The last month or so has seen the formalizing of an anti-casino group in fishtown (FAST, fishtownagainstsugarhouse.org), Fishtown Neighborhood Association (fishtownlife.com) voted to negotiate with the city, state and operator under certain conditions and now legislation is moving on the state level to keep casinos 1500 feet from homes, schools and places of worship.

FAST or Fishtown Against Sugarhouse Takeover is a group of concerned Fishtown residents who are worried that Sugarhouse is making inroads into our community and, with the help of FACT or Fishtown Action convincing our legislators that Fishtown wants a casino. There are people in Fishtown that want the casino but it’s hard to separate those that have really thought out the impact but it’s hard to separate those who really want it and those that are enticed by the money. Donations have already been made to Catholic organizations. They’re selling their neighborhood for a few thousand in donations.

FNA or Fishtown Neighbors Association voted to negotiate with the city, state and operator with the following amendments:

• re-siting will be a first priority in the negotiations.
• negotiations shall recognize “Riverside” (both sides of Girard Avenue to the Delaware River) as the most impacted section of Fishtown and therefore they shall receive corresponding benefits and considerations from the negotiations.
• negotiations shall be done with independent legal counsel agreed upon by the FNA.
• Community Benefit Agreement shall have a nonbinding majority vote by the “Riverside” (both sides of Girard Avenue to the Delaware River) followed by a binding three quarters (3/4) vote of the votes cast by the Fishtown Community (Laurel Street, Front Street, Norris Street, Trenton Avenue, York Street, Delaware River).

This does NOT mean we’re accepting Sugarhouse. We don’t want a casino in near our homes. In fact the first amendment is an effort to move it. We decided it was time to go into a negotiation with a strong position and try to get it moved. If the final site is in Fishtown we need to make sure the neighborhood is protected.

Fumo has agreed to enter legislation on the state level to create a 1500 foot buffer between casinos and homes, schools and places of worship. There are mumblings that Sugarhouse should be excluded. Many hundreds of us that live near the site disagree. FNA voted in the spring to oppose the site. FNA’s vote to negotiate includes an amendment to fight for resiting.

Tell Mike O’Brien, Rendell and Fumo how you feel. Call Fumo’s office and ask him to introduce the 1,500 foot buffer legislation (including Sugarhouse) before the session ends. If you are unable to speak with Senator Fumo himself (probably the case), leave the message with his secretary or Aid. And let them know if you are a Fishtown or Northern Liberties resident and want a 1,500 foot buffer from casinos also. I would call both offices, so that we are sure he gets the message.
Senator Fumo’s Harrisburg Office – 717-787-5662
Senator Fumo’s Philadelphia Office – 215-468-3866
or
use the hallwatch fax bank

We’re now 13 hours into our citizens’ ballot. Most of us have had only a few hours of sleep, we’ve taken days off from work, some have been sleeping in the office. I’ve been in the office and on the phone throughout the weekend, until midnight last night, I spent most of the day in the office today. Today I manned phones in between troubleshooting network problems. We have 6 phones and the volunteers can’t keep the phones on the hook. I will be hearing ringing in my sleep.

We’ve been all over the news, our leaders have been photographed voting next to the candidates.

hundreds of volunteers manned 50+ polls, 6 phones, collected many, many votes: I’d completely unscientifically guess many many thousands.

The official polls are closing as I type. Our first ballot box has arrived in the office. We’ll be collecting votes online and phone until 10pm.

We won’t be counting any ballots tonight but we’re going to weight the boxes as they arrive to speculate wildly among ourselves how many votes they contain.

You still have a chance to vote on question #1. Go to phillysballotbox.org or call 215-925-6380.

History is being made today.

If you have time, please volunteer on or before May 15th.

A lot has happened since Sprague and Sugarhouse handily invalidated our 27,000 signatures.

