The Daily Dirt: Queens casino and the dark art of spin

Did you hear about the poll Jessica Ramos commissioned on the Flushing casino plan?

The predictable takeaway was that voters in the Queens senator’s district don’t want a casino in their neighborhood. Ramos’ poll also pitched an alternative to the $8 billion development proposed for land next to Citi Field.

She asked constituents: Instead of “a new private development and a massive casino,” would you rather have a public park? The question was preceded by statements such as, “The best choice for this land is to use it as a free, public parkland that everyone in the area and across the city can use, instead of a lucrative private development for billionaires.”

To be clear, there is no possibility of a 100 percent park project. Ramos might as well have asked, “Would you like a genie to grant you three wishes?”

Obviously, everyone loves a park. But you can’t pay for a park with pixie dust and put it on someone else’s property.

In this case, the land is controlled not by Ramos, but by the billionaire owner of the Mets, Steve Cohen. He intends to develop it. A main selling point for his casino proposal is that it includes public green space. Indeed, he named the project Metropolitan Park, not Metropolitan Casino.

Cohen is not going to surrender his 80-year lease just so that Jessica Ramos can build her own park, without gambling, restaurants, stores or anything else that might generate revenue to pay for such an expensive project.

Asking constituents if they would prefer a pure park is at once clever and disingenuous. The poll basically said that if they reject the casino, they would get a free park instead. But the reality is they would only get more years of an asphalt parking lot and other wasted space, no jobs and no tax revenue.

One could argue that Ramos’ poll was insulting to residents because it offered them a fantasy — a mirage. Incidentally, Politico reported that the poll was conducted by a firm that also represents Bally’s, which has a competing casino proposal in the Bronx.

Cohen is engaging in public relations as well, of course, by downplaying the casino and focusing on the 20 acres of park and other aspects of the proposal. Its very name, Metropolitan Park, reflects that strategy.

Can you think of another big, gambling-based development that is called a park? The most benign casino name I could find was Encore Boston Harbor, which sounds like a waterfront concert venue, not a den of sin and addiction where day and night are indistinguishable.

Cohen’s PR campaign could also be called disingenuous. On Tuesday it released a poll that showed 56 percent of Ramos’ constituents support Metropolitan Park when told the project’s name, and 75 percent like it after hearing details and messaging about its benefits (new park space, “good-paying union jobs,” mass transit improvements and a food hall).

In a separate question, most constituents answered “yes” when asked, “Should children be allowed to eat cake on their birthday?”

Perhaps Cohen should get a pass because we accept that businesses engage in marketing. After all, that’s business. It’s less appetizing when politicians portray marketing as earnest fact-finding, such as asking voters if they’d like a casino or a park, then presenting the results as definitive.

That said, if Ramos’ goal is to block the parkland alienation that Cohen needs for his project, her poll will help her justify that. 

After all, that’s politics.

What we’re thinking about: Which one of the downstate casino proposals (not including those from the Aqueduct and Yonkers racinos) will the state choose next year? Email me at eengquist@therealdeal.com.

A thing we’ve learned: Caleb Funk, a real estate agent with BOND New York, is starring in two off-Broadway shows. He plays Kramer in “Singfeld: A Seinfeld Parody Musical” at the Jerry Orbach Theater and Character Man in “Do Re Me” at the J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company.

Elsewhere…

— Alma Realty’s proposal to build 1,560 apartments around its Surfside Apartments complex in the Rockaways is in trouble before it even gets to public review. Joann Ariola, the City Council member who would decide its fate under the tradition of member deference, told The City, “I have never supported this particular project nor will I support this particular project, especially in its current form. The peninsula just cannot withstand more residents, more buildings, taller buildings.” Alma has about 18 months to persuade City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to rally the chamber to defy Ariola. Adams has said her chamber will be pro-housing.

— Building housing at scale — or at all — on Long Island is extremely difficult, and a new Census report bears that out, Newsday reported. From 2011 to 2022, the number of homes increased just 2 percent in Suffolk County and 2.7 percent in Nassau County. Not per year; that’s the growth over 11 years. Single-family housing is allowed on 89 percent of buildable land on Long Island, while multifamily buildings (three or more units) are only allowed on 4 percent, according to the Long Island Zoning Atlas.

— New York state’s Department of Motor Vehicles signed a contract with FAST Enterprises to update DMV’s technology, which in some cases dates back half a century. The overhaul will take about four years, the Hochul administration said Wednesday. DMV has already made a number of services available online, reducing the average wait time at its physical locations to 15 minutes.

Daily Dirt Data

Residential: The priciest residential sale Thursday was $11.7 million for a 3,200-square-foot condominium unit at 111 Murray Street, 60E, in TriBeCa. Kaptan Unugur of Sotheby’s International Realty had the listing.

Commercial: The most expensive commercial sale of the day was $14.4 million for a 32,000-square-foot vacant lot at 157 115th Street in Rockaway Park.

New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $36 million for a 9,800-square-foot townhouse at 127 East 73rd Street in Lenox Hill. Patricia Farman-Farmaian of Compass has the listing.

Breaking Ground: A new building application was filed today for an 8,500-square-foot, seven-unit residential property at 462 Lafayette Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant.