Although Chicago rivals Philadelphia in corruption — the Windy City is opposed to casinos and yet was able to transform their waterfront and garner national attention without gambling. Even in tough economic times Chicago’s notoriously corrupt Mayor Daley is clear on his views about casinos in Chicago. He recently held a press conference to dispell any rumors that sites identified for Chicago's Olympic bid might now be developed into casinos ....

MAYOR DALEY: “I don’t know why everybody is going around thinking that casinos are the answer to all the problems of society”
REPORTER: “So no way, no how?”
MAYOR DALEY: “I would be against it completely”

(I'm speaking for myself here, not for any organization)

Hey guys. A number of folks have asked be to write about my experiences in jail yesterday with the other activists from Casino Free Philadelphia. Most questions have been focused on the "what was it like" track – how did they treat us, where were we locked up. That stuff was interesting and hard and frustrating, but let’s get through it quickly.

A short while after 6am Tuesday morning, fourteen protesters, including me, blocked the entrance to the Sugarhouse Casino construction site (or, as Casino Free Philadelphia likes to call it, the site of Neil Bluhm, the casino’s financier’s, future bankruptcy).

Breaking news from the AP wire:

Pennsylvania's highest court says a ban on political campaign contributions by casino owners and executives is unconstitutional. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the ban violates the state constitution's guarantee of free speech. . . . The ban was touted as a major bulwark against the political influence that the lucrative gambling industry can exert over policymakers.

The Supreme Court noted in its opinion that the ban on political contributions was overly broad. In writing for the majority, Chief Justice Ron Castille suggested other alternatives:

"While the ban on political contributions does further the compelling state interest in avoiding the appearance of corruption in the oversight of the gaming industry, Section 1513 is not narrowly tailored," Castille wrote. "A statute that limited the size of contributions, rather than absolutely prohibiting any contributions, would be more narrowly drawn to accomplish the stated goal."

That’s what they did in Maryland, so how’d that turn out?

I work on a lot of things now, and they are all interconnected in many ways, although it’s not always obvious. What holds all of the things I work on together is the principle that the public should have the power to make decisions for itself, without intermediary, and that structures and places that allow and facilitate the necessary discussion and decisionmaking should be free, and protected by law.

I want to write about the casino fight because, as with so many things, the public conversation has become a little amnesiac about what has really happened here.

Yesterday more than 70 Philadelphians headed to Harrisburg to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Hearing for what was supposed to be a "status update" on the Philadelphia casinos.

Instead, what many of us were greeted with was essentially an ambush - the announcement that Foxwoods used the status hearing to announce that they planned to move within a matter of months into the Strawbridge's building.

Residents and neighboring businesses have raised concerns over the scaffolding around the historic 8th & Market landmark which has been in place for weeks. After all, it would be highly inappropriate for a gambling establishment to start building out for a casino without first applying to the PGCB (the application process triggers a number of studies as well as some process).

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.

Let's catch up:

First, Catherine Lucey reports that all 11 libraries scheduled to be shuttered are open today:

Well, PhillyClout just called all 11 branches and got through to librarians at every location who said that the libraries are operating on normal schedules today – and will continue to do so until they get word otherwise.

Common Pleas Judge Idee Fox ruled in favor of seven library patrons and three City Council members who sued Nutter last week, citing a 20-year-old ordinance requiring Council approval to close city buildings.

The city plans to appeal the judge’s ruling, but will wait until after a full written order from Fox, which is expected on Monday

As Catherine mentions, the City will appeal next week when they get the full ruling from Judge Fox. Michael Matza of the Inqy reported the same thing, and fleshed out Nutter's latest talking point, that the lawsuit has hurt the chance for the libraries to become 'knowledge centers.'

Beyond the ruling's impact on the balance of power between the city's executive and legislative branches, Nutter said yesterday, it hurts his efforts to get private funding to reopen some of the targeted branches as community based learning centers.

