Let’s Be Clear.
When Governor Andrew Cuomo dropped the “convention center bomb” in his State of the State address last week, he certainly drew a lot of attention. He announced plans to build the nation’s largest convention center in the backyard of Ozone Park and has spent much of his time since encouraging support for the project. The governor certainly has some big selling points—the promise of the creation of thousands of new jobs in New York City along with billions of dollars in tourism revenue. Also on Cuomo’s side is the $4 billion dollar offer to develop and build the project—in these times, or any others, that’s nothing to sneeze about.
In getting away from the convention center for just a moment let us also remember that NY’s top political dog also unleashed his feelings about full blown gambling. In addition to building the convention center the gov’s asking if we want, as a people, to alter the New York State Constitution to allow table gaming in New York. And over the course of the next two years we can expect that we will hear much more on this issue, be it pro or con. Sparing the complicated explanation of the political process required to bring the measure before the voters, the measure could conceivably be in place by the November 2013 ballot where we would say yes or no on the issue of gambling.
Moving on from that understating we can certainly see why the other announcement affecting this community so drastically could set the Ozone Park community on end, especially given the flurry of speculation from various media sources following the governor’s speech, and more importantly,the lack of detail.
One New York daily newspaper questioned this week whether or not have the monopoly it has requested in its offer or if the project should be opened up in a competitive bidding process. But the fact remains that whether or not it’s Genting or another operator, the plans to build the convention center are on the table and realistically going to happen. With absolutely no tangible details released as of yet, community focus should be on residents looking to their local elected officials at the state level to protect the interests of the community.
This newspaper has gotten calls of panic asking if there is any chance that homeowners will be forced to leave their property or small business forced out. The answer to those questions is NO. Eminent domain is not an issue here.
Local critics of the plan say it will just magnify the issues they were concerned with when the much smaller Resorts World Casino opened a few months back. There are major concerns about the distribution of jobs at the venue, an increase in traffic and the threat of increased crime.
Perhaps the most perplexing part of the situation to date is the lack of details that have been made available to the public. For now we will have to wait as the scenario unfolds, but certainly panic is not necessary.
We urge our readers to not give way to a typical fear of the “unknown”—instead turn to your local elected officials and insist on the transparency Governor Cuomo promised will be part of the process.
In a letter sent to legislators in Albany this week, the governor stated that he wanted to go out of his way to be transparent about plans to build a convention center in Queens and legalize casino gambling, even though he didn’t have to be.
While we commend the governor on his desire to generate revenue and stimulate the state economy with the development and job creation associated with a project, we do however beg to differ with any notion that he doesn’t have to share all of the details with the public. Maybe the law doesn’t say that Gov. Cuomo has to tell all—but we do. We need 100% transparency as far as HIS plans for OUR backyard.
