He's talking about this

https://slate.com/human-interest/201...ighorhood.html. Buying it all out, and demolishing it, plus the waterfront, which needs an easement from Ramos. There's a lot of untapped potential there. NYC has been trying to redevelop that area my entire lifetime

Shae is well separated from residential areas with major highways on every side of it. It's not like a gambler can walk to someone's house from the casino, it's impossible unless you run across an 8 lane highway.

The idea, I think, is that the casino-centered redevelopment of the stadium's parking lot will spur redevelopment in the surrounding area, which has been on the city's wishlist for ages. The wider Willets Point area isn't the Ramos/Cohen issue.

The casino proposal is for basically north from the 7 train to the highway, east of the stadium. The parking lots are technically parkland, and state law doesn't allow parkland to be swapped for gambling. The bill to make the allowance in this case is what Cohen needs from Ramos. She's saying sure, replace the parking lots with development and green space, just not a casino. As if any fraction of these casino proposals will ever exist without the casino.