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Town of Hempstead: casiNO!!! We won't get fooled again...


Residents:

  1. Come to Hempstead Town Hall today May 27 (2p & 7p) and tell your elected officials, "HELL NO casiNO!!!"

  2. Send an email to our elected officials - link is in the "Say NO to the Casino Open Letter" section below.



[full article reprinted below with my added emphases and footnotes]

May 22, 2025


To the Editor:

The Town of Hempstead will host two hearings on the day after Memorial Day in order to consider changes in zoning law for the Hub that will “encourage comprehensively planned gaming facilities and associated uses”.  In other words, the Town would like to rezone the 72 acre parcel of taxpayer owned land called “The Hub” for Gaming (aka Gambling).  An as-yet-unnamed gaming operator is expected to present at these meetings.


The hearings will be held on Tuesday, May 27th at 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM at Hempstead Town Hall, One Washington Street, Hempstead.  A notice was posted on the Town’s website home page on Wednesday  afternoon, May 21st. The Say No to the Casino Group encourages all citizens of Nassau County to attend. 


We are outraged at the lack of public outreach from a Town Government that regularly sends costly mailers about mundane items.  It’s very possible that the Town of Hempstead has violated Open Meeting Laws (my add: NYS Law explained below).  They certainly have violated the spirit and intention of these laws, in order to advance a gaming facility that has been resoundingly rejected by residents.  Plan to attend one of these meetings and Say No!

Monica Kiely Steve Ripp Steve Rolston Mary Flanagan Richard Williams Lynn Krug George Krug Say No to the Casino

[End of Garden City News article]



Open Meeting Laws - NYS


[refer to link below for complete details]

§100. Legislative declaration.

It is essential to the maintenance of a democratic society that the public business be performed in an open and public manner and that the citizens of this state be fully aware of and able to observe the performance of public officials and attend and listen to the deliberations and decisions that go into the making of public policy. The people must be able to remain informed if they are to retain control over those who are their public servants. It is the only climate under which the commonweal will prosper and enable the governmental process to operate for the benefit of those who created it.


Garden City Leaders, Residents Attend Casino Hearing (May 23, 2025)


Yours truly with that meeting's presentation board. Mayor Ed Finnerman is to my right.



Say NO to the Casino Open Letter to our Elected Officials


Here are the reasons why a casino is not good for our area. If you agree, please add your voice by

and letting our elected officials know.


I urge you to vote against any rezoning that would allow the building of the proposed massive casino at the Nassau Hub. There is absolutely no reason for the Town of Hempstead to be voting to rezone the Nassau Hub for a casino project that has no owner and has no genuine grassroots support. If you pass this resolution, it will also open the door for other casino facilities at the Hub for many years to come.

These are the following reasons why you should reject any rezoning of the Nassau Hub for casino gambling:

  • Placing a massive casino in the heart of the Town of Hempstead is completely inconsistent with the character of our suburban community.

  • The casino will average 7 to 10 million annual visitors or up to 27,000 per day. Along with the estimated 4,900 employees and the lack of mass transportation, this enormous increase in traffic volume will negatively impact residents throughout the Town of Hempstead. The resulting traffic and air pollution levels cannot be mitigated. 

  • Several disadvantaged communities surrounding the Nassau Hub have been designated by the NYS DEC as already overburdened from the impacts of air pollution.

  • Studies have shown an increase in crime in counties that host casinos. In one study, 8.6% of property crime and 12.6% of violent crime in counties with casinos was due to the presence of the casino. This increase in crime rate translates into substantial increases in financial costs for Town of Hempstead and its residents.

  • Our sole source aquifer is contaminated, and our supply of safe drinking water is limited.  In addition, we cannot risk spreading plumes of contaminants in our aquifer through excessive pumping. Our aquifer is already under significant stress from drought, over-pumping, saltwater intrusion, and pollution.

  • We have a growing gambling addiction problem in our country due to existing casinos, lotteries and most recently, the explosion of online betting.  Casinos are directly linked to an increase in problem gambling, which can lead to severe financial distress, mental health issues (including higher suicide rates), and breakdown of families.