"This ruling runs the risk of significantly hampering our efforts to get the re-use plans in order," he said, "because it has now caused a chill in some of those discussions and created a tremendous amount of confusion with potential funders."

Among the options the administration is exploring is to have the funding channeled through nonprofit community-development corporations and other private sources.

Although few details have emerged about the idea to "repurpose" the targeted libraries as "knowledge centers," at least one proposal calls for the New Kensington Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit with offices on Frankford Ave., to take over the Fishtown Community Library as a "nascent model of the library of the future" under a long-term lease.

Let's deal with this piece by piece. First, the article mentions that NKCDC, a well regarded CDC, is going to run a "library of the future." Are they going to employ librarians? Do they have any expertise on running libraries?

Second, it goes unmentioned, but, who is most likely to be funding a library in Fishtown? Sugarhouse Casino, of course. Great.

Third, the mayor would have us believe that lawsuit is holding this all up, because he now has to get a vote from City Council. But the City Charter says that the city can only sell or lease city owned property with... approval of City Council. So the obstacle that has been put in front of him- a vote- is the same exact one that he already had. Surely he was planning on going to Council for a vote there, right?

Anyway, more great reporting on the issue from the Inquirer and Daily News:

Kia Gregory went to the Fumo branch in South Philly, and got reactions from patrons about the reprieve. (There are great photos, too.)

Jeff Shields on the ad-hoc coalition that sprouted up in defense of libraries. His basic thesis, that after Obama's election (and maybe Nutter's too), people expected more, and when they didn't get it they took that energy and organized, is a good one.

Jill Porter on the whole thing.

Happy new year, everybody.

This morning, City Council is expected to pass two bills that will re-zone the Gallery to a gambling district (CED), and re-designate an area from 6th to Broad Streets and Arch to Chestnut Streets as an area where a gambling zone "would be permissible."

For one of the City’s biggest projects, this could likely be the most fast-tracked in history. No plans, no proposals, no studies, and worse no questions. A Saturday Council hearing on November 1st saw up to 1,000 people in the streets, five hours of testimony from 60 speakers, and not a single question or dialogue among Council members before they unanimously voted it out of committee – adding a caveat that the rules would be suspended to set a special Nov. 6th hearing for first reading and that the Nov. 13th hearing would allow both a second reading and a vote on the same day.

City officials are silencing questions and asking Philadelphians to take a wait and see approach. But last month Mayoral advisor Terry Gillen gave a videotaped talk at the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association that gives troubling insight into the zoning legislation and what really is at stake – and perhaps, most troubling of all, the active role the administration might have as Foxwoods’ potential business partner in the Market East location.

It’s a long meeting (you can see the full video below), so I’ll help break it up for you:

First, the CED legislation is NOT exploratory in nature:

Contrary to city officials claiming that the CED legislation would only allow them to "explore" the Market East site, Gillen speaks candidly that the City and Foxwoods and the PA Gaming Control Board (PGCB) have an understanding that the CED could form the basis for a site license change – a process she said no one had done before and that city officials were "making up." She also implies how premeditated this is because they want things to happen before there's any possibility of the election impacting on the PGCB's make-up.

Last week, the Inky reported on a secretive meeting between the Governor, Mayor and Sugarhouse developer Neil Bluhm as Sugarhouse angled to gain the Mayor’s approval for its waterfront site. Bluhm offered to change the proposed big box design to curry the Mayor’s favor.

Nutter seemed non-committal, but two things stand out.

First, what’s up with all the secretive meetings? The decision to move Foxwoods to the Gallery and smack in the heart of Chinatown happened at a closed door August 21st meeting between the Governor, Mayor and Foxwoods. Now comes the news that the Governor, Mayor and Sugarhouse met in hotel corridors at the DNC in Denver to conduct side business.

In an interesting choice of words, the Governor’s spokesperson denied such a meeting as "nefarious." State Rep. Mike O’Brien had a different point of view:

O'Brien said the secretive nature of the meeting "doesn't build confidence" with the public and those who had complained about the process of selecting casino sites.

