PHILADELPHIA — Visitors come here to see just one bell — the Liberty Bell. Soon they'll be looking for a row of them — on a slot machine.
Pennsylvania's 2-year-old state gaming board is to award licenses Wednesday for two slot machine casinos to be built here. That will make Philadelphia the largest city in the country with casinos and put legalized gaming within 2 miles of Independence Hall, where the founding fathers gambled their fortunes on revolution.
The arrival of slots parlors here is part of the spread of gambling through the mid-Atlantic. New Jersey, New York and Connecticut have casinos. Pennsylvania and Delaware have slots at racetracks, and Maryland's incoming governor wants to do the same.
In Philadelphia, founded by Quakers whose religious beliefs prohibit gambling, slots casinos are facing a cold welcome from the neighbors.
In Pennsport, the riverfront neighborhood where Rene Goodwin lives in a 19th-century brick row house, the elevated bulk of Interstate 95 separates narrow residential streets from big-box stores and the city's container port. One of the casinos is proposed for a vacant site next to Wal-Mart.
"It isn't this hinterland," says Goodwin, who leads Riverfront Communities United, a group of seven neighborhood associations. Pennsport would be overwhelmed by traffic and crime if the slots parlor is built two blocks away, she says. "It's a real place, where people know each other. … Is it worth destroying one of the best neighborhoods in the city for a casino?"
Five proposals are competing for the two licenses. The developers include Donald Trump; the Pequot tribe, which runs Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut; and the owner of Philadelphia's two daily newspapers. Four of the proposed slots parlors would be built along the Delaware River, and the fifth would be across town, closer to wealthy suburbs.
Something to come for
Bringing gambling to Philadelphia has long been supported by former mayor Ed Rendell, who is now governor. Mayor John Street, who leaves office next year, also supports it as a boost to the city's tourism business. The city's convention center plans a $700 million expansion to be completed in 2009.
Street says convention planners already schedule an evening in Atlantic City for conventiongoers. He predicts the state will eventually allow table games as well. About half the revenue from the Philadelphia slots parlors would be money now used to gamble elsewhere, according to the city's gaming task force.
"If you want people to live in your city, to live in your region, to bring their conventions here, to bring their bodies here for vacation, you've got to have something for them," he says. "I want them to look like casinos, I want them to feel like casinos. A real casino with all of the opulence. I want to see a little neon."
The state's 54% tax on casino revenue — the highest of the 36 states that have legalized gambling — is earmarked for property tax relief. And in Philadelphia, it would allow a cut in the city's wage tax paid by people who work in the city regardless of where they live. If casinos ultimately take in $2 billion a year as projected, the city says it expects a 13% cut in the wage tax, which is 4.3% for city residents and 3.8% for commuters.
In addition, the city will receive a $25 million "host fee" paid by the casinos, says Shawn Fordham, a mayoral adviser and executive director of the city's Gaming Advisory Task Force. The two casinos are projected to generate 10,000 permanent jobs.
Casino Free Philadelphia has gone to court to try to overturn the 2004 state law allowing slots. Jethro Heiko, who heads the group, says the public hasn't seen the casinos' final proposals that were modified after the period for public comment closed. Nor has the state established standards for neighborhood impact, the lawsuit argues.
"Do we even want Philadelphia to be the next Atlantic City?" he says. "We already have a lot of good things happening in the city. We're not desperate."
More work to be done
Street concedes that more work needs to be done on traffic plans for the riverfront slots parlors, which will rely on I-95 and a boulevard already clogged at peak hours. A planned widening of I-95 will make traffic even worse.
Neighbors are also annoyed that the Legislature has allowed unlimited free drinks at the casinos. "When the bars close, everybody's going to haul ass down here. So we're going to be overrun with a bunch of drunks that want to stay out all night," says Ed Verrall, a retired trucker who lives in Fishtown, a neighborhood bordering three of the proposed casino sites. He has joined the lawsuit.
Last week, City Councilman Frank DiCicco, whose district is home to the riverfront casino sites, asked for a six-month delay in licensing to allow further review of the plans.
A newly formed community group, Neighbors Allied for a Better Riverfront, criticizes the city for being passive about state-imposed casinos. Members say that allowing two of the last parcels of land along the river to be given to casinos squanders what could be a great asset for the city: the riverfront.
Although the city did stop the Legislature from exempting the casinos from city zoning laws, the city only started its comprehensive riverfront planning effort last month. While the city's task force has evaluated each casino proposal, it has not said which ones it wants the state to choose.
Street says casino licenses are left to the state to award.
"No one is forcing gaming on us," he says. "It's where the world is headed. Adapt or die."
The state's decision to bring gambling to Philadelphia "was an imposition in every way, shape and form," says Meredith Warner, an artist who lives in Fishtown and a founder of the new community group. "It's unprecedented to take a city of this size and plunk down casinos in the middle of neighborhoods."
