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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Vivek Singh, Member of the Public, on Western Rail Yards Development
2:12:56
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141 sec
Vivek Singh, a resident of the area near the proposed Western Rail Yards development, expressed concerns about the project, particularly the potential casino. He discussed the area's growth as a family-friendly neighborhood and worried about the impacts of the proposed changes.
- Singh cited a study on casino impacts in urban communities, noting potential job increases but also concerns about adverse businesses.
- He expressed worries about increased wind effects due to building enlargement and revisions to the proposal.
- Singh compared the situation to Las Vegas, where casinos are separate from residential areas, unlike the proposed development in New York City.
Vivek Singh
2:12:56
Good afternoon.
2:12:57
Thank you for lending your audience.
2:13:00
First about myself, I was born and raised in Phoenix spent thirty years living in the same house.
2:13:06
I thought I'd never find another place that would become home.
2:13:09
I moved to New York at 30, first in Greenwich Village, then came to the area where I live today, And, it has become my home.
2:13:19
This place is it was first I first moved for the convenience of the location to relative to Penn Station.
2:13:26
But, as things have opened up, it has become a truly special place.
2:13:30
I've started we've started to see families, young adults, retirees all call this place home.
2:13:37
And when the pandemic hit, started our own family, and it turned out many others, disproportionately large number of others in our area did as well.
2:13:50
The concerns that I have are around some of the impacts.
2:13:56
Naturally, a lot of it's around the casino.
2:13:58
So I did my research and the most relevant study that I found was the impact of casino proximity on Northeast urban communities by nature from February 22, including New York City.
2:14:10
There were there were increases in in jobs, but they're not necessarily local to that area.
2:14:15
But, there's also adverse businesses that we don't wanna see in that area, especially with how much family, or how attractive the area has become towards families.
2:14:26
Further, the enlargement of the buildings and the revisement of the proposal, we've started to see increases in wind already because of the other large buildings, and it's manageable today, but I fear those changes from some of these, from the the revisement of the proposal.
2:14:44
I did enjoy seeing those pictures on the screen, but I think that that's in relative to not having that 2,009 proposal.
2:14:55
I also wanna call attention to one more thing.
2:14:57
Coming from sorry.
2:14:59
Coming from Phoenix, I know a lot of people have moved to Vegas.
2:15:04
But the the the nice thing that they have is they don't the casino's on that strip.
2:15:10
They don't have the the challenge of having it in their community directly.
2:15:14
We don't have that such a luxury.