I know at the meeting the other week, you kind of said that, so I'm -- you know, I 144 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation guess I'm just trying to get the that on record that discussion just makes sense, and I think that's what you said. Okay.
But -- but -- but I will add that there was substantive reasons that were good reasons for tabling discussion because, you know, despite the Gaming Board's decision in December, nothing has necessarily really happened until Councilman Ramos introduced the bill. You know, there was a referendum that you all guys all voted for to put on the ballot that was or that was not going to be on the ballot. There were issues that needed to be decided. And in that context, perhaps negotiation made sense; perhaps it didn't. But our organization and other organizations have to follow the lead of the people who belong to them and the people who come and vote. And at 145 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation that time, that is what happened. Now, we do have meetings coming up, and I think if you guys would take the lead -- create a table that people need to get at; that's what I'm asking you to do.
Than k you very much. Good afternoon. Please identify yourself for the record.
Good afternoon. My name is Shawn Rairigh. Today I speak to you as a resident of Fishtown and also as a professional city planner; I've been work for several years in a private architectural and planning firm in downtown Philadelphia, as well as a former intern of the City Planning Commission, but I'm mostly speaking to you as a founding of NABR, N-A-B-R, Neighbors Allied for the Best Riverfront. 146 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation This is a community-driven planning group that started about a year-and-a-half ago largely in response to the development pressure facing the North Delaware waterfront. As you may know, many of the taller buildings have already passed zoning, and we're seeing that. So we -- a group of people came together and said it's time that there is a more community-driven planning process to decide the future for the waterfront instead of individual haphazard proposals and projects. Obviously, once the casinos came along, this became a large issue too. I just want to remind Council of the uniqueness of the SugarHouse site, that this is the only neighborhood in the entire city where there is dense urban fabric on both sides of I-95. Other neighborhoods have dense urban fabric on one side or 147 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation the other, but not on both sides as Fishtown has. A casino of this size and this scale, in my professional opinion as a planner and as a neighbor's opinion, is completely inappropriate and actually destructive. 3 million square feet is proposed by Sugarhouse; that is larger than the King of Prussia Mall on a site about a fourth of the size. The number of slots included in the SugarHouse plan totaling 5,000 at full buildout is larger than any casino in Las Vegas. The largest casino in Las Vegas, the MGM Grand, has 2900 slots; granted, it also has table games. The casino floor at the MGM Grand is about 170,000 square feet. The casino floor proposed for the SugarHouse -- and I don't have specifics -- but it is well over a 148 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation hundred thousand square feet. Obviously, the size of a garage is not an appropriate -- a 4,000-car garage is not appropriate for a neighborhood that is faced across the street with two- and three-story rowhouses. And the 40,000 visitors a day that SugarHouse estimated in its preliminary report to the Gaming Control Board equals what a sold-out Phillies game would be. Now, they estimated that for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so this is the equivalent of a sold-out Phillies game, except no 17 transit. 5. So much more traffic than a sold-out Phillies game, and we're contemplating maybe putting two of these on the riverfront. So if it's not supposed to -- and furthermore, as Steve mentioned, 149 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation many of the principles that have come out of the Central Delaware Waterfront plan, of which I am NABR's representative to the advisory committee, are not being followed by this site plan. Buildings should be built up to the street, the massing should be broken down, there should be a large variety of mix of uses within buildings and within the site itself. These principles are not being followed by the SugarHouse site development. So what should go on the site instead of a casino? NABR, a few months ago, held our own volunteer-given planning charrette for the two casino sites, and if maybe somebody could get this to Council. These are the results of the plan charrette. Take a look through there. You will quickly see -- well, first about the process. We invited anybody who wanted to come to come and spend four hours with us in an open 150 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation planning format. The only thing not allowed were casinos, because we felt that that needed to be addressed -- what should be on these sites if the casinos aren't going to be there. Approximately 45 to 50 members of the public came, including about eight design professionals.
We spent four house coming up with ideas, designs. I'll never forget the one lady from South Philadelphia who said, You know what we need? We need a big park. The western side of South Philadelphia has FDR Park, the western side of Center City and North Philadelphia has Fairmount Park; we don't have a park. And she went off on her own and drew out the whole site as a park and what should be in there. We compiled all of the suggestions into what you see, the document before you. Obviously, you can see from that that the community, 151 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation or at least the folks who came to our meeting, are not anti-development. They strongly support development; they just don't support it of the scale and the scope and the size of the SugarHouse Casino. Just as a quick estimate, we looked over at what the plans could hold -- and you'll hear more about this later, I believe. On the northern site, talking over 440,000 square feet of residential; 70,000 square feet of commercial space, including a 5-acre park; a southern site, we estimate, could hold something like 800,000 square feet of residential, 100 townhouses, 80,000 square feet of commercial space, a couple of 200-car garages, as well as an 8-acre park, that being twice the size of Rittenhouse Square. This can all fit on the site. Instead, what there being proposed is 152 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation single-use casino developments, single building, large garages attached to them. If you have any questions, I'll gladly take them.
How close is the nearest residential area from Foxwoods?
SugarHouse is less than 200. It's across Delaware Avenue, Delaware Avenue being about a hundred feet wide, and then there's about -- you know, sidewalks and about 153 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation a hundred feet back to Allen Street -- or is it Richmond? Allen Street. And there are two-story and three-story rowhouses along Allen street.
Than k you are there any questions from members of the committee? (No questions.)
Okay. Our next panel, please. (Applause.) (Witnesses come forward.) MR. McPHERSON: The next panel after this will be Pat Gillespie, Mike Fera, and Wade Stevens, and a member of the Sprinkler Fitters Union.
Okay . Good afternoon. Please identify yourself for the record.
Good morning. My name is David Odell. I'm representing 154 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation the Transit Working Group of the Green Party of Philadelphia. I myself reside in the 2nd Council District. The working group has been studying casinos from a transportation perspective. As many of you know, Philadelphia's transportation infrastructure is an important component of the city's emergency response system, and it is the relationship between casino traffic and emergency preparedness that I would like to address briefly here. Since Hurricane Katrina, the city has been focusing on management scenarios for evacuating large numbers of people from Philadelphia or into the City from outlying areas and providing them with food, shelter, medical care, and supplies. Many citizens groups have focused on the negative influence of casino traffic on their local neighborhoods. Our working group has 155 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation been look looking at the impact of casinos on the ability of our infrastructure to handle citywide movements of large groups of the population in an emergency situation. This involves our major arteries, particularly Corridors 4 and 3; that is, Interstates 95, 76, and 676. Traffic advisories for these corridors regularly report delays long backups and slow-going conditions, even without common, evermore-frequent aggravating factors such as crashes, lane restriction for road construction, police activities, inclement weather, and major sporting or cultural events. Traffic on local roads that provide access to our major egress and ingress routes is even worse. On any given day, police, fire, and rescue vehicles often must inch their way down congested streets and through blocked intersections. While the City of Philadelphia 156 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation is thus actively preparing to manage a possible large-scale evacuation, the transportation infrastructure on which that response would be based is unable to provide fast, efficient movement even under normal, everyday conditions. There are crucial components of casino traffic the planners have not yet clearly analyzed, including: First, the impact of Columbus Boulevard and local street congestion on interstate through-traffic; and, second, the compounding effect of locating two casinos a mere three miles apart from each other, a fraction of the length of a typical interstate backup, and the risk of thereby turning I-95 into a massive parking lot along the riverfront corridor. Enough information is available, however, to allow a fairly clear picture of what we can expect. The proposed gaming facilities would cause a dramatic rise in traffic 157 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation volume. The lure of up to 11,000 new onsite parking spaces and lack of convenient transit access will be a deterrent to non-automotive alternatives. A projected 80 percent and more of gamblers will use cars, two-thirds of them will be non-Philadelphians, and up to 85 percent will use the interstate to access the gaming facilities. Two 5,000 slot casinos will increase already-congested traffic in Corridor 4 by 34 to 55 percent over a 24-hour period on weekdays, and more than double the corridor volume on Saturdays. Even without the confluence of casino peak traffic and rush-hour traffic, casino activity will increase the number of accidents and result in deteriorating conditions up and down the Delaware. That is a far cry from the safe and orderly movement of vehicles envisioned in the city's 158 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation emergency preparedness report. There are many reasons to oppose the construction of casinos, but certainly a concern for the basic safe movement of our populace, particularly during emergencies both small and large, should rank very high among them. Hopefully, simple common sense will prevail. This City Council should put the safety of the Philadelphians first and say no to both Foxwoods and SugarHouse Casinos.
Please identify yourself for the record and proceed.
Good afternoon, Madam President. My name is Donna Tomlinson, and I have been a resident of Fishtown for 52 years. Thank you today for holding this hearing on this important topic of 159 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation casino zoning and allowing me to testify. I have been volunteering in my community and in Philadelphia for over 30 years with various organizations: St. Laurentius Church and School, the Fishtown Recreation Center, Hallahan High School, PAL golf tournaments, and the Philadelphia Veterans Multiservice and Education Center. I am a founding member of Fishtown Neighbors and a founding member of Fishtown Action. The members of Fishtown Action are not paid political activists who move from city to city, causing a fight. They are our neighbors, our friends, and our families who feel that the development of the SugarHouse Casino opens the door for more development on the riverfront. We do not want another gated-condo community. Fishtown Action is a group of Fishtown residents whose mission is to provide the Fishtown community and 160 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation residents nearby with the opportunity and forum to obtain information about the SugarHouse Casino via transparent and constructive dialogue. To date, the membership of Fishtown Action is over 300 residents from Fishtown and Port Richmond. Our membership is growing every day. Fishtown Action is, by far, the largest community-membership organization in Fishtown. At a recent Fishtown Action meeting, our membership overwhelmingly voted to approve a resolution to support the construction of the SugarHouse Casino at its present location. Our members are not naive. They know there are issues that need to be addressed, and Fishtown Action is giving them that forum. Our members see a bright future for our neighborhood and the city once the SugarHouse Casino is built. 161 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation I would like to thank all of the Fishtown residents in the other room for coming out today, and I am asking you to vote in favor of the Commercial Entertainment District so that this important project can begin. Thank you. (Applause.) (Cheers.)
Okay. Good afternoon, Council President Verna and members of Council. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to testify today for this important legislation involving the SugarHouse Casino project. My name is Charlotte Levins. I was born and raised in Fishtown, where I continue to live today. I learned to read, write, and even speak a little Polish at St. Laurentius 162 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation School and learned to play basketball with the Fishtown Athletic Club. I learned the value of community service by doing volunteer health outreach with Episcopal Hospital, and I am currently enrolled full-time at Temple University and work part-time in the hospital industry. Ever since I can remember, the Delaware riverfront in Fishtown has been inaccessible largely due to trash and rodent infestation. Unfortunately, these lots have also served as a prime spot for murder, one of which claimed the life of an innocent friend. In recent years, the only development that has occurred north of Spring Garden has been nightclubs that force customers to park in neighborhood streets and high-rise condominiums that bar access to the river. The SugarHouse project is the only real development that will clean up a blighted site, provide access to the 163 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Delaware riverfront, and offer benefits to the surrounding community. The community benefits agreement is especially important to a neighborhood like Fishtown, where resources for community programs are extremely limited. All of the large employers, such as the old Jack Frost and American Can Company, have left the communities and taken good jobs with them. Sponsorships for community programs are fewer, and families are less able to pay a $60 registration fee to enroll their child in a sports or arts program. While this might seem nominal to many wage-earners in this room, these are precious dollars to many Fishtown families. Tax revenues from the SugarHouse will also help the city provide desperately-needed financial resources to schools, police and fire departments, and other programs important to our neighborhoods. 164 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation I feel very fortunate to have grown up in Fishtown and will always value the lessons learned from my coaches, teachers, neighbors, friends, and parents who always found the time to help out. At the same time, I see the difficulties that young Fishtowners will face if their neighborhood is deprived of an opportunity to welcome a responsible employer into their neighborhood. (Applause.) (Cheers.)
I hope that you will support this proposed legislation that will enable the SugarHouse project to move without further delay. And thank you for allowing me the opportunity to testify before you today. (Applause.) (Cheers.)
Just very quickly, please, either of you. 165 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation You may have -- just to put on the record, about how many residents of Fishtown would you say are in your organization? You may have said that and I may have missed it. I'm sorry.
Okay. And they're all residents of Fishtown, you say?
Most of them are residents of Fishtown; there's a few from Port Richmond. But I would say 300 are from Fishtown, yes, absolutely.
And I actually have the documents. Everyone has to fill out a membership form, and I have those documents. If you'd ever like to see them, I'd be happy to bring them to you.
Thank you, ma'am. 166 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation
Good afternoon. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good morning. My name is Lauren Griffith. I have been a resident of Fishtown for all 13 years of my life. I have been involved 14 in many community activities and 15 organization in my short life span. 16 And to the best of my knowledge, those 17 activities and organizations have done 18 their best to try to provide a better 19 neighborhood and community for the residents of Fishtown. Personally, I feel this is what SugarHouse Casino will bring to the neighborhood. As a college student, I do not look forward to the slots and casino aspect of SugarHouse, but the 167 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation restaurants and access to the waterfront that has been denied for all almost years of my life. Instead of 5 having to drive to the northeast or 6 Center City for a place to meet up with 7 friends, I would love to have a place 8 close to home that I can enjoy the 9 company of my friends and my 10 neighborhood. 11 I hate driving down Delaware 12 Avenue to work and staring at a vacant 13 lot. As a member of the Fishtown 14 Action committee, I feel that the 15 benefits of SugarHouse are willing to 16 offer will impact the community 17 greatly, aiding the residents and 18 future residents to come. 19 Thank you. 20 (Applause.) (Cheers.)
Good morning. My name is Joe Rafter. I live in Northern Liberties. I've owned and operated a restaurant for 13 years in Northern 168 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Liberties. I am pro-development, I am pro-jobs, I am for the SugarHouse in my backyard. (Applause.) (Cheers.)
If I could add one thing. I was born and raised in Fishtown, and it struck me odd that a man named Dan Hunter, an anti-casino leader, was a holding sign that says "Fishtown Doesn't Want the SugarHouse." Mr. Hunter does not live in Fishtown; he lives in West Philly. (Applause.) (Cheers.)