"The people were promised an open and transparent process," O'Brien said. "They deserve nothing less."

Thanks to all out organizing and pressure from the Philadelphia Neigborhood Alliance and Casino Free Philadelphia, it looks like two Sugarhouse and Foxwoods will be forced to move. Gov. Rendell has now joined Vince Fumo and Dwight Evans in telling Sugarhouse and Foxwoods that they have to move. When the Governor (the long time backer of bringing Casinos to Philly and PA) and Fumo (whose office wrote the bill) are telling these guys to move, you know they are in trouble.

And so, Fishtown and South Philly are saved from the potential devastation that a Casino can bring.

But...

Where now?

It still doesn't make sense to put a Casino in East Falls (or anywhere in Philadelphia, for that matter). It still doesn't make sense to kill potential developments at the Navy Yard with a windowless slot barn. Where the hell are these things going to go, and what is going to be done to make sure that the next neighborhood that is 'selected' truly wants a Casino there?

From a technical perspective, where do we go from here? Another set of hearings with the gaming review board?

And, after spending 2 years assuming that Casinos were going to go elsewhere, how do we protect neighborhoods that didn't think they would have to organize anymore (or ever) against these behemoths? The worst possible outcome is that as a result of this pressure, there is simply a backroom deal that puts the Casinos in two new neighborhoods, where the tried and true divide-and-conquer approach will be taken with community groups to grease the skids of casinos.

So, Casino Free Philadelphia, Philadelphia Neighborhood Alliance, Bill Green and others: What is going to happen to make sure that mistakes are not repeated, and new Philly neighborhoods are not damaged? Where do we go from here?

Sugarhouse, the proposed riverfront casino on the Fishtown/Northern Liberties border, needs to build on some submerged land owned by the state. The Street administration issued them a license to build on that land, which provoked lawsuits from state lawmakers and Philadelphia City Council, who claimed that the city had no right to issue that license.

Well, Michael Nutter just either made that lawsuit moot or upped the ante by revoking the license awarded by the city.

From the Inquirer:

At a City Hall news conference, he used harsh language to criticize the city action that preceded him, saying the license was "issued in error" by the city Commerce Department and was "unnecessarily rushed."

SugarHouse will have 30 days to appeal to the city to issue the license again, but only after a more extensive review process, Nutter said. He did not say how long that process would take - "it will be reasonable' - if SugarHouse chose to appeal...

The mayor reiterated that he is not a fan of the site for the SugarHouse or the Foxwoods casinos. In the case of SugarHouse, he said, concerns about traffic, parking, congestion and more were "brushed to the side" by the Street administration in a process that he characterized as improper. "It was an abuse of a discretion," Nutter said.

September 21, 2007 - Today, City Council canceled its scheduled public hearing on bills relating to SugarHouse's commercial entertainment district zoning and other slots gambling bills. According to political insiders, SugarHouse requested the delay after they unsuccessfully tried to force Fishtown Neighbors Association to the negotiation table.

Fishtown Neighbors Association (FNA) refused to sit down at the first negotiation on Monday claiming SugarHouse did not do its part to establish a fair table. FNA has agreed to negotiations with resiting as the first priority, and with the stipulation that any agreement would require the support 75% of the community. Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association, the civic association representing the neighborhood in which half of SugarHouse is located, has refused to enter into negotiations.

When Linda Soffer and Jeanne Kohl of the group Mothers Against SugarHouse (MASH) received news that Thomas "Tad" Decker would be co-chairing a fundraiser for Democratic mayoral nominee Michael Nutter, they were confused and outraged. Decker is the former chair of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, the governmental body that authorized the construction of two casinos along Philadelphia's Delaware riverfront and within a couple hundred feet of people's homes.

"I couldn't understand why Nutter would be taking money from a man who worked to deny Philadelphians a vote on where to put casinos" said Linda Soffer of MASH.