Mets owner's $8BILLION casino development is blocked by Democrat

Democrat State Senator Jessica Ramos has blocked billionaire New York Mets owner Steve Cohen's $8 billion casino development in her impoverished Big Apple district.  The 'Metropolitan Park' entertainment complex proposed by the Major League Baseball tycoon was set to bring 25,000 jobs to Corona in Queens - but Ramos said it would also lead to the 'extraction of wealth' from the area.  'My neighbors work their butts off every f***ing day.

We deserve the best. And we are constantly short changed at every level of government,' Ramos, 38, told New York Magazine.  'We've been desperate for economic development here. And our greatest hope is a f***ing casino?!'  Hedge fund heavyweight Cohen, 67, said his proposed 50-acre casino, hotel and music complex spanning the derelict space between the Mets' Citi Field and Flushing Bay would generate $130 billion in economic impact over 30 years.  Cohen's team have rejected Ramos' claims, saying the project has 'overwhelming support from elected officials, unions, and the local community' and link 268 slot (http://offthegridmusicfest.com) that 'the state never intended any one person to have the ability to single-handedly stop a project'.  Democrat State Senator Jessica Ramos (pictured) has blocked billionaire New York Mets owner Steve Cohen's $8 billion casino development in her impoverished Big Apple district But Ramos worries it would come at the expense of the largely Hispanic residents in Corona, where the average income of $66,000 is around 14 percent lower than the NYC average of $78,000, according to Furman Center data.  The single mother-of-two, who is the daughter of Colombian immigrants, said she's spent the past several months 'playing chess with a billionaire' as Cohen moved to push his development through city law.

'I'm resentful of him holding our entire community hostage by saying that it's a casino or nothing,' Ramos told New York Magazine.  'Why should anybody just get their way like that when it's a decision that is going to impact millions of people? This is actually public land. Our land.'  'We're not in a place to host a casino,' Ramos added, noting that casino customers do not generally benefit from the business - particularly cash-strapped ones.  Hedge fund heavyweight Cohen, 67, said his proposed 50-acre casino, hotel and music complex spanning the derelict space between the Mets' Citi Field and Flushing Bay would generate $130 billion in economic impact over 30 years Ramos (pictured) worries the development would come at the expense of the largely Hispanic residents in Corona, where the average income of $66,000 is around 14 percent lower than the NYC average of $78,000, according to Furman Center data 'The people who are here, they're hoping to build generational wealth.

And I just don't see how a casino helps us meet that goal. I mean, it's literally the opposite. It's the extraction of the very little wealth we have.'  Queens-born Ramos cemented her refusal to table permit legislation in an official statement shared via X on Tuesday. 'We want investment and opportunity, we are desperate for green space, and recreation for the whole family,' her statement reads.  'We disagree on the premise that we have to accept a casino in our backyard as the trade-off.