And I believe that too many people who do not live in Fishtown have been claiming to speak for us, and they do not. Again, I am for the SugarHouse in my back yard. Thank you. (Applause.) (Cheers.) (Witnesses come forward.) 169 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation
Good afternoon. Welcome. Please identify yourself for the record.
Good afternoon, Madam President. My name is Pat Gillespie. I'm the Business Manager of the Philadelphia Building Trades Council. (Applause.) (Cheers.)
I'm here -- with me to my immediate left is Wade Stevens, Business Manager of Labors District Council and President of the Philadelphia Building Trades Council. (Applause.) (Cheers.)
John Kane, who is the newly-elected business manager of the Plumbers 690, replacing Ed Keenan. (Applause.) (Cheers.)
And last, but 170 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation not least, Gene Blagman, representing the FOP. We, of course, are for anything any project that's going to generate jobs. We at the building trades are -- we encourage -- (Individuals shouting from audience.)
When we get silent, you'll continue. I think we're being very, very rude. Again, I am asking that we respect the people that are testifying and we respect each other. The people in the back of the room -- (Council President Verna bangs gavel.)
The people in the back of the room, if you're going to have a personal conversation, do so in the corridor. 171 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Please proceed.
Thank you, Madam President. We're here and we appreciate City Council's allowing us an opportunity to be heard. One of the things that this project will provide for us are job opportunities, which we desperately need. And not that gambling is a panacea; I mean, that's just the state of affairs that we are in. But the revenues that this will generate, you are well aware, will help us finance our construction of our Convention Center expansion project. The jobs that this -- the job opportunities that this presents for our communities could very well help us with the recidivist criminals that are -- that a number of building trade members happen to be, and we try to get them job opportunities so that they don't go back to that kind of lifestyle. The construction industry 172 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation is one of the few industries that -- that are -- is open to that. So it's not as if it's -- it's a panacea for everything, but it will certainly help in our communities to provide job opportunities for people who are desperately in need them. And we applaud the -- the dialogue that goes on. Even though it's heated and spirited, it's important for the community to make sure that this casino that's going to posited in their neighborhood is a good neighbor. And I think I've heard testimony today, and I've heard it in the past, that they are willing to do that, they're willing to put their money where their mouth is, that they want -- they want to participate. And I -- I would never want to stifle those kinds of conversations between the community because there are people in Fishtown who have to -- who 173 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation have to live with that, and they -- they want to make sure that it's a good neighbor. And I just -- I'm pleased that the quality of people at that SugarHouse Casino -- Dan Keating is a wonderful developer and a great general contractor. Bloom is a great developer from Chicago. Some of the -- some of the noted Philadelphia aspect -- people in this deal are -- are salt-of-the- earth kind of people who say and do what they mean. So the detractors, you can be against -- okay, that's fine. But if you look at the sub -- sum and substance of what these people are offering, they're offering hope for a community that -- that we desperately need. So thank you very much.
Than k you, Mr. Gillespie. (Applause.) 174 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation (Cheers.)
Madam President, I appreciate the opportunity to address this community to speak in support of the SugarHouse Casinos. My name is Wade Stevens. I represent roughly 10,000 construction laborers from two local unions housed right inside of Philadelphia -- Labors Local 332 and Labors Local 357. (Applause.) (Cheers.)
And as you can hear, Madam President, my members are here, and they're here because they are concerned taxpayers of the City of Philadelphia. They are here -- (Applause.)
They are here because their children attend the public schools in the City of Philadelphia. They are here because 175 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation their children have been gunned down on the streets of the City of Philadelphia. And all of these things that I mentioned, they are here because they Pay city wage taxes to the City of Philadelphia. They have a vested interest in what goes on in terms of economic development in this city. And they have addressed the leadership of their local union to come down and to speak before this esteemed body to express to you that the members, their families, and their children desperately need the work opportunities, they desperately need the revenues that will fund the Police Department, the School District, and help minimize city wage and approve the quality of life in this city for our members and all of Philadelphia. And that's not to deminimize [sic] the actions of the groups from Fishtown. And as Mr. Gillespie said, 176 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation we welcome the public debate. I think it's -- I think it's -- it's good to have people from both sides speak on an issue. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, this is a Philadelphia initiative, and it's the entire city that will benefit. And to sneeze at funding of the Police Department and to sneeze at not willing to upgrade our schools to provide better buildings, books for our children to learn from, and to minimize city wage tax, we feel, would be short-sighted. So we implore City Council to please move forward with the SugarHouse development. The SugarHouse Casino will bring a lot of things to the table to benefit the entire city, even the Fishtown neighborhood. And I would like to thank you for the opportunity.
Than 177 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation k you. (Applause.) (Cheers.)
Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good afternoon, Madam President. My name is John Kane, Business Manager, Financial Secretary of Plumbers Local 690. I am here to speak on behalf of my members that are unable to be here tonight. I roughly represent over members 2250 members, 1500 of them who live in the City of Philadelphia. We were at our union meeting recently, about two weeks ago. I made a recommendation that we back SugarHouse Casino, and it was unanimously decided for yes, we are backing SugarHouse Casino. Thank you.
Than k you. 178 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation (Applause.) (Cheers.)
I'm Gene Blagman. I represent the Fraternal Order of Police. We have about 14,000 members active and retired. I just wanted to say that casino revenue has been factored into the city budget over the next five years. Any delay in that money coming in is going to impact every city worker and our workers in particular. It will impact us in contract negotiations as well as equipment and personnel. Any delay -- and I sympathize completely with the people that are against casinos; there's no good location for casinos that I can think of. There merely is the fact that they -- the state has legislated that 179 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation they're going to exist, and that's -- it's one of those things we're going to have to live with, and if we live with it with cooperation from the Casino -- at least if we're with the casino, we may be able to make them good neighbors if we cooperate fully. If we don't, and delay this, I don't see where it's going to benefit the city on any level. Thank you.
Any questions or comments from members of the committee of these witnesses?
Oh, 180 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation I'm sorry. The Chair recognizes Councilman DiCicco.
It's not easy being short. Thank you. The question is to all of the gentlemen up here, and I appreciate your testimony. The issue here, for the most part, has to do with location. If SugarHouse were able to find a new location, you're not -- basically what I'm asking you is, you're not wed to the site; you're just wed to the fact that you want to see this development happen because it will create jobs; is that a fair assessment?
Mr. Council -- Councilman DiCicco, we are in favor of the casino...
... wherever it is sited. The situation, as we 181 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation understand it, the people who are putting up the 54-odd million dollars for the permit and who are willing the share the 56 cents of every dollar that is gambled with the state and the local community, this is the site that they selected.
Well, but they're not willing to do it; it's the law that says that they have to give the 56 cents up. Let's be fair about that.
If they had to choose, they would rather be someplace in the area of where Atlantic City is --
I 182 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation understand. We understand that. Again, I just wanted to make sure that we understand that there is a sentiment, and there are some people, and I respect them -- and I've said this publicly -- who are anti-casino in general, and they just believe that it's not the right thing to do. But there are those who understand that gaming is coming, and it's just a question of location again, so I wanted to make sure that we understand each other, that it's not necessarily anti-development; it's the site that has the biggest concern here.
Yeah. Councilman DiCicco, we come up against the not-in-my-backyard syndrome with every development. I mean -- and you're well aware of that. Everybody wants to build a building. I mean -- and -- and I guess my -- my point is, is that here comes an entity that should be and wants to be a good 183 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation neighbor, all right? And they're trying to be that good neighbor.
Well, not to be disrespectful. There's not a developer that I've been encountered with in twelve years in Council -- and I've been involved with a number of developers that never came and said the same thing, that we want to be good neighbors. No one comes in saying, "We want to be a bad neighbor." But we understand the issue.
And it's -- it's the dialogue that goes on now, before they get started, before they get their permits, that ensure -- that you ensure that they are -- in fact, become a good neighbor.
Than k you. Thank you all. Thank you. 184 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation (Applause.) (Cheers.) MR. McPHERSON: The next panel is Katie Recker, Paul Boni, Jennifer Lewis, Tully Speaker. (Witnesses come forward.)
Good afternoon. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good afternoon, Council President Verna, Councilman Clarke, Councilman DiCicco, and anybody who is looking on the live feed. My name is Katie Recker. I'm an attorney in Philadelphia, and I live in Fishtown. I'm a member of the Fishtown Neighborhood Association and I live a few blocks from the proposed SugarHouse site, in Riverside, and I want to be sure that you understand the distinction between Riverside and the rest of Fishtown. 185 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Riverside is a 300-year-old residential historic neighborhood, and as Councilman Clarke said earlier, Riverside is Ground Zero. It is the part of Fishtown that will bear the brunt of any development along the river, and it is the part of Fishtown that will be negatively and forever impacted by SugarHouse. I'm here to talk today about two things -- neighborhood destruction versus zoning protection; this is the issue before you today. Neighborhood destruction is guaranteed by Councilman Ramos's bills. I respectfully ask you: Please oppose them. There is no need to rush the process, and I appreciate that you have tabled consideration or voting on these bills until the summer recess is completed. Everyone here realizes that it was the state who gave us the casinos and the PGBC and SugarHouse who chose 186 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation the locations, but it is City Council who has the ability to cure the problems that placing SugarHouse in Riverside will result in. Zoning protection, zoning protection is the cure. Support for Councilman DiCicco's 1500-foot buffer is zoning protection. You have the power. The Supreme Court restored zoning power to you after the legislature tried to take it away. No part of any residential neighborhood should be destroyed by development. Our zoning code is supposed to prevent that. The worst part of Councilman Ramos's bills that are before you here today is the one that seeks to eliminate the North Delaware Avenue special district control. " It outlaws venues that provide entertainment of guests and patrons 187 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation along Delaware Avenue north of Spring Garden. This is a very important piece of legislation. In the 1990s, nightclubs sprang up on North Delaware Avenue. These nightclubs plagued Fishtown and Northern Liberties. The clubs put profits from selling alcohol above the public safety and the rights of the nearby residents. Among other things, alcohol fueled disputes; the disputes resulted in fistfights; the fistfights spilled over into our streets. They led to crime, they led to shootings, and they led to murder. In short, the nightclubs brought dangerous and violent behavior which landed on our doorsteps and kicked in our doors. Recognizing that this situation should not be permitted to continue, City Council, in its wisdom, ended it in 2002. City Council wisely recognized the primacy of the health, 188 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation safety, and welfare of our neighborhoods. City Council passed 1624. With that legislation, City Council recognized what the state, the PGCB, and SugarHouse refuse to recognize: That outsized bars and out-of-control nighttime activity do not belong close to homes. What do the outlawed nightclubs and SugarHouse have in common? They serve a lot of alcohol. , the way it did with the nightclubs; instead, SugarHouse will be serving alcohol 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, with 6 21 separate liquor license. 22 And if that were not bad 23 enough, SugarHouse will be able to give 24 alcohol away for free. Free alcohol makes gamblers forget how much money 189 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation they're losing in the casino. To make matters worse, the scale of SugarHouse is 100 times the size of a handful of nightclubs that wee on North Delaware Avenue. Upon completion, SugarHouse will exceed millions of square feet.
They will accommodate thousands more patrons than the nightclubs on Delaware Avenue ever did, and they will be drinking free alcohol. This can only mean if you give the green light for this development to move forward, the negative impact that we experienced prior to 2002 will be exponentially worse. In preparation for today, I looked at each of the special district controls in the Zoning Code, and I found something interesting: Lots of neighborhoods have specific zoning that addresses the problems and issues that are unique to the neighborhood, just like 1624. 190 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation I saw special district controls for Old City, Rittenhouse Row, South Street and Headhouse Square, Chinatown, East Falls, Manayunk. In all, I counted at least ten special district controls for neighborhoods in the city. Most of this legislation has a similar introduction. " These laws also aim to preserve the historic quality of neighborhoods, protect cultural amenities, and enhance the esthetics of the places in which people live. In other words, they serve to protect the fabric of the communities. To accomplish these goals, the special district control laws limit everything from drug stores and grocery 191 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation stores to delis, nail salons and tanning salons, dry cleaners, and shoe shops. Why? " And I have nothing against these types of businesses; I'm simply quoting from the laws that City Council has already passed, and I'm very much in favor of protecting the historic quality of a neighborhood. My point to you today is that the North Delaware Avenue special district control, 1624, is in place to protect the neighborhood from something so much more grave than the way the neighborhood looks; that control is the only piece of legislation, the only one in the Zoning Code, that specifically says it seeks to protect residents from crime, murders and shootings, public intoxation, and vandalism. It's in the 192 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation statute. It's the only one that identifies loss of life as one of the reasons that it is in place. If you plan to keep intact the special district controls that protect neighborhoods from too many nail salons, please keep intact the special district control that protects my neighborhood from violent, drunken behavior. 1624 is a real statute, serves a real purpose. Councilman Ramos wants you to rush to undo our protection. Rushing is not good public policy. I beg of you, please do not undo this zoning protection. It is a law borne of experience, and it's an experience that we don't want to repeat. Please, I ask you, vote in favor of Councilman DiCicco's buffer. We need it here in Fishtown. And thank you very much for letting me speak today. )
Okay. Hello. My name is Jennifer Lewis. I am the president of the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association. So I thank you, Madam President and members of the committee, for this opportunity to speak. We are members of the Delaware River -- and I actually have copies of this testimony here too if someone wants it. We are members of the Delaware River Neighborhood Alliance and the North Delaware Avenue Unity Coalition. With the proximity of SugarHouse Casino being located half within Northern Liberties and half within Fishtown, I am here today with you with my fellow civic association coalition members to 194 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation oppose the SugarHouse site location; and in specific, the two bills before you today that have been introduced by Councilman Ramos. The NLNA is a 30-year-old civic association for the Northern Liberties neighborhoods. The NLNA represents a community that stretches from the Delaware riverfront to Sixth Street and from Callowhill Street to Girard Avenue. Our neighborhood has seen tremendous increase in population since 2000, and it's projected to more than double to over 9,000 people by 2009. We've embraced positive development and we have supported all manner of commercial proposals, including entertainment and liquor uses. In my capacity as president of the NLNA, I represent people who have varied opinions on casino development in the city. Some are very much against casino development anywhere in 195 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation the city and in the state, while others are very pro-casino for entertainment or job opportunities, and many are somewhere in between. But the message that has been clearly heard since the first mention of casinos being sited near our community was that the majority of our neighbors do not want to live next to a casino. As a community, we have maintained a consistent, strong majority that says that this location of SugarHouse Casino is wrong. Residents, even those who feel the casinos are a net benefit, do not wish to live next to a casino; and even more importantly, they do not want to raise a family next to a casino. Over the past few years, we have seen an increase in families with young children who continue to stay in the neighborhood after their children reach school ages. Casinos will 196 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation disrupt and destroy this diversity and sense of community that we have built over the years in our neighborhood. Hence, I am also here to represent the often-overlooked fact of opposition to Councilman Ramos's bills, that of parents with young children who are at home and are unable to attend a lot of these meetings or events. In addition to being the president of the NLNA, I am a mother. I have a two-year-old son and another child on the way. There are arguments for and against casinos, but the one I hold on to is just this: How do you raise a family in the shadow of a casino? How do you raise a family in the shadow of a casino? Families do not want to hear their young children are being hit by increased traffic that will inevitably spill into the neighborhood. Families do not want to fear that their children will be affected by nuisance 197 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation establishments that will inevitably spring up all around the casino. Families do not want to fear the increased crime that casinos will bring. These are 24-hour gambling and entertainment complexes, each with up to 5,000 slot machines, a half a dozen new liquor licenses, and 4,000 parking spots. The increased crime, drunkenness, and addiction that casino gambling will bring into our neighborhoods is unacceptable. It is for that reason that we support a 1500-foot buffer between casinos and residential neighborhoods. This is a reasonable standard that would not remove casinos from the city, not take away jobs, not take away tax dollars, but would push them from being immediately close to neighborhoods and families.
