For some residents living around the newly opened Resorts World New York Casino at the Aqueduct Racetrack, the increased levels of traffic in the area have been anything but fun and games.
At the Community Board 10 hearing last week, residents made sure to place the blame for what they say were prolonged traffic jams around Ozone Park on the casino, which opened its doors to the public two weeks ago.
Eliot Gangaran, a Queens College student who lives on 114th Street in Ozone Park with his mother, Bebibi, said that the hike in traffic as a result of the casino’s opening in Ozone Park caused him delays in his normal commute to school on weekdays.
Gangaran also complained about the MTA’s decision to reroute the Q37 bus to the casino, even in the morning.
“This is not a convenience to us and to most other commuters who are trying to get to work, coming home from work and going to school,” he said.
The long-anticipated opening of the city’s first casino on Friday, Oct. 28 drew more than 65,000 people, according to Resorts World officials.
However, as thousands flocked to the casino — expected to be a major generator of local jobs around the area — residents around Ozone Park made it clear that the ensuing traffic jams around surrounding streets such as 114th Street were anything but fun.
“We cannot have our quality of life affected because of the casino,” said Midge Hammack, a South Ozone Park resident living on 114th Street for more than 40 years.
She also noted she had a hard time driving home as a result of the high volume of traffic caused by the casino’s opening and called the amount of traffic on the casino’s opening night “unconscionable.”
“We have a block where no one does anything for us,” said Gilbert Rodriguez, another 114th Street resident. “They took care of Rock- away Boulevard, but not 114th Street. It took me over a half-hour just to get into my driveway. People had to come out and stop the cars from getting through just for me to get into my driveway, and I don’t think that’s fair to us. They should’ve had the cops on 114th Street taking care of the traffic that was from the Conduit that was coming up our street.”
Patrick Jenkins, a representative for Resorts World Casino New York City, reassured residents at the meeting that as problems arise, casino officials will “take steps” to remedy them.
While acknowledging that the board was aware of the traffic issues around the casino, Betty Braton, chairperson of Community Board 10, reminded residents that it was still too soon to determine whether those would be issues that would carry on over time.
“Until we are sure what the patterns are going to be, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to go on one day’s problems or two days’ problems and focus on that to fix when something else comes up,” she said. “When it levels off and we know what the day-to-day traffic pattern is going to be, then we are going to start addressing all of the problems that come up in a very logical fashion…We have been discussing the traffic issues with Resorts World and the precinct certainly has been involved.”
Days prior to that meeting, Phil Goldfeder, the newly elected assemblyman for the 23rd District, also cautioned that since the Ozone Park-based casino had just opened its doors, it was best to wait and see whether traffic volumes would be an issue going forward.
“It’s still preliminary at this point,” Goldfeder said on the matter. “We have to wait and see what happens.”
Captain Thomas Pascale of the 106th Precinct at the meeting added that the traffic levels were still an unknown variable at this point, and that the police priority was on the safe management of all traffic conditions.
By Jean-Paul Salamanca
jp.salamanca@theforumnewsgroup.com
