Keep Coney Island casinos a relic of New York history

Keep Coney Island casinos a relic of New York history

Gambling addiction is no fun
By Todd Dobrin/ NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, September 2, 2012

Bonifacio,Mark / New York Daily News

A plan would bring gambling to Coney Island

When my great-grandparents came to Coney Island in 1926, they were Russian immigrants looking to build a better life for their family. They picked this beautiful place on the water because it seemed like a great place to raise kids. And they turned out to be right.

It’s no accident that the year of their arrival was about 16 years after gambling was outlawed here.

You may know the scene back then from HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.” Beginning in 1860, Brighton Beach and Gravesend were casino hubs. For decade after decade, it was a glamorous scene, but one with a very dark underbelly.

All that ended in 1910. Casinos were banned — and they were banned, most Brooklynites thought, forever.

Now, though, they could be returning with a vengeance. Full-fledged casino gambling is on the horizon in New York if Gov. Cuomo and other allies have anything to say about it. And Coney Island is being eyed by some as a prime potential site.

It’s not as though, since 1910, this neighborhood has become a paradise — but it’s grown into a healthy, diverse and stable community. Abraham Lincoln High School and the Parachute Jump have been built. The Boardwalk has evolved. Our hospital has expanded. Businesses have taken root.

We’ve even got a minor league baseball team.

We don’t need casinos in order to thrive. In fact, casinos — like the one proposed by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz — are a threat to our way of life.

The negative effects of bringing gambling to the immediate vicinity of a residential neighborhood far outweigh any possible benefits. There are nine high schools, two junior highs and eight elementary schools within a 11/2-mile radius of the leading proposed sites. There are more than a dozen places of worship in the same vicinity. Not one community leader or parent I’ve spoken to wants to walk his or her child past a casino on the way to school or services.

Nor do they want to walk past a casino with their families on the way to the “People’s Playground.”

As Mayor Bloomberg has said, “Gambling has not been shown to help the neighborhoods where they’re built. It’s just a way to separate people from their money.”

Research supports his assertion. A study published in 2005 by the University of Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions tells us that the chance of becoming a gambling addict doubles if you live within 10 miles of a casino. Those addicts could be our brothers, our fathers or even our sons and daughters.

And other studies have shown that oft-touted casino job creation projections are consistently overstated.

What we need in this city are decent jobs. People in this community want jobs with good salaries, benefits and pensions; they’ll travel to get them. They don’t need bad jobs in their back yard.

I’m not a Not-in-My-Backyard type; Coney Island can and should be developed further. But it must be developed responsibly.

Our youth centers and senior centers are seriously underfunded. Some of them are no longer open.

Our neighborhood is in dire need of after-school programs and vocational programs. The infrastructure that will support the development in this community is constantly being tested.

Think of all the jobs that we could create if we focused on these issues and not on the dream of a shiny new complex that specializes in throwing our money down the drain.

Dobrin is the president of Friends of the Boardwalk.



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