The People’s Playground will not become a gambler’s paradise anytime soon. After months of attempting to win over local residents and businesses, Thor Equities’ Coney Island casino bid appears to be dead in the crisp, salty waters of the Atlantic.
Thor’s proposal, which sought to build a colossal (1.6 million square-foot) gaming, hotel, convention, and god-knows-what-else complex called “The Coney”—basically on top of the iconic boardwalk and amusement park(s) along Surf Avenue—has received enough early no’s from those on the Community Advisory Committee to effectively kill it even before the bid heads to vote. A pivotal objection to the proposal arrived this morning from Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who claimed The Coney “is deeply unimpressive and unresponsive to the needs, desires, and rich history of the Coney Island community,” in an op-ed for the Brooklyn Paper. “Quite simply, it will not improve conditions for the Brooklynites who call Coney Island home,” Reynoso wrote.
The Borough President joins city council member Justin Brannan, state senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, and Marissa Solomon (appointed to the CAC by assembly member Alec Brook-Krasny) in opposition to The Coney proposal, each submitting separate statements on why they were unable to support the bid. Seeing the community loudly and intensely push back against developers in a pair of public hearings moved the needle for Scarcella-Spanton. “After taking part in two public hearings regarding this application, reading countless testimonies, and meeting with and hearing from my constituents about their thoughts, perspectives, and concerns regarding this application, I have decided to vote in opposition,” she wrote in a statement.
While an official tally from the CAC is still due by September 30, with four of the six members of the committee now explicitly stating they intend to vote against it, The Coney will almost certainly be the fourth straight L the gambling industry has taken in just the last week. On September 17, a CAC representing a Theater District neighborhood axed two casino proposals in one vote. And just this morning, the third and final bid for a Manhattan casino was upended when a committee voted down a plan to bring slots and card tables to a compound a few blocks from the United Nations building.
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