We all know that the process by which casinos have come was broken. 198 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation There was no meaningful public input, which is why there is such a major resistance remaining to these poorly chosen sites. We are, therefore, asking that you assist us by stopping the Ramos bills here and now and fully supporting and all reasonable minimal standards on casino development proposed by Councilman DiCicco. I know the decision before you is difficult. Jobs and tax dollars are critical, but at what cost? Help us protect our children, families, and communities. We are the people who will be here in the long term, and we need your support. Thank you.
Good afternoon. Please identify yourself for the record. 199 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation
Good afternoon, President Verna and gentlemen of the Council. My name is Tully Speaker. I am a four-time president of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association and a continuing member of the board. I an here today to speak to several points. First, in March, the Logan Square Neighborhood Association was contacted by the coalition of which you have heard many times. The coalition asked that Logan Square support its position. The board heard the arguments for and against, the board listened to those, deliberated, and voted unanimously to join the coalition in its opposition to the development of casinos as proposed and to include the distance limit, which has been alluded to a number of times. Secondly, Fredrick Murphy, Fredrick Murphy of Temple University, who is a members of the Center City 200 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Neighborhood Association, will later today testify before you, speaking to the economic impact of the casino and their developments. He will say that, no doubt, building a casino, as in the building of any large building, generates a large number of jobs in the construction trades, but his analysis of the economics goes beyond that and points out in the 16-page document, which he provided me a copy of, points out that in the long run, once the construction is over, the casinos represent a net loss to the city and to the state. He has a very compelling argument; he will tell you about that. I have read it, I feel it is compelling, and I recommend it to you. And while that is a large document and a complex one, I noticed also in Monday's Wall Street Journal, on Page B5, a less-than-one6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation article summarising the economic impact of casinos across the country as they have evolved from -- initially from Las Vegas to the states in which they 6 are now legalized. 7 The argument in this article 8 is very simple: Where does the money 9 come from, and where does the money go? 10 And the summary of this 11 article, which I will make available to 12 you in a number of photocopies, the 13 summary of it is that the money does 14 not balance the cost to the city, to the state; the money available through taxes simply does not balance the cost to the city and state. It is not a question of emotion; it is a question simply of business, it is a simply business question. Casinos do not make money for the city or the state, and the more casinos there are, the less the benefits accrue from them. Thank you for your attention. 202 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation
Good afternoon. Thank you. My name is Paul Boni. I'm an attorney. I live in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. I'm also a member of the Society Hill Civic Association, which is a founding member along with other neighborhood 15 associations in the DRNA, which is the 16 Delaware River Neighborhood Alliance. 17 I'm also outside counsel to Casino-Free 18 Philadelphia. 19 So with all of those hats, I 20 guess I'll just speak for myself, 21 although I think all of those entities 22 would probably agree with what I'm 23 saying. 24 It's seemed like a very long time, but it's only been about five 203 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation months ever since we've gotten away from the divide-and-conquer, which has been the state's strategy. We've learned so much. We've spoken to national experts and we've learned more about this industry than we -- than we care to. I hope that all of the members of the Rules Committee can be here for the next panel, where we will have two professors speaking about the economic impact from their own experience, their own study, research, and analysis about convenience gambling in urban settings. And what they have explained to us, and what they will explain to you, is that proximity matters. We have all decided -- the city has decided that a standard needs to be set and that a 1500-foot buffer is supported by 95 percent of Philadelphians; we know these things. We've also learned how to unify ourselves and our groups, our 204 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation coalitions, and how to create a political movement and a political mandate. You have supported us each and every step of the way; and for that, we are grateful. But our job is not finished. Today, we can begin to finish our work. What has changed in the past five months? I think a lot has changed, and it's important to recognize that. We now realized fully what the state has done to us. We realize the terrible politics that has brought us Act 71. We realize the terrible process that was employed by the Gaming Control Board. And we realize the terrible implication of putting these massive slot parlors within walking distance of hundreds of thousands of rowhome residents. And I fear that we might actually not realize that terrible implication and that it may be worse 205 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation than we all think. Back when the CED was enacted by this City Council, we did not know these things. Even the political climate in Harrisburg was different; it has now changed. About one third of the state legislature has changed over due to the pay raise. Our most powerful state senator does not have the power he once had. Our governor is now scared and desperate about casinos in Philadelphia. We have an expose in Philadelphia Magazine. We have a definitive article in the Wall Street Journal. We know better now. This is not just some deal that will bring some extra traffic to some neighborhoods. We now know that this is a bad economic deal for the City of Philadelphia, and that because of these casinos at these locations, we will lose jobs, and we will lose tax revenue. That's what the next panel 206 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation will explain, and we hope you can be here to hear that. For the longest time, we have all blamed Harrisburg: They're the ones that delivered this to our doorstep. But now the responsibility is here, in our City Hall. You are now being asked not by our District Councilperson, who knows more about this issue than anyone in City Council but by a lame-duck at-large Councilman to enact by-right zoning for SugarHouse. The least we could do is ask SugarHouse to go to the Zoning Board for a variance. We can't blame that issue on Harrisburg; that's Philadelphia's issue. We have now seen a process play itself out at the Planning Commission that was so secretive, it's embarrassing that it takes place in our city.
And for not standing up to it, many have asked the executive director 207 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation to resign. The process had -- the public -- excuse me. The public had less than hours' notice of the 6 Planning Commission hearing at which 7 SugarHouse presented. Even at the 8 hearing, we were not provided with a 9 copy of the plans. 10 That was the lack of meaning. 11 I mean, you know, they say you're 12 entitled to public input. We're 13 entitled to more than public input; 14 we're entitled to meaningful 15 opportunity to provide public input. 16 And still, this Planning 17 Commission voted unanimously and 18 against the law, by the way, to 19 transmit the plans to the City Council. 20 That was not Harrisburg's fault. 21 So we can't blame Harrisburg 22 for the choices that we have on this 23 day. The responsibility is here, in 24 our city, but so is the opportunities. And as we're here today 208 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation together, we can do good. Why is today the day to take a stand? I have some reasons. Because over the past five months, we've learned just how much the state is trying to victimize us and you. We've learned that what might actually appeared then to have been innocuous and ugly projects are actually quite damaging to our economy, and now we have the opportunity to do something about it. The most important thing that you can do today in this intensely political debate that's playing itself out from here to Harrisburg is to send a message. Today, that is your role. The message should have two parts. First, send a message that you stand with the people by unanimously voting the 1500-foot buffer out of committee either now or as soon as you can. Let us pass that legislation and make it law. 209 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Second, send a message that you are not assisting those who seek to damage our city, our neighborhoods, our people. And you can do that by unanimously deciding not to vote the Ramos bills out of committee today or ever. If the Governor wants to change the law on you, let him try. If the members of the Supreme Court want to force this upon us, let them try. You can do this. We want you to do this. We will carry on the fight ourselves in the courthouse and in the state house. We simply need your support. This is not a done deal, not at these locations. For ourselves, our families, and our neighborhoods, we will never stop fighting, whatever it takes. Thank you.
Than k you. 210 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation (Applause.) (Cheers.) (Standing ovation.)
Than k you very much. Our next witnesses? MR. McPHERSON: The panel consists of Jeff Rush, Robert Goodman, Fred Murphy. (Witnesses come forward.)
Good afternoon. Are you going to testify, sir? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes.
Who's testifying, all of you? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes.
Fine . Thank you. Please identify yourself for the record.
Good afternoon, Madam President and members of the Rules Committee, Councilman DiCicco. My name is Jeff Rush. I am a 211 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation three-term president and current president of Queen Village Neighborhood Association. I am here today representing the Delaware River Neighborhood Alliance, and it is on their behalf that I speak today. Who is the DRNA? It is a -- an alliance of civics who 10 individually went back to their boards 11 and communities for support in this 12 alliance and, as such, are speaking for 13 residents and business owners from 14 South Philadelphia through Fishtown, 15 across Center City to Logan Square. 16 Behind me, you can see 17 membership of DRNA. They're here 18 today. 19 We are united in opposition to 20 the siting of casinos in our 21 neighborhoods. We are not anti-casino, 22 and that is not the message that I'm 23 here to deliver today. We understand 24 that there are economic benefits, at least as suggested by the people who 212 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation support casino development. Rather, we are here to examine an issue of significance, precedence, consistency, and fairness, which is this: Last week the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit objecting to the casino sitings filed by Society Hill Civic Association, Queen Village Neighborhood Association, Pennsport Civic Association and Whitman Council, four long-established civics representing thousands of taxpaying residents and business owners in the 1st District. Without law or logic, the court ruled that we had no 17 standing, and refused to hear our arguments. Now, Councilman Ramos, with all respect, has introduced Bills 56 and 58 asking for favorable zoning for the proposed SugarHouse Casino. I voted in the May primary. When I went into the voting booth, I saw two names running for 1st District 213 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Council and voted for Councilman DiCicco. I did not see Councilman Ramos's name in the place where the 1st District vote was to be taken. Councilman Ramos does not represent --
Uh, so am I, sir. With all respect, Councilman Ramos does not represent the 1st District and very clearly does not represent the interests of the 250,000 residents living, working, and paying taxes in the 1st District. This past spring, Council took the unprecedented and courageous action of passing bills three times unanimously to reaffirm our city's right to home rule. Collectively you took the first step to usher in a new 214 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation year of empowerment. Councilman Ramos's bills are a part of an unrelenting and systemic erosion of your power and our rights. The process that brought the gaming industry two blocks from our neighborhoods was secretive and unconstitutional. And, frankly, Councilman Ramos's bills are part and parcel of that same repressive dynamic. Are we a city of the first class or a colony of the state? All members of the Rules Committee should refuse to send Bills 56 and 58 to the floor of Council now and in September. Further, Council should ensure passage of Councilman DiCicco's bill, which would prevent casinos from being located within 1500 feet of our neighborhoods. Once again, we ask Council to do the right thing. You have the opportunity to provide the necessary leadership to authenticate a process 215 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation for economic development which does not threaten to cause great harm to our neighborhoods of the river wards or, in fact, any neighborhood in the great City of Philadelphia. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Thank you, Madam President. For the kind gentleman that just gave his presentation that I respect, I respect all the opinions of every single person that has testified 216 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation here this morning. I've been here since the very, very, very beginning. I just want to remind him he should have noted, if he wanted to be totally honest, that I voted three times -- not once, not twice, but thrice against, against that Foxwoods site, voted for the two other relevant bills, and I still haven't voted on this. So, you know, and I believe that the law says that I don't leave here till January. And it is obviously by this hearing that this Councilman is very much engaged in this process and will continue to be engaged in this process. And I do, in fact, respect by the way I have voted as well to the concerns that you gentlemen have brought up here and the fine people that have come before you here this morning. Thank you. 217 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation
I also represent people that are now expressing, expressing support for that site. My position has always been not to give keys. And my good Councilman DiCicco -- he was my councilman until just a few years ago know -- knows that my position has been very clear. As long as there are outstanding community issues surrounding casinos, no one should be given the keys to operate no casinos. I have not budged from that position. Well, you know, hey. It's very clear where I stand at.
Than k you. Our next witness, please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony. PROFESSOR GOODMAN: Thank you 218 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation and good afternoon.