  • Placing a massive casino in the heart of a congested suburb, next to two colleges and a Catholic high school will inevitably lead to more lives lost to drunk and impaired driving. It could be deemed gross negligence by the courts and could open the Town and to its council members personally to endless litigation each and every time a life is lost in a traffic accident caused by one of the millions of annual casino visitors.

  • The casino project as proposed will put the survival of adjacent last remains of the historic Hempstead Plains in grave risk - this will be a tremendous loss to our community and our history. The Plains are a unique ecosystem, vital to many species of birds, plants and animals.

  • The emergencies from this massive complex and its tens of thousands of daily visitors will overwhelm our all-volunteer fire departments that are already challenged with meeting current community needs.

  • While casinos promise economic benefits, they will cannibalize local businesses (e.g. locally owned restaurants and downtown shops) as discretionary spending shifts to the massive casino.  A significant portion of casino revenue can come from local residents, effectively siphoning money out of the community and into the pockets of the casino operator.

I await your response and thanks in advance for getting back to me as soon as possible.


Dealing with the Town's Sleight-of-Hand Tactics



At today's 7 pm Town of Hempstead public hearing, I'll present some version of this 3-minute skit.


“Mr Clavin and other elected officials…We’re sick and tired and even “BORED” of your sleight of hand board game maneuvers like changing the casino rules in mid-game and without any notification. How about playing according to Hoyle?


Our town isn’t like a MONOPOLY game. We the people also have a say. 


SO, as Grace Slick sings in "White Rabbit"…consider us the men & women on the chessboard and we’re telling you where to go with your plans to rezone the property known as the Hub.



Okay, back to the gaming tables…


Years ago a master card player named Cuthbert J Twillie (a.k.a., W C Fields) delivered a famous line that applies here. In "My Little Chickadee" he’s seated at the card table...



...and asked by the other gambler,


“Is this a game of chance?”


He dryly responds,


“NO! Not the way I play it.”


Say No to the Casino and all our allies say it like this:


When you ask us,


“Is this a game of chance?”


We’ll reply:


“NO! Not the way WE play it!”


Townspeople, let's vote with our feet! And stand up for our rights!


C'mon out today and to any future public hearings and tell our officials how we feel about their games:


We're sick and tired of your ism and schism game

 Die and go to heaven in Jesus' name, Lord

 We know and we understand

 Almighty God is a living man

 You can fool some people sometimes

 But you can't fool all the people all the time

 So now we see the light

 (What you gonna do?)

 We going to stand up for our right

 (Yeah, yeah, yeah)



Look who's standing up in solidarity...




TOH Pols, it's you WHO we are addressing when we say...


We don't get fooled again

Don't get fooled again

No, no

Yeah

Meet the new boss

Same as the old boss





Let's go chasing rabbits...


OLD Rabbit


 


NEW Rabbit




Let's Protect our Young from the Fat Cat$...



[from their open letter - continue reading at the link] We, Trustees of Hofstra University, oppose Las Vegas Sands Corporation’s proposal to build a casino in the area surrounding the Nassau Coliseum on Hempstead Turnpike in Nassau County, Long Island. This area is known as the Nassau Hub.


This next article cities the same issue that the Village of Garden City is raising about the Town's failure to comply with the Open Meetings Laws requirements The lawsuit is claiming that county officials held discussions for the proposed $4 billion integrated casino resort in violation with the state's open meetings law.



"There's a Grateful Dead Song for Every Occasion..."


...so says Steve -  "a friend of Jerry", we surfed together, and he taught me as he called it "to play with cars" (VW's) - which became my CAReer path...




One of the reasons for the truth of Steve's observations is that the band frequently sang about ordinary people just trying to manage their daily lives. They also gave us songs about people living on the edges...fringes of society...


Click flash blade in ghetto night

Rudy's looking for a fight

Rat cat alley, roll them bones

Need that cash to feed that Jones


And the politicians throwing stones

Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down

Ashes, ashes, all fall down


Commissars and pinstripe bosses roll the dice

Anyway they fall, guess who gets to pay the price? (note 3)


Money green, or proletarian gray (note 4)

Selling guns instead of food today (note 5)


So the kids they dance and shake their bones

And the politicians throwing stones

Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down

Ashes, ashes, all fall down




Previous casiNO Posts








 
 
 

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