- And this blank page where my fingers move
- Pennsylvania Hunger Games Diet: Cash for Corporations, Cuts for Kids
- The Incredible Shrinking Mayor
- Multi-tasking with the 1% … killing the schools AND making the poor pay for their funeral.
- Council Can Give the SRC the Money to NOT Privatize the System
- Predatory Payday Lending Bill Flies Out of Cramped PA House Committee
- Let the Games Begin: PA Senate Announces Details of Budget Proposal
- Good News on PA Revenue But Don’t Count Your Blessings Just Yet
- Defeat Corbett
- Set off without a Paddle: Unpacking the School District’s Disaster Capitalism
Gillen on lack of casino financing AND a pitch about April 8th casino hearings
Submitted by HelenGym on Thu, 04/02/2009 - 11:30am.
Last night at Philly For Change, Jethro Heiko from Casino Free Philadelphia and I made a pitch to Philly progressives about the importance of weighing in on the casino debate. It's not a sideline issue anymore.
"Casino fatigue" may have set in for some local officials but for the rest of us Philadelphians this issue is hotter than ever. With the Mayor reversing a campaign promise, table game legislation live on the House floor, a proposal for video slot machines on every corner, threats about stripping Philly of revenues, and the prospect of a temporary tent on Sugarhouse's waterfront location that looks like this:
the casino debate in Philly is far from over.
Recently, Terry Gillen weighed in, in her usual way, on the casinos, telling the Daily Pennsylvanian (my alma mater where I was once an editor) that casinos in Philly are “on hold” while operators work out their financing issues.
The Mayor’s office called a day later and had her quote removed, but here it is from this print version of the story that ran:
Given the current state of the economy, there is a "lack of financing for the casinos," she said. "Both casinos are on hold because of internal financial decisions."
Still, she said, Nutter believes that gambling is "not a great economic strategy," but since the City is faced with a legal requirement for two casinos, "we are doing whatever we can to put them in the best place possible."
The casinos aren't talking. Foxwoods, in fact, recently announced to PlanPhilly.com that it has issued a gag order on communications about the project. So much for community involvement in this process.
On April 8th in Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is holding hearings on the status of the Philadelphia casinos. This is a moment for the public to join in and say that Philadelphia can’t afford casinos, and casinos can’t afford to be in Philadelphia. This is no time to be partnering with a predatory industry that profits and feeds off of addiction and loss, and leaves us with poverty, bankruptcy, and messed up lives for the most vulnerable of our populations.
If we can't get leadership from our elected officials on this issue, then Philadelphians, who brought reform to City Hall and the White House, who saved our libraries, and are championing a humane and sensible city budget, can take on that mantle of leadership ourselves. For more information, contact Asian Americans United or Casino Free Philadelphia to arrange transportation and friends along the way.
Unless I'm mistaken
If I look really hard, I think I can make out the temporary casino behind those three trees. Good landscaping always helps a new facility blend in with its surroundings.
I'm completely in with you in your opposition to casinos
anywhere in Philadelphia, particularly downtown, but really anywhere. I would again urge you, however, to recognize the major reason these atrocities are on the agenda, i.e., the demonization of taxes. As long as there are only regressive tax options on the table, the developers and supporting politicians will always look to non-tax revenue generators, and gambling is at the top of the list. Never mind that casinos promise false revenues; the developer/politician complex controls the press megaphones, and they say the revenues are real.
So there is this Coaliton for Essential Services which is fighting hard to overcome the notion that all taxation has to be regressive. I know you're overstretched, Helen, Paul, and others in the casino fight. But I urge you to find some bit of extra time, for the only other fight in town that puts yours in a larger perspective. Even if we win this time without tackling the larger issue, the other side will be back at us, sooner or later, unless we find a compelling alternative to their "easy" money claims.
P.S. Disclaimer. You probably know that I'm out of town until mid-May -- way out of town. So if in trying to keep up I've missed something about your involvement in CES, I do humbly apologize.
Both CFP and AAU support CES
and we've always linked the struggle around predatory gambling (not casinos per se) to broader concerns around the economic and social health of communities and neighborhoods. In fact, it's precisely the lack of vision around economic options and the devotion we have to uplifting our communities that we've approached the concern around predatory gambling in Philadelphia. That may not be quite as obvious in this post but I think we've made efforts in previous posts about the linkages that many of our struggles share.
I was out of line, Helen
because you have indeed always been aware of, and spoken eloquenlty about, the linkages that unite our seemingly separate causes. It may be my current distance from the local arena that caused my bad memory lapse. But really, that's no excuse, and I do apologize.