DiCicco and city council voted unanimously to support the referendum. They then voted unanimously to overrule the Mayor’s veto of the referendum. Subsequently the building trades pledged to not support any incumbent councilperson. Supporting the referendum not once but twice took a lot of courage on the part of city council. It is, however, unprecedented and we are in an election year. We need to look at the incumbents and decide if they are truly in this fight or just bowing to public opinion. There are some strong challengers and the hard fight is just beginning.

The PA Gaming Control Board (PGCB) successfully convinced the State Supreme Court to put a temporary injunction on the referendum. The ballots are reportedly already printed. If the injunction sticks Philadelphia voters will mostly likely see “removed by court order” over question one on the ballot.

It is unbelievable that the PGCB, a state agency, would sue the city over this issue. It suggests that the PGCB has a stake in this beyond regulation. In particular it suggest that perhaps they’re afraid the people will have a say. Perhaps a member or members of the PGCB have a greater interest in gaming in PA than their role would suggest.

Discussion that a state agency shouldn’t take this much stake in law making aside, there is a national and local precedent for the state overruling city. The solution, of course, is to take the movement to Harrisburg. The next step is to convince our state representatives to change the law on the state level.

How do we move to Harrisburg? The short answer is to mobilize on a state level as we’ve done on a city level and let state legislators hear our voice just as we did with our city legislators.

The first step is allowing the people to vote on May 15th whether the state condones it or not. You will have an opportunity to vote on the referendum on May 15th. Foremost it’s important that you vote both at your polling place and, if there is not a phillysballotbox location there, seek one out to be sure your voice is heard.

Second, if you have any time on or before May 15th, go to phillysballotbox.com and pledge to help. It’s important.

Harrisburg’s next, we’re going to need help.

This week’s Daily News had a front page article about Sugarhouse’s private investigators questioning the public about signing a democratic petition.

Taking it to the streets and asking each voter if they did sign the petition does make some sense, but it looks more like they are just trying to make the public uncomfortable. They asked her if she had a lawyer. I understand this is legal, but certainly intimidating to most people. They then hid their license plate as they left. Sugarhouse is clearly not listening to the public– they are trying to intimidate them and are unwilling to stand up to the people that oppose them.

On the heels of Sugarhouse’s P.I.s advising the public to retain a lawyer, Sprague, an investor in Sugarhouse provides us with reason to believe that maybe he knows how to run a court room.

if you think the proceedings and decision make sense, send me an email. The signatures were gathered in good faith. I was there, I gathered several hundred personally in freezing cold weather. There are clearly a lot of Philadelphians who are against casinos. It would appear the judge really wasn’t interested interested the will of the people.

If I read the article correctly:
– They argued over the spelling of Griffin,
– Mary agreed that it *appeared* like multiple signatures on one page “might” have been signed by the same person and
– The judge then denied further requests to question Sprague’s evidence and ruled in favor of Sugarhouse.

This is just more reason to write your councilperson. and ask him/her to support the referendum.

The last few weeks included a particularly upsetting Fishtown Neighborhood Association (FNA) meeting, acknowledgment by Sugarhouse Casino that they view us as a threat and announcement of structure at Casino Free Philadelphia.

The Fishtown Neighborhood Association (FNA) FNA is officially neutral on the subject of Casinos. This is troubling as FNA is the only city recognized organization representing our neighborhood and it is difficult to hav a strong voice if they do not take a stand on the issue. There was strong sentiment at the meeting that newcomers to the neighborhood such as myself and anyone that has been there less than their entire life should not have a say. We’ve started door-to-door outreach as concerned residents to express a stronger voice against Sugarhouse and casinos in general. Early signs are positive: 75% of those we’ve talked to so far have expressed similar sentiments. We need to build community, Fishtown is fractured culturally.

Sugarhouse accused us of voter fraud Thursday’s paper. Casino Free Philadelphia successfully gathered 27,000+ signatures on a petition to add an item to the May ballot that would allow voters to decide if Casinos should be near residential areas. This would push them to the industrial edges of the city. Sugarhouse’s claims are significant but if they truly believed them they wouldn’t call the paper and allege massive fraud, they would just challenge us in court. As far as I’m aware this is the first public sign that Sugarhouse acknowledges us. This is the first step: they consider us a threat. This is a good sign.

