UNIONDALE, Long Island (PIX11) -- Developers behind a casino project on Long Island say it would bring jobs, pull the community together, and attract world-class entertainment.
Developers also state the projects would improve the environmental status of the place where the complex, called the Nassau Hub, would be built. People critical of the project warn that it could harm the communities that it is meant to serve, in a variety of ways. Both sides voiced their opinions in a big way at a pair of hearings on Thursday.
The first of the two sessions convened by the town council for the Town of Hempstead began with long lines of people signing up to speak at the hearing at the Uniondale Marriott. It is next to the place where the casino complex would be built. The site is also next to the Nassau Coliseum.
People who registered to speak included leaders of community organizations, like Neela Mukherjee Lockel, of the EAC Network, which helps underprivileged people find work.
"The opportunities are immense," she said about the casino proposal.
Her point of view contrasted with that of Pearl Jacobs, who heads the Nostrand Gardens Civic Association.
"I would like to see biotech, medical research," she said, rather than the casino project built on the site.
Thursday's hearings, one at 10:30 a.m., and the other at 6:00 p.m., were originally scheduled to take place at Hempstead Town Hall. That space was deemed too small, and Thursday proved that designation highly correct.
The hotel ballroom where the proceedings were held had all its seats full, with some attendees forced to stand.
The casino's developers, Sands New York, spoke first.
Its main representative in the project is Tracey Edwards, a senior vice president of the company.
"We are working with the community right now," she said in an interview after her testimony before the panel, "and they are helping us put together the best application possible."
She said that the company was considering all input, including critiques.
Still, Edwards added, "We're gonna win."
However, the hearing had no shortage of speakers who were against the project.
Rev. Arthur Mackey, the pastor of Mt. Sinai Church in Roosevelt, said that the casino would damage Long Island.
"Our priorities are not straight," he said before the panel. "It will bring pollution. It will bring prostitution."
Another speaker at the hearing Michael McKeevan, a Nassau County resident, said, "Casinos bring problem gambling, problem gambling brings crime."
In contrast, the leaders of a variety of longstanding local service and environmental organizations spoke. They said that they had been naysayers regarding the project, but that over the last 18 months or so, the developer, Sands New York, had met with them repeatedly, which changed their minds.
Jeffrey Reynolds is the executive director of the Family and Children's Association, which helps people overcome addiction issues.
"This takes 176 acres worth of pavement, and turns it into real jobs for real people," he said in an interview outside of the hearing. "And as we look at addiction, and we look at folks breaking through on that path to recovery, a good job is front and center."
Adrienne Esposito leads the organization Citizens' Campaign for the Environment.
"I've been doing the work over three decades," she said in an interview, "and this is the first time that I've talked to a major corporation that seems to be putting the environment at the forefront."
There is still a legal and legislative process ahead, which culminates in the State Gaming Commission deciding which proposals presented to it will win the three coveted Downstate casino licenses. The Nassau Hub project is one of 11 being considered.
Mike Pantano, who owns a deli across the street from the proposed casino site, as well as two homes in the neighborhood, and has lived in the surrounding community for 52 years, said that something needs to be done.
"Is this land supposed to sit here vacant forever?" he said about the underused parking lot surrounding the coliseum.
"Really figure out what to do with this land," he continued, "because this is too valuable just to be sitting here."
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