Dueling rallies converge on Belmont entrance

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Hundreds of people gathered on Plainfield Avenue and marched to the main entrance of Belmont Park on Saturday, protesting Nassau Off Track Betting’s decision to house video lottery terminals in the north parking lot of the racetrack.

The march, organized by No Casino at Belmont Park, was the grass-roots group’s latest rally. It had previously organized “3 minutes of yell,” at the Jan. 25 Nassau County legislative session. A similar rally on Jan. 12 at Floral Park Memorial High School was organized by the Belmont Task Force. 

Citing safety concerns and a lack of community input, protesters, including State Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages (D-Valley Stream), stressed the need to open up the development to new ideas and solutions.

“It’s so important that developers and people that are interested in coming to our community realize that you have to garner the community’s support before you think about putting a shovel in the ground,” Solages said as she stood in line to march. “This is an uphill battle, and it’s going to take a lot of convincing to get our elected officials straight.”

 

A renewed RFP?

Solages and other residents are calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration to reissue the request for proposal for the VLT property. Parcel A, where the facility would be housed, is on state land, and was open to developers before the state withdrew it from consideration. On Dec. 29, OTB announced that it would house VLTs at the site.

“What we need is a public hearing to talk about what options … we can bring here,” said Elmont resident Crystal Berger. “We all have different ideas as to what it is that we should do with this area, but we can all agree that a casino is not going to bring in the revenue.”

Berger cited the close proximity between Belmont and Resorts World Casino in Jamaica, Queens, as a reason why the county’s estimate that the machines would generate $20 million in revenue per year may be wishful thinking. Berger said she hoped to see a youth recreation center built on Parcel A instead. That facility, she said, would be able to be shared by the entire community. 

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