Good afternoon. PROFESSOR GOODMAN: My name is Robert Goodman and I'm here from Amherst, Massachusetts, where I'm a professor at Hampshire College, where I teach economic development, urban planning, and environmental design. I was the director of a two-year study funded by the Ford Foundation, conducted at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, that looked at gambling throughout the United States, looking at what the costs and benefits of that expansion were. And so we focus particularly on economic issues. And when we looked at even social issues, we also -- we always looked at what the economic component of that was. I was also the director of the United States Gambling Research 219 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Institute, and I helped both senators, Senator Richard Luger, the Republican from Indiana, and the late Senator Paul Simon, Democrat from Illinois, to set up the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. So I'd like to, this morning, talk about some of the research findings, but I would particularly like to focus on locational issues. There have been broad impacts of gambling that I could talk about, and I will site some reference to that, but I'd like to, if I can, focus on the issue at hand, which has to do with the location of a casino 200 feet from a residential neighborhood. And I'd also like to add that I don't have a moral issue with gambling. I gamble myself, I've played in poker tournaments. I'm not as good as I'd like to be, but I've done pretty well at times. And I -- I have to comment -- 220 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation I can't help but commenting. I believe it was the counsel that I heard this morning from Foxwoods Casinos that said that this City Council was tilting at windmills, if I had that correctly, that this is a game that's all over, and why are you bothering, I don't even know why you're having this hearing. ) PROFESSOR GOODMAN: You can either take that statement by the counsel as a condemnation or praise; I'll leave it up to you to make your own decision about that. I also -- I noticed that the union people have left, and I wish they 221 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation hadn't because I want to say that I come from a union family, and I probably wouldn't have gone to college if both of my parents didn't have union jobs. So jobs is a very important issue. And, in fact, the research I'm engaged in now has to do with the automotive industry and the problems of automobile jobs both going south and leaving the country altogether. So I'm very well aware of the issues that people in unions face and workers in general face. And, clearly, a community like this being offered the number of jobs in this casino is something that has to be taken quite seriously. On the other hand, I think one has to look at the other side of it: What does -- how does it impact other jobs? The one basic thing we've found in our research is that there are 222 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation two different types of gambling businesses. " That's what happens in Las Vegas: People come to Las Vegas on average for about four days, not only spend their money in the casinos but in all sorts of other activities, and so it's a major benefit there. In fact, in the State of Nevada, 40 percent of the budget for the State of Nevada comes out of gambling and gambling-related businesses. " It's basically gambling directed to local people. And what you hope is that a number of local people will gamble more. And the argument that I've heard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 223 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation and even in other states is that all of your gambling dollars are going down to Atlantic City and other places. If you could only keep them here, everything's going to be a lot better: You would be able to use that money for schools and a host of other things that are very important to you. That's not how it works, and so I want to make that clear.
This is not a static phenomenon where there's a group of people, you know, thousands of people who get on buses or in cars, go down to Atlantic City, come back to Philadelphia and other parts of Pennsylvania. What will happen with a casino here is that a large group of those people that are gambling in places like Atlantic City will remain in Philadelphia, they will gamble here. At the same time, large numbers of people who either gambled very little or didn't gamble at all will now begin 224 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation to gamble. And so you now have a larger group of people in the Philadelphia area that will gamble. What happens? Well, you've heard, I'm sure, many times the whole issue of problem gambling. We were not -- it's a tragic circumstance for many people, and I don't want to belittle that. On the other hand, we were interested in the economic costs of that, so what we looked at is what happens not to the gambler but to the non-gambler as a result of the person who gets in trouble with their gambling? The situation is very similar to what happens with smoking. If you recall, the attorneys general of most of the states in the United States threatened to sue the tobacco company. The tobacco company, worried that they might not win that case in court, settled that case for, if I have my 225 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation numbers correct -- and I haven't looked at it lately, but it's roughly a $365 billion settlement over a 25-year period. Now, the reason they settled was because these costs were not just to the smokers but to other people in a city and state that have to pay for the problems created by the smokers. In the case of smokers, it's basically health-care costs. In the case of problem gamblers, it's not just health-care costs, it's not just the cost of counseling people. The typical problem gambler doesn't pay his or her debts. They tend to go bankrupt. They tend -- if you have a contract with a problem gambler, you might not get paid. They tend to embezzle money at work, they tend to write bad checks, they tend to commit outright robbery, fraud on their credit cards, on their insurance, a whole host of other things. 226 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation So now you have money being lost to other people, and you're picking up the criminal justice cost of the problem gambler. We calculated, based on a number of studies which have been confirmed since we did this research, that the average cost of a problem gambler to a state per year is $13,200. Now, you come back and say, Well, not that many people are problem-gamblers. The gambling industry says it's somewhere between and percent of the adult population. We've seen figures higher than that. The highest we've seen is in Louisiana -- 7 percent of the adult population. Now, we've also seen it in states that have done studies. How much more problem gambling are you going to have? The argument for the casinos is that you already have these problem gamblers, so why -- what 227 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation difference does it make? They're going to gamble in Atlantic City or somewhere else; we might as well get the revenue, we're going to have to pay for the costs anyway. That's not what happens. The number of problem gamblers will increase. I'm not the only one saying that. Every researcher who's looked at it says it. Even the gambling industry's researchers say that. The only argument they have is, they say it's not as high as some other people claim. But there is a direct correlation between the amount of gambling that's available and the amount of problem gamblers you're going to have and the costs to non-gamblers, the costs to citizens in the state and in the city. How does that refer back to location? How does this refer back to the idea of having a casino within 200 228 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation feet of a community? Well, the answer I suggest is quite obvious.
The closer you look -- every study shows this. The closer you locate a casino to a population, the more problem gamblers you will have. And I will give you very long odds on any bet you want to take that the closer you locate a casino to people, the more gambling you'll have. Now, there's -- this has been a controversial thing in other parts of country, and other legislators, other politicians have faced this issue. When gambling was introduced in Iowa and other states, the same issue came up, we don't want it, it was a clear message to the casino industry. We don't want it near residential neighborhoods. Where did they put the casinos? They put them on boats. That was the reason they put them on boats, to keep them away from residential communities. The casinos agreed to it. 229 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Now, I'm not suggesting you put a casino on a boat here on your river, but that is an option; it's been done all over the country. Now, there are other options, and I am sure that if you give the casinos -- if you turn it down, they will find other places to locate it, and you will get the jobs, and you will get the revenues. So you're actually right now -- and I want to emphasize this point. You're in the strongest position you will ever be in. This City Council will never be in a stronger position once this casino is built. And the reason I say that is, the casino wants your approval. And they will make a lot of money and they're willing to spend a lot of money. I've seen communities get much better deals in terms of the revenue and other things than I've ever heard here in Philadelphia. So I can 230 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation guarantee you they will find a way to put a casino at least 1500 feet or more. So I -- so take that 1500-foot figure. And I said to myself, you know, we've been researching casinos all over the country. Is there anyplace that we've seen where there are casinos within 200 feet of a community, a residential community? I haven't seen it. And I was -- I was curious. Just this week I said, well, maybe -- you know, I know they put it in town in Detroit, and I said, they legalized three casinos in Detroit, and maybe that's a city that had it. So I called up people at Wayne State in Detroit, I spoke to people in the City Planning Department. I said, Could you tell me about where your -- they have three casinos. Where are they located? Where's the closest to a residential community? They said the 231 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation closest one was a half a mile away; they did not want it near a residential community. So you're experimenting here in a way that I've never seen a city experiment. If you put casinos within 200 feet, you will have the best experiment in the country for how it could impact a community. No other city has what you have. Detroit doesn't have it and most other cities. The only places you'll go is where there's tourists there. You'll go to Nevada and see it. So that's something you need to consider, the location. The other question -- there are a number of questions that come up that I think is important. One of the -- one of the issues I've heard here is that money will go to schools. Well, we've seen that happen in other parts of country. In fact, we saw a document that was a confidential 232 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation document from the casino industry. And one of the things they said in terms of promoting casinos and how you get a casino into a community is, one of the first things you do is, you go to the education people, and you argue that if we have gambling, they will get more money. And so I went and I talked to education people, and I said, Well, now you've had it in your community, what do you think? Let me give you some examples. " I said why? " I don't know what you're getting here as a percentage of your budget.
I would have to guess it's 233 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation probably going to be small, but you could tell me about it 'cause you know it better than I do. Here's the other thing that will happen in the future. And, again, this is something that was told to me by people in education departments. After they had the casinos, after they had money coming to education from gambling dollars, it was very hard for them to pass bond issues, it was very hard for them to increase appropriations at the state houses for education. Why? Because legislators would go back and say, You now have a dedicated stream of money out of gambling. We have other places that we need to put this money -- prisons, other things. So this is the kind of future you're likely to see. I'd like to say one other thing, and this is in hindsight, and I 234 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation think -- you know, I'm -- I want to reinforce this point. Even though we've seen some really negative impacts, you have a situation here where you've been dealt a bad hand, and I realize this. This is not something you initiated; this is something the state initiated. And in poker, it's a little bit -- if you're playing Texas Hold 'Em, it's a little bit about getting, you know, two high pair, and you think you're going to get a full house, and you're betting into this thing. And all of a sudden, you get busted. You don't have a full house, but you still have two high pair. And that's the situation I think you're in: You've got a good hand right now; you'll never have a better hand. You'll get from the casinos what you want to get now. Once they're in place, it's not going to happen. I guarantee it. I can tell 235 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation you places all over the country where it's changed. So whether you like gambling or not, whether you think it's being forced down your throat or not, you've got a good hand now, and I suggest that you play it. I want to end on one note in terms of what the future is likely to bring. In the research we did, we saw the highest amount ever in the history of the states we investigated -- and we looked at all of the states -- ever spent for lobbying by any single industry than was paid for by the gambling industry. No industry came close. Once this is in place, you will see a lot of gambling dollars, lobbying dollars, in the state house. You will see a revolving door of legislators moving between gambling and political positions. That's happened in those states. 236 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation So I only suggest that you be very careful and that you do the best you can with what you've got. I thank you very much.
Than k you very much. Your testimony was very interesting. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you very much. A couple of questions on the clarity of the points that you made. You said that no industry has spent as much money on lobbyists as the gambling industry; does this exclude the NRA? PROFESSOR GOODMAN: Yes, it does. The NRA doesn't come into a state and say, We'd like to set up, you know, a huge gun club in the middle of your city and lobby for that. 237 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation And so what we're looking at is, these industries -- here's the basic idea -- these are monopoly industries. They're state-sanctioned monopolies; no one can compete with them once they have these licenses. Let me give you an example of what happened in the State of Ohio, which I think is very telling. In the State of Ohio, the legislature did exactly the opposite of what the legislature in Pennsylvania did. They rejected gambling, but here's why. The people that lined up against it -- the State Movie Theater Association, the State Restaurant Association, the State Bar Association -- not the lawyers but the people who represent the drinking establishments -- the State Chamber of Commerce. Now in this town, I believe the Chamber of Commerce is in favor of it; this is one of the few places I've ever seen the Chamber of Commerce -- 238 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Now, the reason they were against it -- the movie theaters, the restaurants, et cetera -- they realized that when you have convenience gambling, it's a zero sum game. People only have a certain amount of money to spend on their discretionary activities. If it's not going to spent in a restaurant or a movie theater or a sports event or whatever, it's going into the gambling industry, and so you're just shifting these dollars around. And that's why they rejected it in Ohio. The other thing that I'd like to mention that I haven't mentioned before is about crime. I looked at -- I looked at two cities, because in the research one of the cities we looked at before was East St. Louis. I don't know if you're familiar with East St. Louis; it's a very poor city. In East St. Louis, gambling 239 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation was going to be a panacea. All of the people -- the legislators, the gambling industry -- told them it would turn the city around. So I said, Let me see what actually happened. I looked at East St. Louis and compared it to Philadelphia, just some statistics on crime. You may be familiar with this. I know that murders have increased here recently and I know that's been a problem, but over the last six years, 2000 to 2005, the crime rate has actually gone down in Philadelphia on most activities. I mean, I actually have the figures here. In East St. Louis, it's just the opposite. I mean, it's extraordinary, just comparing the two, what the differences were. I'll just -- if you'll give me one moment, I'd just like to give you a couple of figures on what's happened. I won't bore you, I promise, with a lot of 240 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation statistics. But let me just -- this is East St. Louis; this was the poster boy for casinos. Things were supposed to change -- more revenues, jobs, crime was supposed to go down, et cetera. Robberies in the last six years have gone up 42 percent; assaults, 7 percent; thefts, 8 percent; arson, 65 percent. All of those categories in Philadelphia, over the last six years, have gone down. Robberies, down 4 percent; assaults, down 9 percent; burglaries, down 9 percent; thefts, down percent, et cetera. 18 Now, I said before that this 19 would be a grand experiment, this will be an experiment. You put casinos within 200 feet of a residential community and then come back in six years and look at those figures. I hope if you do it, you don't wind up in the same situation that East St. Louis 241 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation has wound up in. And I say this because you have something that East St.
Louis didn't have: You have their experience, you have the experience of communities all over this country. And I suggest, before you go ahead, you benefit from those experiences. )
I would like to lean on your expertise one more time. PROFESSOR GOODMAN: Sure.
If you could pick one or two lessons that could, or should, be learned from Atlantic City, what would it be? PROFESSOR GOODMAN: From East St. Louis?
Atlantic City. PROFESSOR GOODMAN: Oh, I'm sorry. Atlantic City. Well, bear with me a minute; I 242 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation want to tell you a little bit about Atlantic City. The one lesson overall is that the only constant -- the only things that stay the same is that things will change.
Things will...? PROFESSOR GOODMAN: Change. That the regulations will change, the demands made on gambling will change. The history of gambling is that when you introduce a gambling venture, the revenues go up. We went back to the 1930s, actually, and looked at this over a very long period of time, looking at the lotteries and the casinos. Revenues go up and then they drop. Look at what happens to lotteries as one example, but I can point it out to casinos as well. The revenues go up, and then you can't keep people gambling at the same level. The people you can keep gambling are the 243 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation problem gamblers. It turns out, all of the research that's been done, anywhere from to 55 percent of revenues in a 6 casino come from problem gamblers. 7 They're a small percentage of the 8 population, but they gamble a lot of 9 money. The casinos need them. Their 10 profits are dependent on them. 11 That's why they want to locate 12 in areas where there are a lot of 13 people. The more you can get people to 14 gamble, the more problem gamblers 15 you'll have. 16 Now, they'll throw a lot of 17 money at addiction studies, they'll 18 throw a lot of money at counseling, at 19 Gamblers Anonymous, all of that, but 20 they need those people to keep 21 gambling. 22 Now, in Atlantic City, here's 23 what happened, and this is just four 24 years after they opened casinos in 25 Atlantic City. 244 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation They lost one third of their retail businesses. They lost 40 percent of their restaurants, gone. Now, how can a restaurant in Philadelphia compete with a restaurant at a casino? The casinos make their money on gambling; they don't make their money on restaurants. They'll comp you, they'll give you -- if you gamble enough, you'll get free meals, you'll get, you know, discounted liquor. What happened in Louisiana, by the way -- and here's another lesson. You will have -- and I predict this will happen to you 'cause it's happened in other states. You will have the restaurant people, the bar people coming back to you and saying, Look, we can't compete; would you please let us have slot machines at the restaurants? Will you please -- (Laughter.) PROFESSOR GOODMAN: Now, it's 245 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation not funny. It happened. Go to Louisiana. Now the governor of Louisiana is in federal prison right now, but it -- because he was giving out licenses a little too liberally for a certain amount of money. But what happened in Louisiana, in addition to legalizing ten casinos, the restaurant people came and said, We can't compete. So what did they do? They legalized slot machines at the restaurants. The bars came in and said, We can't compete. They legalized slot machines at the bars. Not only did they come in, the truck stops, you know, where people get out and have a cup of coffee and sometimes a meal, buy gasoline? They said, We can't compete. They have slot machines at truck stops in Louisiana. Louisiana has the highest rate of problem gambling in the country, 246 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation percent of the adult population. And the reason they have it is because they saturated the state with gambling enterprises. So the one lesson is: Be very careful, minimize it as much as you can, and try to keep control of it. Write into the legislation that they're not going to be able to change the takeout rate, for example.
