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to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.Philadelphia's zoning approval for Foxwoods casino angers opponents
Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 12:22 pm - by Alan Tu. Filed under: Casinos.
Casino opponents can’t believe their eyes. Over at Young Philly Politics Daniel U-A rails over yesterday’s City Council unanimous vote to rezone the area around 8th & Market Streets for the planned Foxwoods casino.
This is painfully embarrassing. Today, City Council approved the Zoning for Foxwoods. And yet, as Helen has noted, Foxwoods has no money to build this thing. They have no plans to look at. They haven’t been approved by the Gaming Control Board to move. They don’t even have an agreement with the other tenant of the building.
But yesterday’s zoning change does not make Foxwoods casino a done deal.There are many hurdles still ahead for the developers who want to put the slots only casino in the old Strawbridge & Clothier building. In fact, the City Planning Commission still gets a shot at this and hopefully the city will scrutinize the plan carefully to make sure it’s a good fit for that area.
But what really got anti casino folks up in arms was that last month City Councilman Frank DiCicco warned the Foxwoods developers that he wouldn’t advance the zoning bill until a dispute between two of the building’s owners is worked out. When it came time for yesterday’s vote that dispute had not been settled.
So the question then is: Why would he and the rest of Council go ahead with rezoning?
Councilman DiCicco defended his vote in remarks to Council and and released in written form. The folks over at PlanPhilly have put it up on their website.
Click image to see letter on posted by Plan Philly
It basically says, DiCicco thinks there’s enough progress being shown on getting a lease and that the zoning approval itself will help smooth things over with Foxwood investors.
It’s also helpful to understand that the City of Philadelphia has pretty much decided it’s in its own interest to get Foxwoods and a planned casino for Delaware Avenue open ASAP. Why? With the recession cutting into the State budget, The Governor and the Legislature have threatened to cut off the city from sharing in existing gambling revenue funds, if progress isn’t shown on getting the Philly casinos open.
What I’d like to know from you is:
Do you think the City of Philadelphia is moving too fast on the casino approvals because of political pressure from Harrisburg?
or
Do you think that we’ve waited long enough lets get on with this because the City and the State badly need the revenues?
June 12th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
There are plenty of other options besides the two provided. The fact is that the Phila. region is now saturated and new slots parlors that open, like Sands in Bethlehem take revenue from Phila. Park and Mt. Airy Casino just as much or more than they take from A.C. The two Philadelphia casinos if ever built will similarly just compete with Harrah’s in Chester and Phila. Park and Sands.
The PA casino model is a national joke, why add ot it with these horribly planned Phila. casinos which will hinder real. lasting and smart economic development on and around the riverfront and Market Street. Casinos have not been a good gamble for Detroit and Philadelphia should not become the largest US city to experiment with the convenience casino model which is already outdated and a proven failure nationally.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I think the whole thing is a deep reflection of the profound corruption in our government, at every level. And the issue has been aided and abetted by mostly weak media coverage. There is genuine evidence-based information about the documented negative impacts on nearby communities as well as evidence of the deliberate actions on the part of casinos to cultivate addiction. Yet so little of this information has been revealed in Phila’s media (although that has been improving, which is nice). DiCicco’s comment about the city as “partners” with the gaming industry is worthy of in-depth discussion. Do government officials realize that that “partnership” is a red-flag relationship central to corruption and weakens the enforcement of gaming regulations? Either they don’t know, due to incompetence or negligence for not learning about it. Or they do know and they’re perfectly fine with it. Political corruption is big business here. You would think that these people would be a little sensitive to that issue by now. Yet it’s not just the politicians, the corruption extends to Philadelphia’s oligarchy that has sponsored this situation. We need to know more about them. (It was news to me that Phila has an oligarchy, by the way, just as it was news to me that suicide is a documented negative impact of casinos on nearby communities. It was also news to me that there is so much info about this.) The whole thing is a mess.
June 12th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
In 2007, our city leaders blamed the state, and said that the effort to bring predatory gambling to Philly was not the city’s fault. Of course, that was not true. The city government knew exactly what was going on. Worse than doing nothing, the city government promoted the City Gaming Advisory Task Force, which is a thoroughly discredited document now (the City took it down from the website). The City and City Council also reached agreement with Rendell in 2006 that the City would enact the CED zoning ordinances prior to the PGCB awarded the licenses (who would make such a stupid zoning decision when you don’t even know what property is at issue). By the way, that’s why the Supreme Court had the ability to not just take away our Vote, but also to lay down the zoning — because the City had already passed the necessary ordinances. Now, with the current corrupt shenanigans, no one in City Hall is even making the argument that either Foxwoods on Market or the horrible redesign of SugarHouse is being force-fed by the State. The current decisions are the City’s pure and simple. This shows the depth of the corruption.
June 13th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
An additional reason a number of people were angry is because Councilman DiCicco announced that should the project return to the waterfront he will “fight like hell” to stop Foxwoods.
For the last nine months DiCicco has argued that we need to accept the fact that casinos are coming, that there is nothing we can do about it, and that not only can City Council not block it, it cannot even enforce reasonable restrictions, or take the time to conduct studies, or dialogue with impacted neighborhoods groups (beyond the most perfunctory of gestures). The casino’s placement at Market East is not about what’s best for the city, or responsible and protective practices by a legislature when a predatory industry comes to town. It’s clear that DiCicco has engaged in the worst of divisive tactics as a council person. He has sought to pit neighborhoods against one another and discriminated against some communities and denied them voice and representation. He does no one a service by not taking a principled stand and doing his best to represent all his constituents’ interests. Meanwhile, Council, in deferring to Councilmanic prerogative, sells off without a word, the rights to control a Center City development that has the intent to drain communities all across the city with a 24 hour a day booze and slots hall atop a central transit line.
The issue has less to do with whether we’re moving too fast or too slow on this project, but whether we recognize the nature of casinos and their profit scheme, the impact on surrounding communities, and dialogue about the kind of protections and restrictions that best protect citizenry in these economic times. The intentional refusal to engage in that dialogue - not the speed of the process - is what angers this Philadelphian the most.
August 4th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
I agree with Jethro.
I would also add that if the state forces the city to have two casinos, we should at least be able to choose where they go. I would put one next to the convention center to try to lure in tourists (my apologies to the residents of Chinatown) and one next to the stadiums to try to nab some people from the suburbs and New Jersey.
August 4th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Anyone who has seen pictures of Detroit knows that inner city casinos are usually a bad idea.