no further questions for this witness Mr. Chairman so um sir you're not a licensed
addictions counselor or expert well i think the answer would be i'm not a license if the
question is am i a licensed counselor the answer is no if you're asking me am i you know i think
my cv references in terms of the credentials that we've had at my myself as a national director in
our organization. If you're asking me if I'm considered an expert on the issues around
commercialized gambling in the United States, the lottery and sports gambling, I think the answer is
yes. Okay. That strikes me as I do believe you, but you've never once spoken about the DSM-5
and how it characterizes gambling. Why? I'm sorry. We did speak about DSM-5.
I just
strike my question.
I don't understand the question.
Mr. Bonny, I'm not
asking the question.
Mr. Mattyoni?
I have no further questions, Mr. Bonny.
I have one follow-up for
redirect for Mr.
Bernal. Next 10 minutes looks like.
Mr. Burnell, in the course of your research and advocacy and involvement with Star Predatory
Gambling, have you ever talked about the DSM-5?
Thank you.
Was it an important point in this area of public policy that the DSM-5 elevated gambling
disorder to to the point that it elevated it and it's in the in this latest edition of the dsm
yes i have no further questions but in doing so it doesn't discuss neighborhoods or anything like
that well let's take a look no i don't want you to take a look i that was just the statement that
i made i believe it touches on issues of accessibility and convenience you know that's
really the heart of what's going on here it used to be in las vegas then it was only in um atlantic
city and then we've had convenience casinos like sugar house and all right mr marionne do you have
any other questions and now the new wave is to come into neighborhoods and that's that's where
we're asking this board to to draw a line just to say it's not everywhere all right thank you
it's too much i think we get that we get that mr marionne you have any questions further questions
for mr burnell i have no further questions all right can we take a five minute break we'll be
back at 11 45. can can i ask mr chairman just a housekeeping matter so it's it's you know you said
12 how hard is that 12 noon because it's it's five to ten minutes hard okay thank you right
Thank you.
Hi, this is Dr. Curtis.
You've reached my place now.
Looks like I'm on the other line.
Please leave me the message with your name.
Hey, Barbara.
Hey, Barbara.
You're on, you're on.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
is the court reporter back
yes mr chair i am thank you and we have carol
let's see who else
professor tom jim are you guys available yes mr chairman i want to make sure we have
okay all right where were we left off i think i asked mr marionne if you had any more questions
for mr uh cohen i had no more questions for any of the witnesses that have been presented so far
Thank you. Mr. Barney.
You're muted, Paul.
Thank you. I think my next witness is Christian Raschutti, if she's available.
And she's ready for you, Chair.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Ms. Raschutti.
please identify yourself spell your first and last name and provide us with your address
good morning my name is kristen raschutti k-r-i-s-t-i-n-r-i-c-c-h-i-u-t-i-31-38
olympia place philadelphia 1-9-1-4-5 you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth yes i do thank you ma'am please proceed good morning members of the board
My name is Kristen Rusciutti. I'm the vice president of the Packer Park Civic Association.
I'm a parent, I'm a neighbor, and I'm a patron of the Packer Park Shopping Center.
My husband and I live a few short blocks away from the shopping center, and I'm a mother of two adolescent boys who often frequent the shopping center independently to get their hair cut, to have pizza with their friends, and to get some desserts.
My husband and I live a few short blocks away from the shopping center, and
For my oldest son's birthday party, we hosted it at Play 2 with his class and family and friends, and we all had a very enjoyable time.
However, with this new proposal from Chickies and Pete's, it changes the integrity, the character, and the environment that affects not only my children, but the community's children.
With this proposal, with signage or without, all the businesses and shops in turn become central and parallel to the gambling and the sports betting enterprise.
Objection, that's speculation, Mr. Chairman.
objection sustained it is speculation chickies and pete's touts itself as the number one sports
bar in the country now it will tout itself as having a sports book
normalize how they're going to expect it's speculative as how they're going to
market this facility it's not their facility it's parks casinos facility it's a sublease
It's not Chickies and Peets.