Change the...? PROFESSOR GOODMAN: Takeout rate. That's how much your city gets and the state gets.
Oh, okay. PROFESSOR GOODMAN: Here's what happened to race tracks. This is all over the country. Cities and states used to depend on race tracks for revenues. The attendance at race tracks has gone down. The race tracks go back to the legislatures and say, 247 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Look, our revenues go down, but we've got a lot of people working for us. Race tracks, in my state, pay that much to the state. In fact, the race tracks are asking the state to subsidize the maintenance of the race tracks. So the dynamic changes -- you will have a whole different political constituency. You'll now have people working in these industries. If the takeout goes down, if the revenues don't come in, they're going to -- the takeout to them; that is, to the casino, the profit. They're going to come and say, Well, we'd like to keep these people working, but if you don't reduce your takeout, we're going to have to fire some people. So be careful.
Thank you for your testimony. ) PROFESSOR MURPHY: Good 248 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation afternoon. I'm Fred Murphy. I'm a professor at the Business School the Temple University, and I'm here to give you an assessment of the economic impact of the casino. Okay? And I was asked by the casino people to look at how -- really assess the economic consequences. And here's my main point: Casinos are really a job killer, and their direct tax benefit is really a budget-busting loss for the city. That's my conclusion. And so before you place a casino too close to a neighborhood, let's be sure we know that there's anything beneficial from having these things in the city in the first place. Now, why can I say this? I have had 30 years' experience in economic policy analysis. I ran the forecasting system to the Department of Energy when the energy legislation was going through 249 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation dealing with the billions of dollars relating to oil gas and electric utilities. I analyzed the deepening of the channel for Steve Van Dyke, who was the first head of PICA. And I was also an adviser for the Tax Reform Commission, and you know the good job that they did on coming up with a plan for tax reform. I've spent over 160 hours doing this. I'm also the son of a union carpenter, grandson of a carpenter, and great-grandson of a carpenter. So I know the construction business. I did jobs with my father and grandfather. Okay? Why the job losses? 6 cents of every dollar lost to the casinos stays in Philadelphia; the rest goes away. The profits go to Chicago, okay? And now, why does the money go 250 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation out? It's very simple. We all know who the Brookings Institute is; they're one of the most respected economic research outfits in the country. They studied the behavior of people in recreation spending. And what they showed is that people have a fixed recreation budget. And, just like Bob said, any money spent in the casinos gets taken away from other businesses. Secondly, Atlantic City gamblers will continue to go to Atlantic City for the table games. So we will gain some outside revenue. There will be a few people coming in from the suburbs, and some people will play the slots in Philadelphia rather than take the buses to Atlantic City. So -- and the numbers I show you, I presume that 35 percent of the revenue coming into the Philadelphia casinos is new revenue, okay? So the profits go to Chicago 251 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation and the Philadelphia suburbs. Now, to see what happens to these revenues, let's consider three couples. The first one in Fishtown, another one in Abington, and another one in Norristown. The Fishtown couple, you know, if they go to a casino on a Friday night, they've got not only money budgets, but they've got time budgets. You can't get a pizza at Taconelli's at the same time you're playing the slots, okay? They don't go to the Standard Tap. And from the name of this, I have to go there at some point. That sounds like a good place to go. And the North Bowl Lounge and Lanes, you know, these are the businesses that get hurt. This is what Bob was talking about, okay? Now, the people who own these establishments, they're in -- they're Philadelphians and they're doing serious business in the city here. The 252 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation owners of SugarHouse are out in the burbs. Now, let's consider the Norristown couple. Norristown's out here, it's beyond the ten-mile limit. And if we look at the Foxwoods report -- because there is no 9 SugarHouse report; there's one paragraph of numbers and some testimony they gave a while ago, and those numbers are basically silly. I can explain later, okay? Econsult says that one third of the trips by people outside of ten miles from the Ground Zero will do side trips -- they call "ancillary spending" is the big word for that -- in the city, okay?
So they expect each patron, each person to drop 60 bucks, 120 for the couple, 75 bucks on one third of their trips in places like the Mummers Museum. That's what they use in their report, okay? 253 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Add that up. 120 plus 150 add up to 270 bucks, okay? 270 bucks. The median household income in Norristown is 39,000. Can they afford that? No way. That -- you know, and this one-third rule is like -- one third of us who live in Center City go to Valley Forge when we go out to King of Prussia Mall, okay? That makes a lot of sense, okay? Let's look at the Abington couple. They're convenience gamblers. Philadelphia Park is closer. The city is bracketed by convenience casinos from the north and south, okay? And, now, here's where they would go. They would go to Philadelphia Park rather than come down here, okay? By the same token, someone out in King of Prussia, they got the choice really of the Schuylkill Expressway, which is a parking lot, or to the Pennsylvania Turnpike to 254 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Philadelphia Park, okay? So really, here's the key point: Almost all visitors to SugarHouse are city people. There's no 6 new money -- or I should say almost no 7 new money, because some of 'em will have gone to Las Vegas, but, as Bob points out, the gambling rate doubles when you're much closer, okay? Bad deal. Okay? So I did some calculations based on the numbers in the econsult report. My calculations are: The neighborhoods lose 5424 jobs. Those are jobs from places like Taconelli's, Marra's, Termini's Bakery. And if you don't believe me, think about what happened when Home Depot built its store in South Philly. What happened to those construction businesses along Washington Avenue? A lot of them left. Center City Lumber has left; I know that because I do carpentry. Twelfth Street Lumber is 255 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation gone, okay? Or what was it -- Tenth or Eleventh Street, whatever it was called, okay? So the claim is, the casinos add 1502 jobs; this is the Foxwoods numbers that are verifiable. And, by the way, this is a very good, well- documented study; it's the best economic-impact study I've seen done for any project in Philadelphia, okay? But the net city loss is 3922 jobs out of the city, of which 5400 from the neighborhoods, okay? Why the losses? You know, how can you talk about building a facility with all of these jobs being put in this one big building and the city loses jobs? The answer is very simple. This is from the econsult report. 3 jobs. Again, the -- and in their ancillary spending analysis, econsult gave me -- you know, gave the information. 7 jobs in the 256 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation recreation business outside of the casinos. So if I say every casino dollar costs 65 cents in recreational spending, and I'm giving -- I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that there is some added revenue. This is the job loss per million jobs, five-and-a-quarter jobs per million dollars spent in the casino. Bad deal, okay? Now, why -- so we've addressed the job issues. Let's look at the neighborhood issues. First, you're going to lose taxes in the neighborhoods. Not only is it jobs; it's wage taxes, it's business privileges taxes, it's real-estate taxes. We're talking serious money here. And, you know, the people who lose jobs in the neighborhood businesses, they don't pay wage taxes. Closed businesses mean vacant 257 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation stores in neighborhoods, and we got a lot of neighborhoods on the edge here. So we got close -- we'll lose some stores. What's that do? You know what a vacant building does to a neighborhood. It's going to cause tax losses in the whole neighborhood. And then we've got increasing policing costs and increasing social costs. Bob detailed how deadly casinos are to some people's lives, okay? So proximity doubles the active addicts.
Now, heroin addicts, you know, drug addicts get supplied by, you know, this underground network. Gambling addicts need officially-sanctioned big buildings with a lot of expensive equipment, okay? Okay? They are more likely -- you know, Bob said they commit more crimes, family problems, higher suicide rates. And the city pays the increased costs of social services. 258 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation So these are not free dollars. You're going to have extra expenses in the city because of this. Take -- you know, taking the budget nut that the casino says you'll get and subtracting off the expenses, this is the hole you get from casinos, almost $30 million in the city budget. Now, there are assumptions here. You know, I don't have a several-hundred-thousand-dollar budget or a research staff, so I took the total social costs and divided it between the city and state, okay? And we all know that an economic impact statement never includes the alternative -- the value of the alternative uses of those sites; it's all the big number. This is valuable land, and the only reason it's not developed is because they own it and won't let it be used for anything else, okay? ) 259 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation PROFESSOR MURPHY: Here's the hole. City Council has been, you know, has to go before PICA and have a balanced five-year plan. The five-year plan, you know, assumes that you get that revenue free and clear. Now, will you get any money from the state? Using the same econsult report, the state, from a 3,000-slot casino -- this is not the total state losses; this is one 3,000-slot casino. It loses 12,814 jobs, using the econsult report number. It loses 37 million in tax revenues and has higher social costs because some of the people come from the suburbs, okay? So the state will either have to keep more of the casino taxes to cover its losses -- and, by the way, I didn't mention the money from the lottery's going to go down as well. What do you think they're going to do? They're going to cut your take. That's 260 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation what they're going to do. Think of Richard Nixon and revenue-sharing. What happened to those revenue-sharing dollars? The feds took 'em back, right? This is what's going to happen to you here. So it's sucker money. Expect the -- and the other thing is that if you'll look at Phase 3, you know, that's another -- I forget, 60 million of extra construction that increases their profits by only one million. Do you think they're going to really do that? They're going to come back to you for cuts in the taxes to make this economic so they can, quote/unquote, generate more jobs. You're not -- you're not hearing the end of this. They're going to come back at you. You're in trouble on that one, okay? So what have I shown? More money out than in, jobs losses, broken city budget, okay? 261 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation So the key to the casino saying they're generating all of this economic activity -- two things. It's all new business; it's not all new business. Secondly, on one third of the trips from anyone living ten miles outside of Ground Zero, they're going to go to the museums and local restaurants, and you just heard Bob say how many businesses closed in Atlantic City because of those casinos. This is a fraud. And so you're dealing with a bad deal here, okay? Now, I can work -- I'm -- I'm available to work with any of your staffers to work through these numbers. I've been in the forecasting business 30 years, and I know that there are no 20 facts about the future. I've made a bunch of assumptions, but my assumptions about the new money and the, quote/unquote, ancillary spending passed the lab test; theirs don't, okay? 262 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation And so I can work with your staffers to really see what the economic impact of the casino is. Thank you. )
Than k you all so very much. I think your testimony has been very, very helpful. Thank you.
I thank you too for your testimony and your analysis, which indeed offers us an additional perspective. The $39 million hole you spoke about, is that over the life? PROFESSOR MURPHY: That's annual. That's your annual hole.
263 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Okay. (Laughter.)
Now -- (Applause.) PROFESSOR MURPHY: Now, if I were one of the casinos, if I were one of the casinos, I'd do the big lie and multiple by it by 5, okay? to make the number look really big. I gave you an annual number.
Secondly, have you ever had an opportunity to do this type of analysis as it relates to Convention Center? Some of the arguments you've presented, I must say, wasn't in government, but I clearly remember the angst that government was going through with the building of the first Convention Center, where there were job losses and there were business losses. And then you fast-forward X-number of years, and the city is at a different place with 264 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation regards to hospitality and tourism. Do you have a perspective on that? Have you ever had a chance to look at how the establishment of a convention center, or centers, then changed the -- all of the factors you presented in this analysis? PROFESSOR MURPHY: I have not looked at the Convention Center economic impacts statement. There's one major difference.
Please. PROFESSOR MURPHY: And that is that convention centers are designed to bring in new money from the outside.
Okay. PROFESSOR MURPHY: That's one very big difference. Now, whether it pays for itself is another question, and I can't testify to that.
265 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Our next witness? MR. McPHERSON: The next panel is Dolores Griffith, Wil Rojas, MaryAnne Warrington, Eric Rudy. (Witnesses come forward.)
Sure. Good afternoon, Council President Verna and members of Council. My name is Delores Griffith. I reside in the 1000 block of Palmer Street, which is on the river side of Fishtown. Not only do I live in Fishtown; I am employed there. I am 266 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation a 2nd-grade teacher at St. Laurentius School. I have been a community volunteer for the last years. My 6 work is involved in: Celebrate 7 Fishtown, Fishtown Neighbors 8 Association, past president of 9 St. Laurentius Ladies Guild, 10 St. Laurentius CYO board member, and 11 cheerleading coach. And just recently, 12 I added Fishtown Action to that list. 13 Last May, I was intensely 14 excited to be working on the Subcasino 15 Committee with the Fishtown Neighbors 16 Association. We were working on a 17 community benefits agreement with 18 SugarHouse. 19 As months passed, the tide of 20 the leadership of FNA turned, and it 21 joined the North Delaware Avenue Unity 22 Coalition; I was left out in the cold, 23 I had no voice. That's why I am a 24 founding member of Fishtown Action, 25 which now is the largest community 267 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation organization in Fishtown, with over 300 members. FACT is now corresponding with SugarHouse executives to make our community better and more attractive. We need employment for our neighborhood and an entertainment district for our waterfront. We do not want to look at an empty, vacant, rodent-infested lot for the next 11 years. Please take this testimony, my 12 voice, into consideration. 13 Thank you. 14 (Applause.) 15
Good 18 afternoon. Good afternoon, Madam 19 President and members of Council. 20 Thank you for this opportunity to speak 21 on this very important topic regarding 22 zoning of the SugarHouse Casino. 23 My name is MaryAnne 24 Warrington. I've been a lively resident 25 of Fishtown community, and I've resided 268 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation in my present home for 27 years. I live within a few blocks of the proposed SugarHouse site. This is commonly referred to as "the Riverside location closest to the casino." My husband and I have raised our family of three children and have volunteered with numerous community organizations. For example, my husband involved as coach of the Fishtown Athletic Association while our daughters played sports on various Fishtown team clubs. I have seen changes in the neighborhood over my 48 years -- some positive, but many negative. I fully support the SugarHouse Casino project and I urge City Council to give SugarHouse the opportunity to proceed with construction. I have heard numerous complaints regarding opposition against this project. I recognize the concern that a large development like SugarHouse will result in an increased 269 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation traffic in my community. I am also well aware of the work PennDOT will be doing to design new I-95 offramps. The time frame for these ramps has been moved up in an effort to address the need for more direct access to the Fishtown waterfront. I have been to numerous meetings in the neighborhood with PennDOT as well as written several e-mails regarding the new expansion and how this will affect the area. Sound barriers and retaining walls are an important feature that will definitely improve the noise and pollution from the increased traffic. The Fishtown neighborhood has long been ignored by the city. Now with this possible construction of this development, the attention to the highway and street signals is in full gear. I have, over the past few weeks, seen more engineers surveying the area for the development of the highway than 270 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation I have seen in my entire 27 years that I have lived at my present location. I do not believe that the planned improvements would have been designed without the potential of a one-half-billion-dollar development in our community. At one time, there were several companies along the waterfront that employed people from the neighborhood; however, over the past two decades, they have left the waterfront, and the waterfront has deteriorated. So much potential has just sat and stagnated. Presently, the SugarHouse site is inaccessible and infested with rats. We do not need another gated-condominium community on our waterfront, we do not need another big-box store on our waterfront, we also do not need another strip mall on our waterfront. What we do need is a dynamic 271 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation facility like the SugarHouse Casino that will provide residents of our community and the city with an opportunity to improve their lives and, at the same time, advance the city's growing hospitality industry. Speaking as a lifelong Philadelphia resident and a taxpayer in the City of Philadelphia, I applaud the SugarHouse for their vision to invest in our great neighborhood and look forward to the opportunity for change and progress. Thank you for hearing on this -- thank you for having this hearing on this very important topic and for the effect it really have on the future of our community and the City of Philadelphia. Thank you. (Applause.)
