Casino in Nassau County NY ....

The last ting we need in Nassau at the Coliseum site is a gambling casino. It is a short-sighted solution to a temporary budget problem. Long after the budget has been balanced, the community will be plagued by this low-class establishment ruining the character of hte area. It will bring congestion, crime, gambling problems, and other social issues to the area for decades to come. Approve the Wang Lighthouse, scaled down somewhat, but still large enough  to be viable. I, for on, will absolutely vote against Mangano, Kate Murray, and all other Nassau Republicans if a casino is built. The GOP has a chance to reestablish their power in Hempstead Town, and they will LOSE it to the Democrats if this ill-advised plan is implemented. Merek Geiger, Merrick, NY

This is exactly the short sightedness that Kate Murray shows, with the previous two comments.  Casinos will ruin the area and invite bad elements?  What bad elements has, say, Foxwoods brought to the state of CT?  Avg of 160 Mil per year to the CT treasurey from 25% of the slot earnings the casino makes per year.  Thats 3 billion dollars over its existence.  Developing a casino in an area with high rates of gangs and violence will never invite more crime to the area, in fact it will do the opposite.  The choices here are simple:

1)  Continue to ignore the problems in Hempstead and leave this undeveloped area completely barren, losing the Islanders and countless other business, leading to increases in already high gang and crime rates.

2)  Develop on this extremely useful land to the county.  Increase jobs with the construction that will be necessary, build hotels, casinos, restaurants, bars, and a new arena (all further increasing the need for jobs in the area, and increasing the value of the area).

All option 2 will ever do is bring revenue to the county, state, and lower crime and gang rates in the area.  Start thinking about future revenue growth of the county instead of immediate tax hikes.  Build a project of this magnitude and your home value skyrockets within a decade.  Please wake up and allow nassau county to emerge from the stone age Kate Murray.

The problem is that Kate Murray says something like "I am not concerned with profit margins" when she puts together a plan that she knows Wang will never accept with the extremely scaled down version of the Lighthouse.  She spent 7 years of his time and 7 years of the taxpayers money coming up with a plan as weak as that?  I dont blame Wang one bit for refusing the offer she gave him because she took 7 years to basically slap him in the face.  Saying "I'm not concerned with profit margins" is "un-capitalistic" to the core.  Profit margins is what builds this country.

Traffic is an issue that has to be dealt with; however, its not fair to the people of the county to spend 7 years continually throwing a project of this magnitude to the bottom of the pile and then say its because of traffic.  This is why we have civil engineers, to deal with these kinds of issues, not to just say "it cant be done." 

I am somewhat for the casino, and I am all for the Lighthouse.  Something has to be done in the area.  I hope its the Lighthouse project but it looks like she has ended all talks of that.