The fight will go to court in the next few weeks and will probably be battled down the the last signature. It should be interesting.

We attended Casino Free Philadelphia’s second strategy retreat on Saturday. They announced a structure for an organization, they now have a budget and paid employees. It is still a primarily volunteer organization but Sugarhouse is clearly organizing, we need to do the same. There is clear dedication in the anti-casino movement that didn’t exist even 2 months ago. The movement is serious and we’re motivated.

We had our day in court for December’s anti-casino action. Thirteen of us drove to Harrisburg to attend District court in Dauphin County.

We were charged with creating “a hazard offensive condition which served no legitimate purpose…” You can see the exact wording on the citation.

We sat in front of Judge Joseph S. Solomon in Dauphin County District court.

Our lawyer argued that our only intent was to retrieve documents. The PGCB is a state agency and is charged with making its documents available to the public. We are nothing more than citizens exercising our rights.

Paul Mauro, identified only as a Supervisor at the PGCB, testified on behalf of the PGCB. He testified that that we were shouting and blocked the entry to the elevators. He further testified that he told us that the PGCB did not want us here and we would need to leave.

The Hallwatch video clearly shows that we were non-violent and respectful.

Reverend Jesse Brown was called to testify on our behalf. He testified that we were citizens who arrived during the PGCB’s regular business hours to request public documents. We were refused access to these documents. When we refused to leave without the documents we were arrested. He testified that the security guard did not offer to contact anyone from the PGCB.

Judge Solomon delivered his verdict:

He said the key to his decision is that “…no testimony showed that there was an intent to create a hazardous condition. If such a condition was created it was done without intent.”

Judge Solomon continued: “The problem I have with this situation is that a request was made for information that should be made available to the people.” He stated that this is a “people’s government” and “…anyone should be able to go to a state government agency, walk in and be able to see the documents. I can’t imagine what documents your [indicating Mauro] agency has that they need to be protected from the people…This was handled extremely inappropriately by your agency…If your agency continues to operate in this fashion we’re going to have a lot more of these [referring to our case].”

He continued, accusing the PGCB of “…creating an undue burden on the citizens of Harrisburg…” by refusing citizens entry and calling the police. He told Mauro that if his [Mauro’s] agency is unable to allow public access due to building security policy then the PGCB should consider moving out of the building.

The judge openly chastised the PGCB. I can’t express enough how moving this scene was. Not only were we found innocent but we were justified not as activists but as citizens exercising our rights.

We are not activists, we are citizens who want the rights that we are due. We are due a say in our government. If we are denied that right we will stand up for it.

I can’t thank the organizers of this event enough for showing me the beginnings of how to make a difference in government. It takes time but a group of concerned citizens can make a difference in their government.

Links:
NABR: http://www.nabrhood.org
Casino Free Philadelphia: http://casinofreephila.org

Last week was busy and draining. Monday I attended a NABR meeting, Thursday I attended my first Fishtown Neighborhood Association (FNA) meeting. I found out a lot of interesting information on the casino front.

PennPraxis has launched a new Plan Philly (planphilly.com) web site. Their first and current project is to plan the central Delaware Riverfront. They have called a series of public meetings to get input from the community. The casino comes up prominently at each meeting.

Penn Praxis continues to erroneously refer to the casinos as a done deal. They are responsible in mission for listening to the neighborhoods but they repeatedly ignore the people’s input. PennPraxis should address the casino issue head on. That’s what the neighborhoods want. They should put together two plans: one with casinos and one without.