Good day, Councilmembers. My name is Wilfredo 272 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation ("Wil") Rojas, and I live a few short blocks from the proposed SugarHouse Casino site in Fishtown. First I want to thank Council President Verna for convening this meeting with divergent points of views on the bills related to the zoning of the area as a Commercial Entertainment District and other related matters will be respectfully expressed. I believe that all of us must understand how SugarHouse Casino will impact the economic and social fabric of Fishtown and contribute to the future development of my Fishtown community and the city I love. And I would just like to say that while I was in college, I had many professors who presented a lot of statistics, and the one interesting thing is, no matter how opposed they were, they could not prove that their statistics were the correct ones, so I learned to be more reliant on human 273 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation nature and what human feelings are than I was on statistics. I appear before you as a lifelong neighborhood activist who is now a member of both the Fishtown Neighborhood Association and the newly-created Fishtown Action Group. I come before you not as a spokesperson but as a concerned taxpayer looking to improve the quality of life in Fishtown through economic development, job creation, and a partnership with a large corporation who has vowed to generate jobs, address the problems of increased traffic, add more police to the area, and produce badly-needed revenue for Philadelphia, among other things. Moreover, Fishtown has publicly committed to enter into a community benefits agreement with the residents of Fishtown. I grew up not far from Fishtown. I attended Penn Treaty Junior High School in the late '60s. 274 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation And as a founder of the Norris Square Civic Association, I worked with the olid Fishtown Civic Association, Captain David Morrell, and the political leaders and regular residents of this wonderful community on issues of concern to both communities. One thing I learned in my dealings with the old-time residents of Fishtown is their big passion for this small slice of Philadelphia. The people I have come to know from Fishtown are very protective of their neighborhood. They keep their streets clean, value education, fight crime and prostitution, promote treatment for drug abusers, patronize the businesses in the area, are hardworking and could use more jobs in the neighborhood, fought against the rowdy nightclubs on Delaware Avenue, speak their minds, and are not afraid to stand up to the large cooperations. 275 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation So seven years ago, I became a full-fledged resident of Fishtown, purchasing a home in the one division Councilman DiCicco represents in the 18th Ward. Over the past year, I have heard loud protests over the proposed SugarHouse Casino but have also heard wide docile whispers of support for the SugarHouse Casino. Like other Philadelphia communities, Fishtown has been changing and so has its population. Once a robust blue-collar working-class community, the people I know in Fishtown are now clamoring for good-paying jobs for themselves and other Philadelphians. The army of building trade workers who live there are anxious for large construction sites to come to Philadelphia. The residents want lower property taxes and a reduction in the city wage tax. While Fishtown may be changing, the character and the 276 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation tenacity of the residents who built and maintained this riverside community hasn't changed. The culture and value of a community known to fight against anyone who attempts to harm their neighborhood is renowned.
Knowing what I know about the old character of Fishtown and recognizing that you as a City Council have will have to carefully considering your decision on these bills, you should be careful not to kill a project which has united the people in Fishtown who are looking to improve the human and physical conditions in the neighborhood. SugarHouse Casino is offering opportunities for the future of Fishtown, and the residents who support these opportunities are accepting and inviting positive development and not looking for confrontation. In the final analysis, I've heard members of City Council concede 277 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation that casino construction in Philadelphia is inevitable. I would hope that members of this committee understand that the economic benefits to our city of the Fishtown proposal far exceed the political capital of voting to kill the SugarHouse project of Fishtown. For economic and waterfront improvement reasons, it makes sense to seriously consider the SugarHouse site proposal, and, in the same breath, represent constituents in assuring that SugarHouse lives up to the promises of the benefit to the community. Thank you. )
My name is Eric 278 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Rudy. I am a resident of Fishtown and live on the river side of Girard Avenue, just a few blocks from the SugarHouse site. I am also a founding member -- or one of the founding members of Fishtown Action. Over the last ten years, I have volunteered for the Fishtown Athletic Club as a coach in soccer and softball, secretary, in-house director, travel soccer director, and I'm currently the treasurer of the club. Over the last three years, I've also become one of the largest contributors, private contributors, to the club. When I commit to a cause, I jump in with both feet and put my money where my mouth is. After years of job loss, it seemed as though our neighborhood was about to pass into history along with nearly every other working-class neighborhood in the city. Then came the announcement that two casinos were 279 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation interested in developing land in Fishtown. This is now an exciting time to be in Fishtown. We celebrated for a time, and then we realized that this would not come without some pain. Issues such as increased traffic made us do a gut check to see if this was something that we really wanted. Most of us remained on the fence, unsure whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. I met Ken Snyder from the SugarHouse group in the spring of 2006. Our basketball and indoor-soccer programs were still going on, and my focus was in helping our sports director, Dave Dougherty, ensure that both seasons would continue to run smoothly while laying the ground work for the upcoming baseball and softball seasons. We talked about with Ken about the role Fishtown Athletic Club plays 280 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation in keeping children involved in the community activities. We explained that involvement in our sports programs fills a lot of idle time, allows them to meet new people, and gives them something to look forward to on nights and weekends. As you all know, this reduces the probability that kids will be hanging out and getting in trouble. A couple of weeks later, we received a donation of $25000 from SugarHouse to support our basketball program. A few weeks after that, I became involved with a group that would ultimately be identified as the North Delaware Avenue Unity Coalition. This was a collection of representatives from neighborhood groups that came together to jointly support this area in the event that either SugarHouse or Pinnacle or RiverWalk were issued one of the two gaming licenses for Philadelphia. I met a lot of good people who 281 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation were interested in establishing dialogue with the casino applicants. As I saw it, the purpose of this coalition was to minimize the negative and maximize the positive aspects of gambling in our neighborhood. SugarHouse was the only one that I saw that was willing to work closely with us. Work, club, and personal demands forced me to the sidelines, and I could no longer the NDAUC my full attention, so I gracefully bowed out. Then something happened that really surprised me and shocked me. The NDAUC, which used to be a balance of people that were for and against the casino, which is something really we needed in order to be the best negotiating -- put ourselves in the best negotiating position. That mix and that balance eventually changed. Shortly after the announcement that SugarHouse and Foxwoods were 282 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation selected, the NDAUC allied themselves with a -- what was then a loosely knit group of South Philly groups that were vehemently opposed to the Foxwoods Casino. This new alliance ultimately refused to negotiate with the casinos. Somewhere along the line, there was an effort to encourage the practice of throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what might stick. Anti-casino jumped on it and rode it as far as they could.
Legal challenges ensued in the process of trapping the issue, and bureaucracy began. The time for throwing spaghetti at the wall has to be ended. SugarHouse is now a member of our community, and should be recognized as such. )
I'm sorry -- sorry 283 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation for talking while you're interrupting me. (Laughter.) (Applause.)
Please let in us Fishtown begin the process of establishing a constructive dialogue with what could be the largest source of employment and our only slice of tourism pie. If everyone does their job, including city, state, SugarHouse and, us, this will work. I could testify to the types of job casinos employ. I'm probably the only person in this room that can claim to have at least five relatives who have been employed in the gaming industry. My nephew graduated from high school and, lacking other options, decided to start his career with a well-known casino in Connecticut. My mother-in-law also worked for that -- for Foxwoods for a few years and rode 284 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation that job into retirement. My sister-in-law worked her way up, learning how to deal cards; learning from that, from just dealing cards, to training dealers and was headhunted by a casino in Sacramento, California, where she currently is employed. My uncle and cousins were both employed by a casino in upstate New York area. This allowed them stable employment and provided them with health benefits necessary to raise their families. In my travels, I see a lot more Fishtowners who support SugarHouse than oppose it. It appears to me that there are only a few people trying to work a straight anti-casino sentiment in Fishtown. I understand that one of them even moved to Fishtown after SugarHouse applied for a gaming license. Fishtown Action was created a 285 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation few months ago simply to provide residents with information regarding employment and vendor opportunities, which give the residents a chance to meet SugarHouse personnel so that information and concerns could be exchanged directly. Our proactive efforts have been well received and have served to give our residents unprecedented access to SugarHouse. We in Fishtown need these jobs and the opportunities to provide support services, and we need them now. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you. Any questions of this witness by members of the committee? (No questions.)
There being none, thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony. MR. McPHERSON: Our next panel is Joanne Sherman, Charlie Hocker, and 286 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Chuck Valentine. (Applause.) (Witnesses come forward.)
Good afternoon. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Can you hear me?
Good afternoon, members of Council. My name is Charles Valentine. I was raised in Fishtown and am now raising my own two young children in Fishtown, as so many generations of Fishtowners do. I'm a diehard Fishtowner. I'm a member of Fishtown's Holy Name of Jesus Church and AOH Division 51. I presently serve as vice president of Fishtown's St. Laurentius Home and School Association and am president- elect. I am now serving my sixth year as a scout leader in Fishtown. Over 20 years ago, I served as the founding member of the New 287 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Kensington CDC for which I worked for ten years. I'm presently a member of the Fishtown Neighbors Association and Neighbors Allied for the Best Riverfront. I come before you seeking your unanimous support of Councilman DiCicco's bill allowing for a 1500-foot buffer between casinos and neighborhoods. I'm also seeking your unanimous in rejecting Councilman Ramos's bill, which, in essence, will allow SugarHouse Casino to be built within 300 feet of residential properties and destroy the neighborhoods of Fishtown, Port Richmond, Northern Liberties, Old City, and Society Hill. Eighty percent of you, just a short time ago in your previous term, supported us in passing zoning legislation for this same site, which protected the neighborhood from intrusive, neighborhood-destroying 288 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation nightclubs. You just recently supported us in your unanimous support of a referendum to allow for the 1500-foot buffer. You have hit a raw nerve with a very few elected officials in the gaming industry in not only showing your support for the referendum but also your insistence in allowing us to be involved in the process. The pressure exerted on you is amazing. You have stayed focused on supporting the wishes of the majority of the city and your constituents in keeping casinos out of neighborhoods, not out of the city. The founding fathers would be proud of that you you're not selling out the city to casinos despite the pressure of the powerful few. Your constituents have appreciated you more than ever before in your career, because this is a do-or-die vote for a great number of neighborhoods. 289 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation You are obviously doing something right since you are not just giving in the backroom casino deal that was recently reported on in the June issue of Philadelphia Magazine. S. Attorney's Office should investigate. We assume that you nor us have changed, have you? I and thousands of other Fishtowners are opposed to the SugarHouse Casino site, and we disagree with Councilman Clarke in a recent June 5th Daily News portrayal of the Fishtown support for that location. The meeting was a pro-casino pep rally; and that's okay, but call it what it is. SugarHouse employees made calls to residents who had failed out calls of support solicited by SugarHouse; that's the group you heard 290 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation about, the FACT meeting, the FACT group. A message on my home answering machine from SugarHouse mistakenly thanked me for my support and then invited me to the meeting. The message said this was a chance for pro-casino voices to be heard since anti-casino groups have captured the attention of City Council and other politicians. That's the quote; I still have it on my voicemail, if you want to hear it. It also said that if you were interested in the jobs the casinos would bring, you should come and bring families and friends. The emphasis was on jobs; nothing else was messaged in the message. There was no public announcement of the meeting in the community newspapers The Spirit or The Star, nor were flyers given out. Invitation to the meeting was primarily by invitation only from the SugarHouse 291 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation calls and by word of mouth from supporters of FACT, the pro-casino group.
