Paving a Parking Lot to put up a Casino
Guy Percival
Carolyn E. Lau is a recent student of mine as well as a doctoral student at Brown University where she is studying Asian American studies and urban politics. She recently wrote an op-ed about Mets owner Steve Cohen’s new Metropolitan Park, how it might harm the local community in Queens, and how the project is being rebranded as a “park” in a misleading way.
I found the topic quite interesting as a baseball-adjacent story (the park will literally be adjacent to Citi Field), and reached out to ask Lau some questions about what exactly is going on with Metropolitan Park.
The following interview was conducted on May 14, 2025.
What’s the deal with Metropolitan Park?
Despite the name, Metropolitan Park isn’t actually a park — its centerpiece is a casino. The project is backed by billionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen, in partnership with Hard Rock International. It's one of 11 big proposals vying for just three downstate casino licenses that are expected to be awarded by the end of the year.
How is this park tied to Citi Field?
Metropolitan Park is closely tied to Citi Field — both financially and physically. The plan is being pushed by Steve Cohen, and would sit directly west of the stadium. The land for the plan that they're trying to rezone is technically public parkland.
Right now, it’s being used as parking for Citi Field and leased to the Mets, but legally, it’s still supposed to be park space. This makes the push to redevelop it for a casino especially controversial, and they have to get the parkland "alienated" first for development.
You mention in your op-ed with Next City that this is a racialized issue. How so?
In a 2022 New York Times piece, casino industry insiders and developers admitted they were hoping to develop a New York casino in an area with a large Chinese population — part of a long history of the gambling industry focusing heavily on Asian communities. People often claim that Asian Americans are just “naturally” or “culturally” drawn to gambling, but that narrative ignores the reality: casinos are actively and intentionally marketed to them through the use of advertisements, buses, and casino locations.
There are deeper reasons why many Asian Americans end up in casinos— like social isolation, limited access to culturally appropriate services, and language barriers. But because gambling is so often brushed off as just a “cultural act,” problem gambling in Asian communities is severely under-recognized and under-treated. The issue rarely gets studied seriously too, leaving many at risk and without support.
Where is the project now in the development stage?
Yesterday, I got a text from Queens Future LLC — the group backing Steve Cohen’s controversial casino project — urging people to support two new bills from Senator John Liu and Assemblywoman Larina Hooks. The bills aim to “alienate” public parkland in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which is a fancy way of saying they want to turn part of a public park into a private development site.
Cohen’s team is still pushing the same misleading narrative that obscures the fact that the core of the Metropolitan Park plan is a casino. The text I received didn’t mention a casino at all. Instead, the photo and language painted the project as a green space.
Despite the misinformation about what the Metropolitan Park plan constitutes, it's made it this far because of Cohen’s deep pockets and aggressive lobbying. Queens LLC has hired more lobbying firms than any other client in the city, spending around $1.4 million.
But the fine print in the bills tells a very different story. They clearly say the city would be allowed to lease parkland to Queens Future LLC or its affiliates for a gaming facility and related commercial use. Despite this, Assembly Member Hooks' bill passed on May 13. It will now face Senator Liu's companion bill in the New York State Senate.
What’s frustrating is that Senator Liu is supporting Cohen’s Metropolitan Park plan, despite writing an op-ed just a year ago warning about how gambling harms Asian Americans and speaking out at a round-table about the impact of problem gambling on Asian American communities.
To make matters more complicated, Senator Jessica Ramos, whose district actually includes most of the proposed site, has publicly opposed the casino and refuses to introduce a park alienation bill. Organizers from Queens for All argue that Senator Liu introducing the bill violates member deference. Even if Senator Liu's bill makes it through the legislature, it’s Ramos — not Liu — who would ultimately appoint a member to the community advisory board that will decide whether Cohen should get a gaming license from the New York Gaming Commission.
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