A casino poll, an unhinged Chatbot, and an EARTHQUAKE!

Plus it's THE CITY's fifth birthday! Tell all your rich and generous friends. #77

Was Mrs. Met polled or does she live on Long Island?

I started this week off with a story about a poll done by State Sen. Jessica Ramos, which found that most people in her district aren’t in love with the idea of Metropolitan Park, a development planned for the parking lots around Citi Field that is centered around a casino. 

There’s mystery around who paid the $27,500 for the poll. I asked multiple times, in multiple ways, but the senator would not say anything beyond “it was an anonymous donor.”

Some of the people being paid by the Mets bid sweetly reminded me this week how bad it would be if the negative poll – which showed more people wanted a park and didn’t really dig the idea of gambling at all – was paid for by a competing bid. They came to me with this information like I didn’t know or was somehow responsible. Friends, I’m just a reporter!

(Funny enough, more than one person currently being paid by Cohen’s team for his casino bid lied or was not fully truthful with me when I asked if they were working on the project, but I’ll move on.) 

To me, the story is not just about a poll. It’s another example of the high-stakes, deep-pocketed casino push, which is now going to be even longer with the decision coming in 2025. Mets owner Steve Cohen has spent the most on his bid, retaining nearly a dozen lobbyists under two separate LLCs to get support for the project from communities and lawmakers, including Ramos.

It’s also newsworthy the way Sen. Ramos is flexing the power she has as the person needed to introduce the accompanying parkland alienation bill to allow the Mets to inch closer to getting the bid (it’s hard to give a casino bid if you aren’t legally allowed to build on the lot.) 

She’s said she’ll make her decision in May, and she also this week launched another email survey to opinions on the casino plan. I’m interested to see just how much more money will get spent between now and May, and now and 2025.

You can read the full story here.

Also: Mayor Eric Adams and his team are standing by the city’s AI Chatbot that’s been spitting out wildly incorrect and illegal answers to questions when it’s supposed to be helping small businesses. To take down the wrong Chatbot would be a reversal on our technological advances, officials said. You can read the original story in The Markup that we co-published, and our follow also with The Markup.

🌐🌐🌐🌐🌐🌐QUAKE BREAK🌐🌐🌐🌐🌐🌐

I was somewhere underneath the East River on a Manhattan-bound 7 train this morning when New York City felt its earthquake. Once I emerged at Grand Central I became absolutely SICK with jealousy. I hate missing news. Here are some of my favorite tweets and here’s my favorite video from the 2011 New York City earthquake. Please tell me where you were when the quake hit in the comments.

🎂HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY THE CITY🎂

I’m not an OG CITY reporter but I’m glad I made it here. A look at some of this week’s stories (and if you have money to give why not give it t us!)

♻️ New Yorkers are recycling less.

🏛️ “God knows Kelvin’s heart, and he knows that we aren’t bad people. He knows the dreams we have ahead of us.”

🏞️There’s an actual turf war in Manhattan over astroturf.

✊🏽 The City Council union is now certified.

🍴 Iftar meals provide a comfort to newly-arrived migrants.

👶🏽 Why the Bronx has no birth center.

Other interesting stories 

An emotional story about a reporter’s quest to identify the first baby who died of AIDS in New York City, buried on Hart Island [THE NATION]

David Chang is suing other companies who sell “chili crisp” (A thing he did not invent) [THE GUARDIAN] 

How a tiny election could send shockwaves through Democratic politics [POLITICO]

🔈LISTEN🔈

Chrissy and I discussed reporting and columns and fair police criticism with Harry “Deceitful” Siegel on the latest episode of FAQ, before we interviewed Albert Fox Cahn about the new Evolv subway scanners [FAQ]

Thanks for reading!