As a result of the SugarHouse call I received, I went to the meeting to hear what would be said. From the beginning, it was a pep rally for SugarHouse supporters. The casino executives shared very little of the development plan that will cost upwards of 500 million. In fact, the A&E firm that was doing the presentation was asked to cut their presentation short by one of the FACT leaders. Joanne Weber of SugarHouse spoke only about the jobs the casino will provide. This indicated to me that an in-depth presentation of the project wasn't intended. When the floor was open for questions, they took two, and a third person and myself were next. From what I saw, some of the FACT members saw me coming, indicated to the FACT leader at 292 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation the mic to say that the questions were over. Have you ever been to a meeting where developers presenting a $500 million proposal and there are only four questions, especially with almost 200 people present? I know your answer; the answer is no. Thus, the point. It was a pro-casino rally, not about hearing what the development was about. If the casinos are located somewhere else in the city, my neighbors and friends from Fishtown can still get a job there, but they can't stop the negative impact SugarHouse will have on the neighborhood if it is put at its present location. I'm not a supporter of the casino at this location because of all of the negative effects that will come along with the great cost to our families, the neighborhood, and the city. The truth is, thousands of 293 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Fishtowners want the buffer. The negative impact studies are numerous and readily available, and a number of us have asked Council if you wanted them over the last few month so that we could inform you. And you've heard it today, maybe some of you for the first time, but a lot of us know about what you've learned. If Philadelphians or Fishtowners or any elected officials support casinos near residential neighborhoods, they simply haven't been properly informed. If they had the facts, they would not support casinos at their present location. That is why the Temple University Hospital Nurses Association and Temple Allied Professionals, representing 1600 professional health-care workers at Temple, voted to support the 1500-foot buffer and opposed the current locations, due to increase in gambling 294 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation addictions, personal bankruptcy, intrafamilial violence -- one spouse beating up another or a parent beating up a child or a child, if he's old enough, beating up his parents due to the stress gambling imposes -- and public crime. That's why a citywide survey that 79 percent of Philadelphians are opposed to the present location and want a 1500-foot buffer. That's why a door-to-door survey of 355 homes in Fishtown closest to the SugarHouse site showed that 77 percent are opposed to the location of SugarHouse. That is why the Philly ballot box citizens referendum was 95 in support of the 1500-foot buffer. And that is why 82 percent of Fishtowners who voted on Election Day at the Philly ballot box in the heart of Fishtown, 18th Ward, Division 11, were in favor of the 1500-foot buffer. , and Canada show that urban areas are more than 80 percent opposed to casinos in their area. In essence, that is why the State Supreme Court and those in the gaming industry took away the people's right to vote, because a vote would have been a final definitive statement that would support City Council's position to keep the casinos 1500 feet away from residential neighborhoods, parks, schools, and places of worship. When has Council ever had this kind of support for any legislation that they have ever passed at these high percentages? Never, never. That is why it would be easy for you to vote for your constituents and reject the Ramos bill and support the DiCicco bill.
If you do not, it will also be 296 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation the first time that any of you individually would have voted against a significantly large majority of your constituents. I'm also leaving for you, along with my testimony, a copy of a featured Wall Street Journal published on June 11th. The title of the story was "Bad Odds," written by Mark Whitehouse, a staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal. The subtitle for this extensive article stated, quote: As more states look to win the economic jackpot with casinos, evidence suggests they are playing a losing hand. The article clearly addresses the mistakes that cities make in thinking that casinos will solve the issues of taxes and jobs, when, in fact, the casinos do not, as many economists have concluded. There are only two questions before you today: Will you support the survival of our neighborhoods and vote 297 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation for Councilman DiCicco's bill and against Councilman Ramos's bill? Or will you become a part of the backroom deal and support the powerful and aggressive gaming industry and only a few elected officials and kill our neighborhoods by voting for Councilman Ramos's bill and against Councilman DiCicco's bill? Thank you for listening to my testimony. )
Go ahead and proceed with your testimony and identify yourself for the record.
My name is Joanne Sherman. I live at 143 East Allen Street, the closest street to the proposed casino site, with my husband, my daughter, and my grandson. I am here today to ask you to please vote against the Ramos bill and support the 1500-foot buffer between casinos and neighborhoods. 298 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation I have lived on Allen Street for 50 years like my father -- I have lived on Allen Street for 50 years. Growing up in my neighborhood was great. " At night, when the workers came home, we sat out on the stoop after dinner and chatted with our neighbors about anything and everything. Life was normal and peaceful. Then, along come the nightclubs on Delaware Avenue, which became known as "Hellaware Avenue"; that's exactly what it was for five years. Although the clubs were only open four nights a week, during those four nights, we were forced to endure all kinds of horrors -- loud music, public sex, drunkenness, shootings 299 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation sometimes resulting in deaths, rapes, beatings, robberies in our homes and vehicles. There were literally pissing contests, using our street as a toilet. Even women would squat down right in front of us and leave their waste on the street. We saw patrons of the club stealing and using drugs; sitting in their cars, drinking and having sex before and after going to the clubs; and leaving their evidence behind -- drug packet, needles, condoms, liquor bottles. This was all done in front of our children. We were no longer able to stay out at night. Parking was impossible; the parking spots, sidewalks, and even the middle of the street were taken up by the patrons of the club to the point that cars couldn't drive on the street. Eventually, through hard work, we were able to rid the neighborhood of 300 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation the clubs; and once again, life became peaceful and quiet. We are now able to sit on a stoop and socialize, sharing coffee, food and stories of the past. Because of the terrible impact these clubs had had on surrounding areas, Fishtown Neighbors Association pushed for and received a zoning change on the riverfront. Councilman DiCicco enacted a bill in 2002 prohibiting venues for the sole purpose of entertainment, dance halls, restaurants, and nightclubs on the north end of Delaware Avenue. What happened to that zoning bill? It has all been but forgotten. Now that casinos are being shoved down by our throats by someone who sold us down the river without regard to the residents of this neighborhood and what we want. In America, our most precious rights are the right to speak freely, express ourselves, and the right to 301 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation vote. I am appalled that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court took away our right to vote on the most important issue to come to our community and city in decades. The people have spoken many times. We have collected 27,000 signatures to demand the right to vote on the 1500-foot buffer. After that was struck down, we collected more than 13,000 votes in an alternate election on May 15th. We deserve to have our say. I am not against casinos, but SugarHouse Casino needs to be relocated. It does not belong in any neighborhood where it can influence our children and change our lives for the worst. SugarHouse promises that it will be safe, an asset to our community, providing jobs and revenue to the city; at the same time, it promises to put more police on Allen 302 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Street. If the casino is as safe as they claim, why do they acknowledge that it will need more police? The casino can still happen in another location away from people's homes so our children and neighbors can enjoy the peaceful, normal life that we fought to protect. I ask each one of you whether you would honestly want a casino across from your house or in your neighborhood. I doubt that any of you would welcome it in your backyard.
I beg you again to please vote against Ramos's bill and support the 1500-foot buffer zone between casinos and neighborhoods. Thank you. )
My name is Charles Hocker. I live at 114 East Allen Street. I'm living there almost 54 years, and -- just a second. In that time, it was a 303 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation wonderful -- it's a wonderful neighborhood today and it was wonderful then, until the city decided to put clubs on Delaware Avenue, from Delaware Avenue to 95-North to Spring Garden Street. And as the lady just explained to you, it was horrible, absolutely horrible. So we decided to do something. And with the help -- excuse me. With the help of the State Representative in our district, we were successful in closing all of 'em. So what I'm leading up to is, it appears to me that we're running into the same situation; however, triple the problems. When we had the clubs on Delaware Avenue, like the lady said, the traffic was absolutely terrible. And everything that she said is exactly true. There were shootings in my driveway, two shootings. A police officer was beaten. And the sex and 304 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation all that stuff right on my own doorstep. So as I said, we cleaned up all of the clubs, and it was peace and happiness. A few years later, we got a hint that there was going to be casinos in Philadelphia. Immediately, we were up in arms based on what we saw with the clubs. So we went to Harrisburg to protest it. The vote was taken while we were asleep; we had no choice to vote on it. So what we did, we went back the following week, and we were met at the door and they said, "No questions are allowed to be asked today." So we took it from there, and we decided, Well, let's see if we can get on the ballot at the last election for mayor. Again, we were shut down. And like the gentleman over here said, we got our own ballot boxes distributed around as far as we could. 305 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation And the result was, the referendum was 95 percent in support of the 1500-foot referendum. And they also took a city survey, and it showed that 79 percent of the Philadelphians are opposed to the present location and want the 1500-foot buffer. My question is: What happened to justice for all? We didn't have a chance from the very beginning, not one chance, but we're going to fight this thing to the very, very end, as far as we have to go, and we hope that you will support us in this effort and defeat the Ramos bill. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Than k you. Thank you. MR. McPHERSON: Our next panel consists of Pastor Mary Miller, Reverend Dick Ullman and Joy Segal. (Witnesses come forward.) 306 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation
Good afternoon and welcome. Please identify yourself for the record.
Good afternoon. My name is Mary Katherine Miller and I am the pastor of Kensington Old Brick United Methodist Church, located at Richmond and Marlboro Streets less in Philadelphia than 1500 feet away from where the proposed casino is supposed to come in, and on the river side of 95. The church has had the pleasure and privilege of being in ministry to, with, and for the people of Fishtown for over 200 years. We trace our ancestry to John Heusen. The first Methodists in Fishtown met at his house, and as their numbers grew, they met under the tree, an old elm tree at Penn Treaty, and eventually, this started in 1801, and in 1804, became the Kensington Methodist Episcopal Church. 307 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation In the span of the 200-plus years that Old Brick has been part of Fishtown, three churches have been built on the site where it is currently located, each using the bricks from the previous churches; thus, the name "Old Brick" that the folks in the neighborhood know it by. Five churches have come from here; three still are in the Kensington portion of the city, each of which offers an after-school program for the children in their neighborhood. The church has seen the neighborhood grow and prosper, and we have seen the neighborhood decline with the loss of jobs along the riverfront. We have seen the neighborhood split by the building of Interstate 95. Many of the church's members lost their home to that construction. There have been different points in time in the church's history that the church buildings have suffered 308 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation break-ins and vandalism, which have included broken windows, theft of property, and graffiti. There is graffiti on the building currently, which we're preparing to have painted over and removed. Although the neighborhood shows signs of some of the same problems found throughout Philadelphia, we can find packets that used to contain drugs just across the street when you walk down the street. It is still, though, by and far, a very quiet neighborhood. Not too long ago, when there were nightclubs, as you have heard, along the Delaware, crime, traffic, congestion, and violent acts were commonplace. And several years ago, the Council heard the cries of the people for help and established a way to protect the neighborhood. I come here asking that you do you not invite the same problems back 309 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation on an escalated scale into the neighborhood once again. Please do not invite the troubles back to the neighborhood that has borne the brunt of riverfront development over time over and over again, and yet remained faithful to their roots and have strong roots in that area. The people of Old Brick care immensely for their neighbors, many of whom will be as close or closer to the casino as the distance of standing in center field at Citizens Bank Park and looking toward home plate. We've looked out for the neighborhood by helping folks meet their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs, with an eye on the total well-being of the individual and the overall well-being of the neighborhood. As a church, we are in the business of helping folks find hope when there seems little to hope for. I 310 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation am sure each of you, at some point in your life, has met someone who sees little hope for themselves, their families, or their children. Folks who are in such a place often make choices that will harm them and sometimes will harm others because they really feel they have nothing to lose and maybe just a little bit to gain from their actions. They seek solutions in things that will temporarily dull their pain like alcohol and drugs. Others will try and find something, anything that will bring them some sense that all is not hopeless, that their lives could be better, they can have security, meaning, and purpose.
Casinos, and especially slot machines, take advantage of people at their most vulnerable, as you know. They are designed to exploit us at the most vulnerable places of our human psyche, conditioning us to believe that 311 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation just one more spin, one more coin will give us the return we seek, will generate the money we need to meet those hopes we have and can see no 6 other way of meeting. Hopes for enough money to move out of an unsafe neighborhood. Hopes to have money to pay the rent, to pay the gas company, or our electric bill before we lose our homes, heat or power. Hope to pay the last hospital bill because we work jobs without benefits and we got sick. Hope to have enough for a bus pass to get to work hope for money to put shoes on the children, food in their bellies. Casinos sell sort of hope too; that hope, however, is false hope. A room full of slot machines is filled with flashing lights and loud bells all designed to draw people in and to send the message of supposed success all 312 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation around. Come on, they say, can't you see, can't you hear the next loud bill 5 and flashing light could be for you. Yeah, I know you've reached your budget, but just think about it, one more try. Just one more try over and over again. You can't put one more coin in a slot machine anymore; you have to put in fives and tens and twenties. For the slot machines and video poker, which cost a quarter or more, you can't use dollar bills. To aid in the process of taking as much as it can and giving as little back as legally allowed, casinos offer alcohol, which deadens the senses and inhibits judgment. What will those who come to the casinos seeking a better life with every five-, ten-, and twenty-dollar bill really get? The vast majority get empty pockets, empty dreams, hopes 313 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation unfulfilled. The neighborhood, what does it get? Traffic and the various kind of crime that come with casinos -- more drugs, more violence, and the loss of their hope for a safe place to live free of drugs, crime, and violence; loss of people's hope for a place to raise their families and a place to set their children up for success in life. The neighborhood gets to bear the cost of increased insurance rates as properties get damaged. They get to bear those costs alone. And wrongly and sadly enough, unlike those folks who are coming to the casinos willingly to put money in the machine, transferring control of their hope to someone else's hands, the neighborhood doesn't even have to drop a single bill to be the beneficiaries of what comes with casinos. By voting down the two resolutions presented by Councilman 314 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Ramos, you have the opportunity to say to all here and in Harrisburg that Philadelphia will not be a part of bringing such a destructive force into Philadelphia's neighborhoods. You have the opportunity to say that as Philadelphia's leaders, the ones in whom the citizens of the city have entrusted hopes for health, safety, and welfare, the ones who are best versed on the needs of these city. You will, instead, search for ways to offer the people of Fishtown and people of Philadelphia things that meet their true needs, that offer them hope for a bright future for themselves and their children. You have the opportunity to say that you will search for industries that will provide good-paying jobs, with benefits over the long-term. You will search for business that is don't attract crime, that don't attract violence, businesses that aren't 315 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation designed to take more out of the city than they are ever going to bring back. You have the opportunity to bring hope to the people of Fishtown and Philadelphia. I encourage you to embrace and seize that opportunity. Thank you. )
Than k you. Please identify yourself for the record.
