""Let me give you one other figure that I know many people here are very familiar with today, especially the pro-casino side, and that is $80," said Malik Hassan, executive director of MAS Brooklyn, at the Sept. 10 meeting. "$80 is the amount of money the pro-casino side is being paid." Hassan was the first of several attendees that night who claimed that at least some pro-casino speakers had been paid by The Coney. "Don't take my word for it," he added. "They have told me. I was outside, they have told me directly they are being paid $80.""
"In recorded by Brooklynite Nat Townsen and first released by activist group Save Coney Island, two people discuss what appears to be a plan to get paid after the hearing. "After they speak a couple of words, a couple of people speak, then we're going to meet at Nathan's," a man says on the recording. "Just hang in there man, you're going to get paid." Another voice instructs someone to "Keep it on the low.""
"Towsen told Brooklyn Paper he recorded the conversation while he was in line outside the Coney Island YMCA on the night of the hearing, waiting to testify. A man in line wearing a branded "The Coney" T-shirt was talking with a woman who was against the casino, he said. "He was kind of arguing with her, and then somebody else came up to him and asked him, like 'Wait, when are we going to get paid?' "Towsen said. "Then he called some other guy up, and they were very slow in shutting him up. They were just talking really openly about [it.]""
At a public hearing about a proposed Coney Island casino, locals argued over jobs, traffic, and neighborhood impacts while allegations of paid supporters surfaced. Malik Hassan, executive director of MAS Brooklyn, stated that pro-casino speakers were being paid $80 and said some had told him so directly. A recording released by Save Coney Island and recorded by Nat Townsen appears to capture people arranging payment after the hearing, mentioning a meetup at Nathan's and payment. Townsen said he recorded the conversation while waiting to testify and described a man in a Coney-branded T-shirt speaking with a woman who opposed the casino. The meeting crowd was reportedly split between supporters and opponents.
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