I have been writing for months about how politics is broken in this city including the politics of casinos. As if we needed on more example, the PA Gaming Control Board today selected the Foxwoods and Sugarhouse casino sites.
This decision was made not because of what’s best for the city, but because of insider politics.
What’s wrong with These Sites
None of the casino sites were good. But by any sensible criteria, these two are probably the worst. City planners rate them low for their proximity to neighborhoods, for the small land areas on which they sit, and for the high level of community opposition to them.
It Still Might Be Faster to Go to Atlantic City
Each one has a terrible traffic plan that will severely impact commercial and residential traffic. Together, they are going to make a total mess of Delaware Avenue. I’ve been joking that it might still be faster for many Philadelphians to drive to Atlantic City than to these sites. With two along the riverfront, that just might become true.
The Threat to the Port
The traffic difficulties threaten the port industry as well. I spoke at the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and Casino-Free Philadelphia’s press conference yesterday, in which the ILA talked about how their jobs were being threatened by these casinos. If trucks can’t get to the port, there will be less work there. And we will lose high-paying jobs — $17 to $35/hour with benefits. In the next 10 years imports are expected to double and Philadelphia is poised to capture much of this increased traffic. But we will lose it if allow casino traffic to make access to the port more difficult.
Broken Politics and the Casino Choices
So why these two choices? While all the details of are not yet known, we do know that Sugarhouse and Foxwoods are most politically connected of the sites—at least among whites. Apparently they are connected enough to trump even Donald himself.
And it’s as if the Gaming Control Board seems to want to flout ethical considerations. Just recently an investor in the Foxwoods project just got slapped with a $200,000 fine for illegal political donations.
Opposition Will Continue
This choice will only increase community opposition against the casinos. What was once a neighborhood movement is going to continue to expand across the city as more of us come to appreciate what the riverfront could be. Instead of parks and bike trails winding up and down the river, we’ll look at two 5,000 car parking garages as we plod along a backed up Delaware Avenue.
Community groups are going to escalate their resistance. The direct action in Harrisburg was just a beginning.
Why are the politicians hiding?
Philadelphia doesn’t have to accept a ruined waterfront and port.
I was a leader in the effort to restore the city’s right to zone the casino areas. City Council could use its zoning power to keep casinos from residential areas. Council members keep saying that if they use this power, the state legislature will take it away. My answer is: Use the zoning power to protect us and we citizens will do what we need to do in lobbying the legislature to make sure we don’t lose it.
City Council could also place an immediate one year moratorium on issuing building permits in Commercial Entertainment districts (which must be created to encompass the casinos). That will give us time both to find alternative sites and to create a public transit solution to the traffic problems on the river.
As I’ve pointed out before, I’m not a gambler. But I’d bet that this decision is not the last word on casinos in Philadelphia.