Madam Chairperson, Honorable Councilmembers, my name is Dick Ullman. I live in Society Hill, and I am an Episcopal priest. I'm retired from full-time ministry but continue active in ministry in our city. I'm here this afternoon to urge your favorable action on the bill 23 to establish a buffer zone between any casino and homes, schools, and houses of worship; and I want particularly to 316 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation focus on houses of worship. They're special places where people come to connect with their god, where people come to meditate, where people come for study, for succor, for celebration. These are sacred activities, and they require a zone of peace, quiet, and tranquility. Houses of worship have always been places of refuge, sanctuaries set apart. You know this by your own experience. When you step into a church, a synagogue, a mosque, you walk on holy ground. From ancient times, every society has honored sacred precincts. Moses, in the presence of the holy one at the burning bush, takes off his shoes, aware that he stands on holy ground. Still today, at Hindu and Buddhist temples and at Muslim mosques throughout the world, visitors remove their shoes. The idea of buffer zones is 317 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation nothing new; although, I dare say, it is universal. One of the great things about America is our respect for the free exercise of religion. That respect is enshrined in our Constitution. Our Bill of Rights tasks every arm of government to take scrupulous care not to interfere with religious practice and conscience. And so throughout our history, at every level of government, we have enacted laws to provide buffer zones, to give houses of worship protection from certain otherwise permissible activities. Liquor laws, for example, recognize that it is important to respect a house of worship in the distribution of liquor licenses. Why? It is not because a bar or a tavern is a bad thing in itself; it is because a bar or tavern attracts activities that can come into conflict with the 318 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation activities appropriate to a house of worship. It is because these two uses, the bar and the church, are incompatible when they are too close to one another. Liquor laws are not the only example of protected buffer zones. The Philadelphia Code provides buffer zones to protect houses of worship from adult book stores, from drug paraphernalia stores, from check-cashing agencies, from tattoo parlors. Why? Again, because the nature of those uses is incompatible with the activities occurring at a house of worship. Now, as the ancient rabbis who say, how much more is this true when it comes to casinos? First, the casinos proposed for our city will have several liquor license and will be operating hours 23 a day, 7 days a week -- no sabbath, no 24 holy days allowed. Imagine attempting a silent retreat or Yom Kippur services 319 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation or an Easter vigil next door to such a neighbor. Second, the casinos proposed for our city will engender much traffic in their neighborhoods, traffic that will hinder access to any nearby house of worship; and, thus, discourages attendance; and, thereby, through governmental permission, discourage and interfere with the free exercise of religion. Third, experience the world over tells us -- and Pennsylvania's Act 71 provides for this fact -- that a certain portion of casino patrons, as we have heard several times in testimony already today, will be either pathologically-addicted gamblers or problem gamblers. Now, imagine that such a person or that person's loved once seek the comfort of a house of worship. Don't you agree that it is appropriate that no casino be within range of eye 320 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation or ear of such circumstance?
With the casinos proposed for our city, we will have something much greater in scale and impact than a tavern, an adult bookstore, a check- cashing agency, a vendor of drug paraphernalia, a tattoo parlor; we'll have thousands of slot machines, several liquor venues operating 24/7, tremendous volume of vehicular traffic. A buffer zone measured in miles would be reasonable. A buffer zone of 1500 feet would at least show some respect. At the risk of sounding like Rodney Dangerfield, I ask you for your respect this afternoon. The deep tradition of our city respects religious communities of all sorts. That is what William Penn's colony was all about. This respect for religious communities was a new idea on the face of the earth when Penn established his place of brotherly 321 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation love, Philadelphia, here, where Penn's Woods meet the river. As a priest, my impulse is to appeal to you in the name of all that is holy that you act favorably on the buffer zone ordinance. Instead, as a citizen, with scrupulous regard for the separation of church and state, I will limit my appeal. Let me simply appeal on the basis of the established norms of American law and of Philadelphia tradition: Adopt the buffer zone because you respect our tradition. Adopt the buffer zone because, like William Penn, you honor all religious communities and the conditions in which they are free to flourish. Adopt the buffer zone because you wish no house of worship to be diminished by the close proximity of inconsistent, conflicting, and 322 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation detrimental neighbors. Adopt the buffer zone because you don't want this city's pioneering historic respect for religious communities to die on your watch. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
Good afternoon. Thank you for your patience. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good afternoon. My name is Joyce Segal. I am the rector of Gloria Dei Old Swedes' Church -- (Applause.)
-- which you will now find on Columbus Boulevard barely a tenth of a mile between the southern border of Gloria Dei Old 323 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Swedes and the northern border of the proposed Foxwoods Casino sites. Barely a tenth of a mile. I'm honored to follow up my esteemed colleagues in the clergy with a few short words, and I feel that they almost set me up between history and religion. But I would like to tell you a little bit about Gloria Dei Old Swedes Church and that property, because I've discovered that most of America -- indeed, a lot of Philadelphia -- is unaware of history. This is pre-William Penn history. The Swedes arrived before anybody else. New Sweden Colony was the first colony. They arrived at what is now Christiana, Delaware, in 1638, but they set up a town on Tinicum Island, right downriver from us in 1642. And that's where the first congregation, Gloria Dei, met. In 1677, the land where we are 324 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation now was awarded to Gloria Dei by a gentleman farmer, and they moved upriver and built a log house where they had church on that southern corner that is one tenth of a mile away from this proposed casino. In 1699, they built the church that exists to this day that we worship in. It was dedicated in 1700. It is the oldest church in Pennsylvania. It is the oldest brick building in Philadelphia. It is the oldest church building in continuous use in the United States of America. That's pretty amazing to me. On this property, for 330 years, through all sorts and conditions of government and history, as the city grew and waxed and waned and the neighbors and the neighborhoods changed, Gloria Dei remained. In 1942, there was a lot of worry that we were going to lose Gloria Dei, a lot of fires in the old 325 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation neighborhoods. So Dr. Roke applied to the federal government, asking for historic recognition. And in 1942, the national government recognized this brick building as a national historic site. Came in, in a wonderful church-state partnership and created the beautiful parking setting that Gloria Dei and the other building exist within today, barely a tenth of a mile... from a casino? It's hard for me to fathom. The federal government came in and helped to ensure their survival and the preservation of this, one of the oldest historic sites of any kind in the country, much less in our city. This past Easter -- Dick Ullman mentioned about Easter vigils and Yom Kippur services. Well, we thought about that this past Easter at morning at Gloria Dei. We face the river, two huge glass windows looking out at the river as the sun comes up. 326 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation And we meet there before dawn, come in from the graveyard, lighting candles, telling the ancient stories as the sun begins to come up, as we just begin to get an outline of the port of a masthead floating by or a larger ship working its way out. And it was bittersweet for us this last year because we knew those big, clear glass windows, possibly as early as next year, we would see sweeping skylight, lights and noise and traffic and all of the things that will threaten this site, that will make it impossible for us, after 330 years, to hold this history high, to remind the community, the city, the nation of how we take care of each other, of our cities, of our history. I urge you finally, simply, just to consider the points so eloquently spoken by my colleague. I'll end with his words again: Please adopt the buffer zone 327 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation because you respect our tradition. Adopt the buffer zone because, like the settlers, the first settlers, like William Penn after them, like all the ones that have come since, you honor all religious communities and the conditions in which they are free to flourish.
Adopt the buffer zone because you wish no house of worship to be diminished by the close proximity of inconsistent, conflicting, and detrimental neighborhoods. And adopt the buffer zone because you don't want this city's pioneering historic respect for religious communities to die on your watch. Thank you very much for listening to me. )
Our next witnesses? 328 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation MR. McPHERSON: Our next panel consists of Denise Earley, who left her testimony; Delilah Winder; a representative from the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; Julie Wong; and Bob Nelson. Are they here? (Witnesses come forward.)
Good afternoon. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good afternoon. Delilah Winder, Chairperson of the African-American Chamber of Commerce.
Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the committee. My name is Delilah Winder and I am the chairperson of the African-American Chamber of Commerce. I am here today to offer testimony about the legislation sponsored by Councilman DiCicco that 329 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation will require a 1500-foot bubble [sic] around the two approved casinos. The African-American Chamber of Commerce is the leading private-sector advocate for black-owned businesses in the Delaware Valley; and as such, we have taken a very active interest in the introduction of gaming in our city. We support the construction of these two casinos, not only because they will create jobs for workers, but because they will create opportunities for companies owned by women and minorities. We believe that should we be a priority -- that -- I'm sorry. We believe that should be a priority of every elected official. Both of these casinos have submitted detailed plans to the State Gaming Control Board, plans that we intend to hold them to, to ensure not just diversity in hiring but diversity and procurement in contracting; that's 330 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation something not enough companies do in this region. We continue to meet and speak with the casino operators to ensure that minorities and women business owners are included. I believe as a city and as individuals, we need to do more to help create, support, and develop local companies and minority-owned businesses and recognize the support entities that commit to doing so. In addition to the jobs they will create directly and indirectly, the casinos will generate tens of millions of dollars for local government annually, including 5 million for schools at a time when our schools continue to face a constant money crunch; additional revenue should not be dismissed. As we all know, education is the key to a better future. The additional tax revenues 331 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation can also be used to make our city safer by revitalizing neighborhoods and improving job-training programs, which would be instrumental in the improvement of our workforce. We understand that there is focused opposition to these sites, but we also know that there would be opposition by some to whichever casinos -- to whichever sites casinos were selected. Moreover, as a citywide organization, we are able to step back and see the good that these casinos will bring to our entire community. We believe that as elected officials, we must do the same, especially the at-large members of Council. We hope that you recognize that the overall benefit to this city of these casinos is strongly positive. It is not every day that an opportunity like this comes along. We would not delay in making it an opportunity of a lifetime for all of 332 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Philadelphia's citizens. Thank you.
Than k you. Good afternoon. Please identify yourself for the record.
Okay, yeah. Council President Verna and the Councilman Clarke and the member of the committee, my name is Julie Wong. I'm president of Asian Chamber of Commerce. The Asian community population in Philadelphia is growing rapidly, and it is our goal to ensure that as we grow in members, our opportunity to become business people grows as well. We believe that the future of Philadelphia region and our community will depend on our ability to increase available opportunity within our (indiscernible) market, economic growth, and the job creation that we support our families. That is one of the reason why 333 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation I support the construction of these two casino. We believe that introduction of gambling into our city representing not only a opportunity for business and the individuals across the city; it especially representing our opportunity for minority-owned business. Thank you.
Good evening, Madam Chairperson and distinguished Councilmembers. Thank you for this opportunity and probably the calmer part of the day. My name is Bob Nelson, and I'm President of the Philadelphia OIC. And, as you may be aware, OIC was founded here in Philadelphia in 1964 by the late Reverend Leon H. Sullivan as an education and training institution, 334 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation the first training site having been established at 19th and Oxford Streets in north central Philadelphia, an old abandoned jailhouse, which was donated by the city for a dollar a year. And from this modest beginning, OIC evolved into a national and international model of demonstrated effectiveness. In our over-43-year history, OIC has served three million people worldwide and has affiliates in South Africa; Poland, the largest OIC in the world; Great Britain; and the Caribbean. Through seven OICs across the country and in Philadelphia, that number now exceeds 67,000 people. But germane to this presentation is OIC's 16-year history of operating opportunities in the Hospitality Training Institute. And under contract with the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority, OIC trains 200 people a year for jobs and careers in most of the hotels and restaurants 335 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation in the region and entertainment venues and the Convention Center itself. Between 2000 and 2006, OIC has placed 85 percent of it participants with 82 percent retention. Based upon this experience capacity, credibility, and success of the program, OIC began discussions with the then five prospective operators bidding for the Philadelphia-based licenses. Our goal was to become a resource for the industry. All bidders visited OIC, toured our existing facilities, viewed our plans to expand our space to accommodate casino training, interact with staff and students. As it pertains to Foxwoods, one of the selected licensees, their representative was the first to visit and subsequently sent an unsolicited letter indicating their willingness to work with OIC. Foxwoods also specifically referenced OIC in its 336 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation verbal and written testimony before the Gaming Commission. SugarHouse representatives met with OIC three times, and, like Foxwoods, expressed willingness to work with OIC around their human-resources needs. With both licensees as well as the other three who were not selected, there was, and is, a projection of positive partnerships. OIC's focus and goal is to prepare local Philadelphians for the in-house positions. While we focus on economic opportunities, we're well aware of the fact that you've heard today in other forums, there will be impacts on neighborhood communities, and we certainly respect the right for communities in self-determination. Yes, there will be traffic congestion. There may be an escalation of crime, although the research does not necessarily support a great 337 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation escalation of that. And there is a moral objection to gambling. Like it or not, gambling is coming. And if you look around the city, the trends are that casinos now exist in Bucks and Delaware County and Delaware and Atlantic City. They're coming to New York and they're expanding throughout Pennsylvania and will be in Philadelphia. These casinos employ people, providing good jobs to people who often do not have the skills to win and retain comparable positions elsewhere perhaps. OIC is dedicated to ensuring that those jobs, like the growing hospitality sector we already serve, are available and accessible to qualified Philadelphians and to ensuring that there are Philadelphians who are qualified and ready to take those jobs. We are not supporting gambling, but we want to remind the 338 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Council of the benefits and would like to discuss the issue the glass-half-full-perspective.
Some of this is an exercise in redundancy, as you've heard them all day long. There will be thousands of construction jobs, but we hope that Mayor Street, the next mayor, and City Council will ensure that the unions will be more racially inclusive. There will be a city wage-tax reduction over time. Revenue will support expansion of the Convention Center, leading to new hotel and restaurant construction to accommodate the larger convention and trade shows, thus leading to more jobs. There will be 1,000, 2,000 in-house casino jobs between the two casinos. The city needs these jobs. And other economic opportunities now. Council and all of Philadelphians should do all that we 339 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation can to make these jobs and other benefits happen as rapidly as possible, while still ensuring that gaming happens in a manner that works for all, including neighbors, the casinos, and the Commonwealth. Clearly, promises have been made in their proposals, in community meetings, in testimony before the Commission and verbal commitments to OIC itself. Now the goal is to hold them accountable to those commitments, which, if actualized, can and will benefit our community. Thank you.
I'm sorry. Just a moment, please. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you, Madam Chair. 340 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Could the Asian Business Association and the African-American Chamber of Commerce speak briefly to the nature and the status of your discussions around ensuring that women and people of color have equal access to opportunity.
The African- American Chamber of Commerce has -- I have personally met with SugarHouse as well as Foxwoods on numerous occasions as well as have been invited to vendor forums in order to start to get our businesses in position to do business with them at all levels. We have discussed with them the needs of our businesses, the demographics of the type of businesses that we have in our organization, and in what way they could be instrumental in ensuring us that, across the board, we will be able to get business for our businesses.
341 6/13/07 Rules Committee - CED Legislation Is there anything in writing in terms of any draft of an agreement of any type?