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to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.Where can Foxwoods move?
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 at 10:00 am - by Matt Campbell. Filed under: Casinos.
This week has been a wild ride for those for and against two casinos planned for Philadelphia’s riverfront. Foxwoods Casino announced it is considering alternative sites and Sugarhouse Casino won a big victory in Pennsylvania Supreme Court to build over submerged land on the Delaware River. And it should be noted that one of the key architects of the gambling law, State Senator Vincent Fumo, goes on trial September 8th for unrelated corruption charges. Fumo, once a champion of casinos, has tried to recast himself as a man of the people by calling on the casinos to relocate.
So where does this leave us? Sugarhouse continues to hold firm on its plan to build its casino north of Penns Landing, and Foxwoods says it is considering other sites. If Foxwoods is serious about finding a new site, let’s help them. In all seriousness, where do you think Foxwoods could realistically move to within the city limits of Philadelphia? A couple conditions should be considered: The location has to be able to handle a large amount of traffic, local opposition should be minimal, and as noted in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer- it must be outside the 10-mile noncompetition radius drawn around casinos in Chester City and Bensalem. The Inquirer says this rules out any site near the Philadelphia Airport. So what other sites would work? If any of you have suggestions, I would love to know. If we can get a decent list, I’ll send it to Foxwoods officials.
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Why should we have casinos at all? Lots of great cities (all of them) have become and stay great without casinos. Let’s actually determine whether casinos are a good thing to have in Philadelphia before we force them into a city, whose citizens, like those of our state were not given an opportunity to vote on whether to introduce this new predatory “industry” into our lives.
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:37 pm
that huge ship down near ikea could stand to be used for something, two birds one stone
August 23rd, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Why should Foxwoods get to pick their location? That was one of the fundamental problems with how this scheme was set up. For the locations of every other type of land use — skyscrapers, sewage treatment plants, even landfills — the city makes the decision. That’s why we have a Planning Commission: to use their expertise to make planning decisions and to make recommendations to City Council, which is accountable to the electorate. Siting of casinos should be no different. So . . . let’s have public meetings at the Planning Commission and let’s have public comment of all type. And since the Planning Commission is also charged with economic development, let’s also have testimony on the Costs/Benefits of slots parlors in our City. Let’s get this right and let’s open up government decision-making to maximum sunlight. What do our elected officials have to fear? We need to push them.