something undisclosed atop the parking lots around Citi Field—psst it’s a casino—held its coming-out party on Saturday, as roughly 450 Queens residents and assorted Mets fans trooped through the stadium’s Piazza 31 Club to provide input on what they would like to see sprout in the team’s infamously barren surroundings.

..

This parkland designation became an issue when, in 2012, then-Mets owner Fred Wilpon and his son Jeff announced that they were partnering with Related Companies, the developer of Hudson Yards, to build a massive shopping mall, dubbed Willets West, in the Citi Field parking lot. Five years and several lawsuits later, Willets West had a fork stuck in it by an appeals court judge who ruled in no uncertain terms that parkland can’t be used for anything other than recreational purposes unless the state legislature specifically acts to allow it.

When Cohen took possession of the Mets in 2020, at a cost of $2.4 billion of his estimated $14.6 billion in net worth, he made no mention of wanting to revive Willets West or do anything else with the stadium lots. But that was before Governor Kathy Hochul announced she was opening up applications for three additional casino licenses, to be specifically reserved for sites in and around New York City.

..

The presentation included very little information about Cohen’s actual plans—the man himself put in a cameo but stuck to generalities—preferring to stick to open-ended questions about what local residents would like to see built; handwritten suggestions from the masses included a “jobs training center,” “soapbox derby track,” and “community cannabis gardens. (via HellgateNYC)

Soapbox Derby Track?  Did some boys scouts from the 1940’s attend this thing?   Also how is a “jobs training center” a good use of PARKLAND.  IT’S PARKLAND FOLKS!!! PARKLAND!!!!