By: | thecity.nyc | Editorial credit:Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Will a new Times Square casino bring a lot of new jobs to Midtown, or will it displace existing workers? That debate was front and center as the proposal faced a key public hearing on Wednesday.
It was a full house at the Caesars Palace Community Advisory Committee hearing on the east side of Manhattan as community members and labor representatives lined up to give their two cents on the project.
Not everyone got into the room for the daytime hearing. There was a line out the door outside the Scandinavia House building where the forum was held, with people waiting in the August heat to be let in.
Many of the people who spoke — more than 150 in total — represented unions or laborers on both sides of the casino divide. Supporters of the casino outnumbered those against it, and were represented mainly by union construction and hospitality workers as well as community groups such as Callen-Lorde and the Lower East Side Ecology Center.
The Jay-Z-backed entertainment company Roc Nation is also part of the group proposing to bring the 150,000-square-foot casino to 1515 Broadway — and at least one Roc Nation artist, rapper Fat Joe, was at the hearing Wednesday, as was Power 105.1 radio host Charlamagne in support of the casino.
“I’m going to Mongolia next week, I’m sure I’m gonna see New York City on the TV screen. Times Square deserves this casino, deserves the jobs. These are not empty promises,” said Joe. “The people who are giving back to the community are very very credible people and care about the community. We’ve been out there for like four, five years meeting everybody in the community.”
In particular, Construction and General Building Laborers’ Local 79 — a union that represents over 10,000 active and retired workers across the five boroughs — came out in droves to show their support for the gambling complex, as did members of the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council. The Caesars casino is set to include a 992-room hotel as well as new restaurants, gaming and entertainment venues.
“We deserve the right to coexist and thrive in a struggling city,” said Anthony Garcia, a member of Local 79. “We need this project to create careers and opportunities so that union workers can afford to live in the city they work in and reside. Thousands of jobs are at stake.”
But other organized labor groups in the neighborhood see it very differently. The Theatrical Wardrobe Attendants Local 764, which represents roughly 1,400 workers and is an affiliate member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and Broadway performers as well as residents living around the Times Square area showed up to voice opposition to the Caesars Palace bid.
Among their chief concerns is the fear that a casino in Times Square would compete with and threaten jobs on the Great White Way.
“I am fearful New York City is losing its greatest oldest asset: Broadway … It is very different sitting in front of a slot machine than going to see The Lion King with your family,” said Veanne Cox, a Broadway actress and Hells Kitchen resident of 42 years. “I fear we are pitting union against union.”
Currently, there are eight bids vying for three licenses to operate a gambling venue in Yonkers, Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx or Queens. The Caesar Palace proposal is one of three casino bids in Manhattan alone, and is backed by the giant real estate firm SL Green, along with Roc Nation/Live Nation and Caesars Entertainment.
This summer and fall is crunch time for the casino teams, as eight separate community advisory committees, or CACs, review each application and vote to decide whether the bid should move forward to the next stage. Then, the state Gaming Facility Location Board will have a final say on which three sites get the lucrative licenses.
The Long Game
The Times Square CAC, with its six members, heard out meeting attendees over the course of seven hours on Wednesday.
“Job, jobs, jobs. That’s what all New Yorkers always want, jobs. So, that’s what it’s going to bring, good paying jobs: 4,000 permanent union jobs, 3,000 union construction jobs.” said Billy Irwin, a construction worker and member of Local 79 who was in support of the Caesars Palace project.
Speakers who came out against the bid also bemoaned the outreach efforts, location and timing of the meeting — midday on a weekday, and across town from the planned site of the casino — claiming it was inconvenient specifically for Broadway workers, many of whom have matinee shows.
A representative of Encore Community Services, an organization geared towards improving the quality of life for senior citizens in the Hells Kitchen and Times Square area, criticized the outreach efforts made to groups in the affected neighborhood.
“I do not have any recollection of being reached out to,” said Marcus Jackson, manager of advocacy, community, and government relations for Encore. “None of the people I talked to were contacted by Caesars Palace or SL Green or Roc Nation to discuss how they were going to positively impact the community.”
One person even accused the backers, specifically SL Green, of filtering those who came into the public forum and keeping out many attendees who came to speak out against Caesars Palace.
“I can attest to the fact that representatives from SL Green identifiable from the pins on their lapels were determining who and who wouldn’t get access to the meeting this morning,” said Seth Goldstein, a Broadway producer.
Carl Wilson, chair of the Caesars Palace CAC, said the committee has asked the New York State Gaming Commission to look into access complaints made by many attendees and said the front door of the building was run by hosts Scandinavia House as they understood it.
Every CAC must hold at least two public hearing meetings to solicit and review public comments on their respective proposal before a final meeting by September 30 to vote on whether the bid can move forward to a final Board vote to decide the three winners. A date has not yet been set for the second public hearing meeting for the Caesars Palace bid.
Times Square Casino Bid Faces Public Ahead of Key Vote — and It Was ‘Union Against Union’ added by The Immigrant’s Journal on
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