"Early on, the Times Square group approached State Senator Liz Krueger.

She may have been a die-hard gambling opponent—“I voted against bingo in church basements,” she once told me—but she controlled one of the six votes on the Times Square CAC.

In a Zoom meeting, she said, the casino team asked her if she wanted to meet Jay-Z.

“Why? I don’t like his music particularly,” she recalled saying.

“They’re like, ‘You don’t want to meet Jay-Z? Well, you know who he’s married to?’”

"She didn’t meet Beyonce, nor did she get together with Mr. Carter—not even when Jay-Z went up to the State Capitol in Albany this May.

But the Times Square casino crew used other ways to make their plan more convincing.

They recruited former NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton, who came up with an $78 million plan to secure the neighborhood with drones and cameras and a private security force.

They pledged to buy tens of millions of dollars’ worth of theater tickets to boost the Broadway economy, and pour cash into local charities.

And they made the point, over and over again, that operating a casino in Times Square isn’t like doing it anywhere else.

“It’s not like we’re trying to stick this casino building in between some residential neighborhood that is, like, super quiet,” Perez says.

“This is supposed to be live and loud.”

"On October 16, 2023, the Times Square casino team hosted an eight-hour free buffet for locals.

The rapper Fat Joe, a Roc Nation client, showed up to lend his support.

One prominent local community advocate told reporters she wasn’t that impressed.

“I think it’s really a predatory business,” said Aleta LaFargue, president of the tenants’ association at Manhattan Plaza—a massive apartment complex with subsidized units for people working in the arts.

LaFargue grew up in Atlantic City, she explained, where casinos promised to lift up the local economy but did the opposite instead.

The association joined the Broadway League’s No Times Square Casino Coalition."

"This July, Perez announced that the casino would give $22.5 million over 15 years to Manhattan Plaza, and put a half-percent of the casino’s profits into a “trust controlled by the residents.”

Considering the projected bill to remodel 1515 Broadway into a casino would come out to $5.4 billion, that stake could prove to be beyond-lucrative.

Alicia Keys—a Roc Nation client who grew up in Manhattan Plaza—reportedly met residents later that day to talk up the deal.

The tenants’ association withdrew from the anti-casino coalition a few days after that."

"Residents’ reactions were mixed, however.

More than a few worried that the grant had hidden strings attached.

There were disagreements about whether to accept the casino funds.

So the $22.5 million was withdrawn, redirected to a more broad-based community fund."

Half a percent lmao

"All the while, bold-face names continued to join the casino cause.

The Wire’s Wendell Pierce signed on, after a $10 million pledge to support traditionally Black theaters.

Sharpton, who has long supported casino projects, got on board with this particular one early in this summer; months later, the casino team made a $15 million pledge to build a civil rights museum.

Charlamagne tha God popped by a C***hearing and expressed his support.

So did Fat Joe, who introduced himself with his given name and his Bronx zip code, “Joseph Cartagena, 10456.”

Other casino bidders have some measure of star power; Nas made his own trip to Albany on behalf of Resorts World, which is trying to expand its slot parlor into a full-service gambling hall.

But nothing like this."

"They weren’t the only backers.

Several of the city’s most powerful unions supported his (and pretty much every other) casino project, because of the jobs they’ll provide.

They helped convince mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani to table his previous opposition to casinos."

JayZ came up off of addicts now he wants to do it legally
There is no "community" lol literally a free way to take people's money with false hopes

"Sharpton, for his part, brought things back to HOV.

He stressed at the Broadhurst that Roc Nation would give the casino “diversity at an ownership level,” and added: “You’re not just given a token.

Jay-Z is nobody’s token.

He’s the token booth.”

It’s a great turn of phrase, especially for New Yorkers of a certain age who remember when it took a coin to get on the subway.

It didn’t get the project out of the station.

Casinos need “a uniquely strong degree of community buy-in,” Erik Bottcher, considered the swing vote on the project, said in a statement."

“Despite extensive outreach by the applicants, that level of support has not materialized.”

The appeal to Jay-Z as aspirational avatar and genius businessman wasn’t enough, not in a place that’s inseparable from Broadway and the theater.

Around New York—around the world—Jay-Z is an icon.

In this neighborhood, he’s just another business, man.

Crine :jordanlaff3:

Jay Z lost :jordanlaff3:

Jayz is a snake that sold out his REAL community with dog food, rapped about it, sold his aunt crack, rapped about it, sold out Dame, Beanie Sigel, Camron, Ye, works with a former informant running his label literally going against all his "principles", sold out dozens of artists on that label, sold out Kaepernick and that whole formulating movement just to seem likeable for boss,sold out his wife,

and now wants to legally swindle gambling addicts and frame it as "community uplifting"

And still seen as black people's champion that can do no wrong while the actual outspoken ones like Ye get cancelled and called the coon and Dame gets clowned as broke, and just sits back watching with popcorn. Master manipulator

why are you trying to prop up ye when you know what he got "canceled" for. And you call that s*** "actually outspoken" man stfu

Akademiks agrees with you

Nigga shut up @ me. I'm not even talking about the past 2 years of nitrous damage

Ye has been cancelled like 15 different times in his career and called coon this and that while actually speaking up on black uplifting or artistic freedom. Even what you're trying to "guilt" me into focusing on was the most misguided attempt at that, as if I should forget the other 15 times he risked livelihood and culture never had his back

even down to championing Jay's wife more than HE did and failing off for it if he didnt make MBDTF
yet Jay acted like he didn't know him in ALL 15 of those times

meanwhile Jay is the real coon scared of massa NFL commissioner. Selfish ass not built to do 1 thing for whatever "community" he wants to trick gambling profits out of

and to the culture the guy that mightve got their auntie broke on the streets or broke up their other junkie friend'sffamily and ISNT the type to do s*** but exploit more money
is the one celebrated as the culture's champ with 0 he can do wrong

I'm literally even currently watching a video CAME OUT TODAY with his old best friend Memphis Bleek telling Shannon Sharpe Jay selfish ass wouldnt give anyone 1 dollar especially not Dame

Not sticking up for hov either cause i know niggas from marcy that hate him lol

Ye and hov really aint that different from each other frfr. Ye sold out big sean for no reason lol.

This is just incoherent rambling. You cant get canceled 15 times

A casino in Times Square would be cool tbh

It really wouldn't.

But of course...

kanye convincing everyone he was blowing up his career 75 times over for some greater good is incredible PR by him

Yes he has lol. All the way from Katrina lol

Who the f*** wants that in the middle of a tourist attraction?