Well, I think I know where Ms. Rashidi was going.
We'll allow that.
It is speculation to a certain degree, but it will be housed within the footprint of
Chickie and Peets, so we'll allow that.
Thank you.
Please proceed.
So normalizing this behavior creates a sorbent atmosphere where the childhoods advance far
too quickly.
There should be a limit to how intrusive gambling and sports betting is in our community.
So I asked the board to think for a moment about their childhood home
and reflect on where they grew up or where they choose to raise their own family.
Now, is it three blocks away from a sports and gambling restaurant?
Thank you for your time.
my next do you have any questions hold on mr matione i have no questions mr mr bonnie
my next witness is ms barbara capozzi
good morning ms capozzi please identify yourself with the records by your name and i'll swear you
in. My name's Barbara Capozzi, C-A-P-O-Z-Z-I. We're a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth. I do. I can't get my video on, but that's okay. We can hear you. Thank you.
Can you state your title in the organization, please? I'm president of the Packer Park Civic
Association for over 30 years. Even though we have elections, nobody wants the job. It's too much work.
Please describe for the board the community's position on this matter or the RCL's position on this matter.
I will gladly do that. But first, I want to address something to I have to say this. I'm sorry. I'm sick of hearing about the casino. Everyone was violently opposed to the casino. We lost that battle because on the other side of Broad Street, in anticipation of the casino, several civic associations were formed.
and the proponents of the casino did the classic divide and conquer it is the worst experience i've
ever had with the worst people the unions were 1000 for the casino as were our
i only referenced the casino because of its proximity to the stadium district folks
and Packer Park. I was not a proponent of that. I was a proponent of a casino being located in
another location. That's the only reason I raised Live Casino, because I don't think it is that far
away that it's going to make that much of a difference. But please just talk about this
application for Chickie and Pete's. You can unmute yourself.
Ms. Kaposi, you have to unmute yourself.
Take your time.
Maybe hover over your square and there's three dots in your square or maybe at the bottom.
or maybe at the bottom if you go to the bottom of the screen something will appear
If you go to the bottom of the screen, something will appear.
well we can do that or go to your next witness and then we got it we got it we got it she's back
she's back two wrongs do not make a right especially when the casino's there over overwhelming odds
oh she's been muted again
Ms. Kaposi you're somehow muted again if you could unmute yourself please
Ms. Kaposi we can't hear you okay I haven't touched my computer so somebody's on somebody's
muting me all right that would be me that would be me the administrator well that's great you're on
now so the zoning board is saying that a neighborhood that cleans its own streets
takes care of its properties hard-working people taxpayers we don't have our right to decide what
goes into our neighborhood every every neighborhood in the city should be like our neighborhood
united and and and caring and and devoted to their neighbors and their neighborhood
and you're you're actually making fun of us because we do care we didn't want the casino
nobody wanted the casino but just because we have a casino doesn't mean that we want
pete to bring it over to our side of broad street
miss Kaposi yeah I'm going to call you Barbara you and I know each other 50 years
I don't know what makes you think that we're making fun of the people in PAC
absolutely absolutely as if we have no right to you have a right
you know so this I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry Barbara this is the third hearing to suggest you
have no right is disingenuous this is the third hearing fourth hearing thank you thank you for
you're welcome and you mentioned about cleaning the streets we're not how does who pays for that
cleaning the neighbors suffer under the under the uh burden of the sports complex the neighborhood
suffers everybody knows that i didn't know i'm gonna explain how the streets get cleaned okay
i'm sorry chair if i could please barbara sorry brought up the subject and i think it's fair to
let everyone know that the daily cleaning of the streets in your neighborhood and on the east side
abroad is done by the sports complex it is paid for by the sport the stadium district absolutely
absolutely of which i am the treasurer okay absolutely but that sports complex special
services district you and i were there at the beginning is the quid pro quo for this neighborhood
putting up with hundreds of thousands of people every weekend hundreds of thousands and if it
wasn't for the sports complex special services district to do the work it does and that's our
payment so our payment for putting up with that shit where the city makes millions of dollars
and accommodates hundreds of thousands of people a weekend the quid pro quo for that
is cleaning our streets there's no doubt about that but that's what we wanted that so yes we do
clean our streets because we could have asked for other things we asked for our streets to be clean
because the city doesn't do it we asked for trees to be planted because the city doesn't do it we
just recently paid for new LED lights because the city doesn't do it. So we don't have a right to
say we don't want this here. Yes. You have a right and you're expressing that as we speak now.
