Could you please write something on the proposed Belmont Arena project. This very large project is in Nassau County within walking distance to Queens will affect every surrounding community within miles of the arena. What they don’t tell you in this article is in addition to the 19,000 seat arena there is a 250 room hotel, a very large Retail Village (Mega mall) and NYRA is planning on making major renovations and changes to the race track. The project is to large, will create gridlock for miles, turn our residential streets into parking lots and devastate all the surrounding communities.
I am not a Islander fan but this project has very little to do with bringing the team back to Long Island. The Islanders will only use the arena 40-50 days a year. Between other events at the arena, racing at Belmont, seven days a week shopping at the mall we can expect easily an additional 30,000-40,000 people a day. Belmont Stakes day every day. Our communities are not against development at Belmont we are just asking for smart development.
There is a rally against the proposed arena on Sunday October 14th at 2:00PM on Hempstead Turnpike in front of the proposed site.
Thanks
Michael
8 comments:
That whole thing is bullshit. The cross island parkway cant hold more cars on it. They will probably turn this hotel into a homeless shelter. I agree that that area is not equipped to hold such a major thing like that. They do need major repairs to belmont though. I remember going there back in the 80s (my father loves his horses) and it was beautiful then. You used to be able to park in the parking lot (which now holds cars from car dealers in it) and take a nice little trolley ride from that lot to the entrance. It was wonderful back then. But they havent made many upgrades to it for a while except for an enclosure for the cold days so people can stay inside and watch the races. But other than that, I do agree that the area and the highways cant hold the traffic.
Now you see if this was in Manhattan or Brooklyn the community boards as well as the elected officials and the civics (yes, they have REAL civics in those boroughs) would be organizing the community to oppose this.
If anyone would try to oppose this in Queens their funding would be cut or transferred to an ad hoc 'community group' that would be created to provide 'community' support.
BTW, Brooklyn and Manhattan only have the most tenuous control over development because city council is filled with pro-development clones like we have in Queens that get reelected time and again because the locals feel comfortable when someone powerful pays them a little lip service or head patting. They think they are a 'playa' when that happens.
19000 seat arena
250 room hotel
very large retail village (Mega Mall)
Racing at Belmont
Not enough parking (maybeee 7000 shared spaces)
Part time LIRR
The Cross Island parking lot
EQUALS A REALLY BIG MESS
This is essentially the Lighthouse Project just moved west about 7 miles. It was never about the Islanders, it was a real estate grab for commercial development. With the support of Governor Cuomo, these local protests are like spitting into the wind.
What's the problem? Every one is going to ride their bikes there so there shouldn't be any extra congestion. They will probably put a brand new bike lane in for everyone to use.
In all seriousness you better be happy that this is in Nassau county. If this was in Queens Diblasio would have forced 1,000 "affordable apartments" with no parking be built with the project as well.
Why does Nassau county need another arena?
The Nassau coliseum is less than 10 miles away.
No good answers here. True-- no one needs another arena-- they just renovated the Nassau Coliseum a few miles away-- and I'm sure that sits empty. The Belmont Park attendance is down every year, and always will be for horse racing (sorry, but that's the reality). So all this property on the Nassau/Queens border, off the Cross Island sits there empty. If it's not used for a retail/sports arena/hotel deal, it's going to be used for shit housing stock. It's not going to be left for 4 more decades as empty parking lots.
Another shopping mall? In this age of online retail? This is crazy! Also, why should it cost hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade an existing LIRR station?
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