Vern Anastasio spoke at the NABR meeting about the ill-conceived proposed Special Services Districts. The purpose is to provide “clean and green,” basically improve neighborhoods by cleaning up trash, planting trees, etc. This is incredibly short sighted. These are services that should be provided by the city. Neighborhoods should ask city hall for these services, not a commercial developer. The money will be spent to clean up the mess the casinos create, it will not be spent to better our neighborhoods.

Ultimately we will become addicted to the revenue. We won’t be able to clean up our neighborhoods without the crutch of tax revenue from casinos. Philadelphia needs to think bigger picture. Philadelphia can create real incentives for business, draw business and ultimately draw tax revenue from a thriving business community.

Last week’s FNA meeting showed that Fishtown is is changing. New residents and long term residents alike clearly came out against casinos. A stand hasn’t been taken by the group but the groundwork has been laid. The Fishtown Neighborhood Association (FNA) is officially agnostic on casinos. Northern Liberties, Old City, Society Hill, Pennsport and Passyunk have all taken an anti-casino stance. This is troubling because without a firm stand they can’t negotiate.

Links:
fishtown.us
fishtownlife.com
Wikipedia article.

SugarHouse has been licensed just three blocks from our house. Foxwoods is within a few miles. Both will have a dramatic affect on Philadelphia’s waterfront and likely the city as a whole.

This is why we need to fight. If the Inquirer thinks it’s okay to print this we have a real problem. Here are a few more examples.

We attended an all day strategy session hosted by Casino Free Philadelphia on Saturday. It was informational and yielded tangible strategies and gave each of us next steps in the fight.

It’s not a done deal. That’s what they said about the construction of I-95 in the late ’50s. The original plan called for an elevated highway along the riverfront. With the exceptions of pass throughs for Spruce and Dock Streets there would be no way to pass from the neighborhoods to the (at the time) planned Penn’s Landing development. A group of lawyers got together and fought to change the design to a sunken highway. Ultimately they got the plans changed and 95 is now below street level with many overpasses for foot and vehicle traffic. We got the story first hand from one of the lawyers involved. He knew less about organizing at the time than the organizers of Casino Free Philadelphia.

Lesson for developers that don’t listen to the community: New Market in Society Hill. It was a multi-level shopping development right off head house square between South, Lombard, Front and Second Streets. There is surprisingly little online about this development. The neighborhood didn’t want it, the developers built it anyway. Ultimately it was abandoned and sat vacant for years. It was demolished a few years ago and is currently a vacant lot.

It won’t end here. There are rumors that Foxwoods has options to buy land from Comcast to the north and Home Depot in the south. This means a few things– namely that they can expand and swallow up more of Philadelphia’s waterfront but more insidious is that this land could continue to remain vacant in wait for Foxwoods to buy it. This is exactly the situation much of Philadelphia’s waterfront is in now– waiting for wealthy casino owners to buy it. Why would land owners sell when they know they can hold out and sell at premium prices to well funded casino operators.

I’ve posted photos here.

Consider getting involved. We can stop the casines but we need help.

Resources:
Casino Free PA Excellent resource, the coordinator is passionate about the topic.
The Luck Business by Robert Goodman
Gambling in America by Earl Grinols
Without Reservation by Jeff Benedict

Here’s my edit of the the message Casino Free Philadelphia suggests we send to Philadelphians:

This past Saturday more than 80 Philadelphians joined together to take the next step in keeping Philadelphia casino free.

Now that the State has conditionally licensed two casinos on our City's waterfront the negative impact and potential harm is becoming clearer. Our politicians at the State and City level have been clever in how they have planned to impose slots gaming into our city. But they didn't plan for the resistance which is growing stronger every day.

Saturday's strategy event with Casino Free Philadelphia made it clear that we have a great deal of power and ability to protect our families, communities, city and state from the negative effects of gaming. But to do so we need to reach out to people we know and encourage them to get informed and involved.

Please go to www.casinofreephila.org and join the email list. While you are at the website check out the media clippings, photos, videos and other resources available. Please share this resource, by forwarding this email, to other people you know. Please also consider joining me for future actions, events and meetings.