News of a federal probe into a politically connected Queens charity supposedly meant to help Hurricane Katrina victims is just one more reason to freeze the Aqueduct “racino” deal.
After all, some of the folks behind the racino are linked to the charity.
As The Post reported Sunday, New Yorkers Organized to Assist Hurricane Families (NOAH-F), a group set up by Rep. Gregory Meeks and state Senate President Malcolm Smith, reported spending only $1,392 of the more than $31,000 it collected for Katrina relief.
What happened to the rest of the cash? A state law-enforcement official tells The Post there’s an ongoing US attorney’s investigation into the matter.
Last month, Gov. Paterson handed Aqueduct Entertainment Group, a partnership fronted by Queens power broker Rev. Floyd Flake, the right to build the city’s first casino-style gambling parlor at Aqueduct.
But AEG has links to the suspicious charity.
Paterson’s move seemed meant to secure Flake’s political support; certainly, the gov didn’t choose AEG for the upstanding record of its associates.
Flake, a former congressman, is the political patron of both Meeks and Smith — who started NOAH-F under the auspices of their equally shady New Direction Local Development Corp., which apparently functions as a slush fund for the pair and their allies.
The Post reported last week that New Direction, too, can account for only a fraction of the corporate and government cash it’s gotten in recent years.
And how close is New Direction to Flake? Its treasurer, the Rev. Edwin Reed, also runs the development arm of Flake’s Jamaica church.
Meanwhile, another AEG participant, Darryl Greene, was forced to quit the partnership yesterday due to his criminal record. He’s a former business partner of Smith, and his wife was a founding board member of New Direction.
Beyond all that, there’s the question of just what kind of slot parlor New Yorkers will get, when all’s said and done.
Indeed, judging by the Red Lion Hotel & Casino and its corporate sister properties in NoWheresVille — er, Elko, Nev. — New York may be in for an unpleasant surprise.
The properties are owned and run by the Navegante Group — the part of AEG that is to provide “expertise” in the racino’s gambling operations. Last week, The Post’s Rebecca Rosenberg visited Elko; her report was hardly encouraging.
“If the Red Lion . . . is any indication, Aqueduct is well on its way to being redeveloped as a Sin City resort — circa 1972,” Rosenberg and Post reporter Jeremy Olshan wrote.
One guest said the rooms “smell like an ashtray.” A clerk at the Thunderbird Motel said her bosses refuse to replace a dirty and stained carpet and a window with a bullet hole from five years ago.
Surely, New York City can do better.
But then, why expect the best when decisions are governed by political considerations?
And, politics aside, when those decisions are being made by the breathtakingly inept Paterson administration?
Enough is enough.
If Paterson won’t shelve this deal, Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver and Senate Democratic boss John Sampson must.
New Yorkers deserve better.