Betting on Inwood?

Closed since 2011, a former Nassau County Department of Public Works facility on Alemeda Street, off Bayview Avenue in Inwood, could be the site of a temporary video lottery terminal casino.
The county is looking for a location for the proposed casino after the Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. dropped a plan in February to open a gaming parlor with 1,000 slot machines at the former Fortunoff site in Westbury. Another location being considered is Belmont Park.
A casino would generate $20 million in revenue annually, according to Nassau officials, who included that amount in County Executive Ed Mangano’s proposed 2016 budget. But OTB officials would not confirm that any location had been selected. “The situation is fluid and flexible,” they wrote in an email. “There are many options under consideration and it would be premature to comment further at this time.”
Local opposition to a VLT casino in Inwood has spilled out faster than coins from a winning slot machine.
Tom Caracciolo, a 64-year resident of Waterfront Boulevard, which connects to Alemeda Street, said that the old DPW pro, which is being used as a truck depot by Gabrielli Truck Sales, is a “horrible spot” for a casino. “There is no way we could handle that amount of traffic,” he said. “The streets around here are narrow. It is not a good idea.”

Woodmere resident Michael Turi, who wrote a letter to the Herald opposing the casino, also maintains that Inwood is no place for a casino. “Inwood is a community of families, and this type of facility does not belong in a relatively small family community, especially one that houses our district’s lower school,” he said, referring to the Lawrence Early Childhood Center at the Number Four School. Inwood Civic Association President Rosemarie Dorn said the site is in a commercial area, but there are also many homes in the neighborhood, and opening a casino there would be detrimental to residents’ quality of life.
“The Inwood Civic Association feels that we definitely do not need this in our community,” Dorn said. “There are trucks 24 hours a day, up and down that street, between the trucking business, carting companies and truck repair shop at the end of Bayview Avenue. We hope that we can get some support to fight this from our local government representatives, and we are going to reach out to them for help.”
County Legislator Carrié Solages (D-Elmont), who represents Inwood, said he opposed using VLT facilities to plug budget gaps and that the county “cannot afford to make these knee-jerk reactions” to generate revenue. “I prefer to look over contracts with vendors and have a more open contracting process to save money,” said Solages, who is a member of the Legislature’s Rules Committee and part of the Democratic caucus that asked Mangano to disclose the casino’s location. “This is not a sound way to patch our budget, and it’s not conducive to the family-oriented, middle-class life we enjoy in Nassau County.”
Inwood is not in District 7, but both incumbent Legislator Howard Kopel (R-Lawrence) and Democratic challenger Tova Plaut say they oppose a casino there. “I’m not signed off on the budget, and I’m skeptical about budget projections,” said Kopel, the chairman of the Budget Committee. “If a plan is presented, we’ll talk to the people in the community to see what they think.” He added that unless there is more work done to expand the Nassau Expressway to alleviate traffic congestion, a casino would be a “total disaster” for the area.
Plaut said that with Inwood being “right next door” to the district she could be representing, she would work with the residents to oppose the VLT facility. “No casino should be placed anywhere in the county without community approval,” she said.
Waterfront Boulevard resident Valerie Hooper said that since the county closed the DPW facility, the neighborhood has taken a turn for the worse, and she is getting out. “I’m so unhappy with the county and what they’ve done over here,” she said.
After 16 years in her home, Hooper said, she is moving to West Virginia in order to get more for her money. “I don’t think that would be bad,” she said of the casino, “if I’m gone.”