Marty Markowitz Thinks We Should All Lose Our Shirts Down On Coney

 image via the Brooklyn Paper

Here goes Marty endorsing another potentially bad idea: legalized gambling in NYC. And he knows the perfect place to put it... not in Park Slope, of course, but on Coney Island. Since Governor Cuomo is pushing for a constitution amendment to legalize gambling for a ginormous convention center/racino at the Aqueduct in Queens, Marty asks, Why not Brooklyn? And more specifically, why not Coney Island?

Casino gambling ... would bring jobs and revenue to potential locations in New York City, especially Coney Island, which is a natural.

So says Marty in a release via the The Brooklyn Paper. Supporters of the plan, who include the unofficial mayor of Coney Island, Dick Zigun, say it "could be a savior for Coney Island," by making it a year-round fun zone chock full of restaurants, hotels and maybe even casinos. He, like Marty believes that casinos will create jobs and millions of dollars in revenue for the area. 

Since the Bloomberg administration rezoned Coney Island for residential purposes in 2009, Zigun says he would like to a take that area and turn it into Casinos.

There are some (those who has seen what a shithole Atlantic City turned out to be) who are a little reticent to let gambling come to Brooklyn, like Coney Island City Councilman Domenic Recchia. He questions if gambling can hurt the residents of Coney Island by turning them into addicts. Assemblymen Steven Cymbrowitz, who cited a 1999 study showing that residents who live 50 miles within legal gambling areas have a 50% more likely to be gambling addicts, wonders the same thing. He then cites a likely 18% increase of bankruptcy in the same area, saying:

While we might be looking at an economic engine that could generate over a billion dollars annually for the state, thousands of new jobs and increased recreational venues for New Yorkers, we are also looking at a substantial increase in problem gambling.

Coney Island is no stranger to gambling or being a little less than savory in its history as "The People's Playground." But could legalized gambling really be the nail in Coney's coffin, or the saving grace that puts it back on the map?

Of course, if it has the promise of making money while dropping shitastic traffic problems and awful architecture onto the surrounding neighborhoods, then Mart's definitely in (and so's his wife).

What do you all think?