Ms. Kaposi, has the RCO circulated a petition? We've circulated a petition which is very hard
to do during COVID. We've circulated the petition online and also I've had them at my office but
but my office has been closed, so most of the time we couldn't get those petitions signed.
Well, tell us about that.
But we couldn't go door to door either because, obviously, it's not right.
Did the petition...
I'm going to jump on the record, Mr. Chairman, to preserve the record to this being hearsay.
It's a petition, it's hearsay.
Well, your petition...
Your petition was hearsay, too.
Come on.
We'll accept this.
Okay. Ms. Kaposi, your petition asked the respondent to indicate their preference for
oppose or support. So you gave people a choice how to vote. Is that correct?
That's the way a petition is supposed to be. Yes.
Okay. And do you know the results?
As of yesterday, there was 1,343 people opposed and 30 people for. And people had to go out of
And people had to go out of their way to sign this petition. We were not able to go door to door and, you know, confront people and intimidate them or anything like that.
their way to sign this petition. We were not able to go door to door.
Did you have an RCO meeting and what was the consensus of the RCO meeting?
We had an RCO meeting on February 1st in the middle of a blinding snowstorm. And we had to do that that night because the I believe the first zoning hearing was very soon after that.
so we had no time to cancel. We had it on Zoom and also to accommodate our neighbors in person
because not everybody likes Zoom. We had 62 people in the midst of a snowstorm and the opposition was
1,000% against this. Okay, but just to recap, when it came to the petition,
people had the ability to sign it online as well as in person. Right, but they had to go
onto our website to do that. We did not send it out or anything like that. Thank you.
um did you have a rally recently we had a rally um very very short notice it was the day after
easter which was probably a bad choice um we had young people and old people the oldest person was
86 uh we had about 100 people um and again adamantly opposed to the whole concept of pete
doing this okay and that and that date was the date of the um march madness finals is that correct
i believe it was okay um tell us about this shopping center
okay the shopping center was built by my father in the early 1960s um he moved his office there
it was my first job i got paid an ice cream and it was the first shopping center that we know of
in the country that was built as condos and sold to the business owners so this is very very much
a um family friendly and enterprise i mean it's i'm gonna ask you some i'm gonna ask you some
questions been there from day one i'm gonna ask you some questions i'm sorry chair if i could
remind the board that we're at the 11 59 time yep two more minutes okay is am i is it accurate to
say that this shopping center has a dry cleaners, a food shop, a pharmacy, a beauty salon, a pizza
shop, a bakery, a nail salon, a bank branch, and a doctor's office? Two bank branches, doctor's
office, accountant. I think you left out a few things, but that's fine. Okay. Yep. And clearly
a gambling parlor does not fit in with those uses. Okay. Are there kids at Chickie's and Pete's?
there's kids at chickies and pete's and with the addition of play too which we did not object to
uh there's more kids than normal and the shopping center is a is a is an attraction for preteens and
teens in the neighborhood to go safely in a family-friendly place and uh everybody watches
after them we've always embraced pete and um people bring their kids to chickie and pete's
to watch games and or they stop there before the games to get in the mood okay i i'm showing you
a page from Chicky and Pete's website that says it's the ideal location for wedding receptions,
rehearsal dinners, or mitzvahs, which I assume is bar and bat mitzvahs. Is that correct? Okay.
Yep. Thank you. Also, this is Play 2. The part of the Chicky and Pete's website for Play 2
says in the middle at the bottom that they have a kid's package. Is that correct?
I'm sure it is. Play 2 is targeted for children.
Ages 5 to 15. All right. Thank you.