Philly to be largest gambling city - USATODAY.com
Pennsylvania's 2-year-old state gaming board is to award licenses Wednesday for two slot machine casinos to be built here. That will make Philadelphia the largest city in the country with casinos and put legalized gaming within 2 miles of Independence Hall, where the founding fathers gambled their fortunes on revolution.
The arrival of slots parlors here is part of the spread of gambling through the mid-Atlantic. New Jersey, New York and Connecticut have casinos. Pennsylvania and Delaware have slots at racetracks, and Maryland's incoming governor wants to do the same.
In Philadelphia, founded by Quakers whose religious beliefs prohibit gambling, slots casinos are facing a cold welcome from the neighbors.
In Pennsport, the riverfront neighborhood where Rene Goodwin lives in a 19th-century brick row house, the elevated bulk of Interstate 95 separates narrow residential streets from big-box stores and the city's container port. One of the casinos is proposed for a vacant site next to Wal-Mart.
"It isn't this hinterland," says Goodwin, who leads Riverfront Communities United, a group of seven neighborhood associations. Pennsport would be overwhelmed by traffic and crime if the slots parlor is built two blocks away, she says. "It's a real place, where people know each other. … Is it worth destroying one of the best neighborhoods in the city for a casino?"
Five proposals are competing for the two licenses. The developers include Donald Trump; the Pequot tribe, which runs Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut; and the owner of Philadelphia's two daily newspapers. Four of the proposed slots parlors would be built along the Delaware River, and the fifth would be across town, closer to wealthy suburbs.
Something to come for
Bringing gambling to Philadelphia has long been supported by former mayor Ed Rendell, who is now governor. Mayor John Street, who leaves office next year, also supports it as a boost to the city's tourism business. The city's convention center plans a $700 million expansion to be completed in 2009.
Street says convention planners already schedule an evening in Atlantic City for conventiongoers. He predicts the state will eventually allow table games as well. About half the revenue from the Philadelphia slots parlors would be money now used to gamble elsewhere, according to the city's gaming task force.
"If you want people to live in your city, to live in your region, to bring their conventions here, to bring their bodies here for vacation, you've got to have something for them," he says. "I want them to look like casinos, I want them to feel like casinos. A real casino with all of the opulence. I want to see a little neon."
The state's 54% tax on casino revenue — the highest of the 36 states that have legalized gambling — is earmarked for property tax relief. And in Philadelphia, it would allow a cut in the city's wage tax paid by people who work in the city regardless of where they live. If casinos ultimately take in $2 billion a year as projected, the city says it expects a 13% cut in the wage tax, which is 4.3% for city residents and 3.8% for commuters.
In addition, the city will receive a $25 million "host fee" paid by the casinos, says Shawn Fordham, a mayoral adviser and executive director of the city's Gaming Advisory Task Force. The two casinos are projected to generate 10,000 permanent jobs.
Casino Free Philadelphia has gone to court to try to overturn the 2004 state law allowing slots. Jethro Heiko, who heads the group, says the public hasn't seen the casinos' final proposals that were modified after the period for public comment closed. Nor has the state established standards for neighborhood impact, the lawsuit argues.
"Do we even want Philadelphia to be the next Atlantic City?" he says. "We already have a lot of good things happening in the city. We're not desperate."
More work to be done
Street concedes that more work needs to be done on traffic plans for the riverfront slots parlors, which will rely on I-95 and a boulevard already clogged at peak hours. A planned widening of I-95 will make traffic even worse.
Neighbors are also annoyed that the Legislature has allowed unlimited free drinks at the casinos. "When the bars close, everybody's going to haul ass down here. So we're going to be overrun with a bunch of drunks that want to stay out all night," says Ed Verrall, a retired trucker who lives in Fishtown, a neighborhood bordering three of the proposed casino sites. He has joined the lawsuit.
Last week, City Councilman Frank DiCicco, whose district is home to the riverfront casino sites, asked for a six-month delay in licensing to allow further review of the plans.
A newly formed community group, Neighbors Allied for a Better Riverfront, criticizes the city for being passive about state-imposed casinos. Members say that allowing two of the last parcels of land along the river to be given to casinos squanders what could be a great asset for the city: the riverfront.
Although the city did stop the Legislature from exempting the casinos from city zoning laws, the city only started its comprehensive riverfront planning effort last month. While the city's task force has evaluated each casino proposal, it has not said which ones it wants the state to choose.
Street says casino licenses are left to the state to award.
"No one is forcing gaming on us," he says. "It's where the world is headed. Adapt or die."
The state's decision to bring gambling to Philadelphia "was an imposition in every way, shape and form," says Meredith Warner, an artist who lives in Fishtown and a founder of the new community group. "It's unprecedented to take a city of this size and plunk down casinos in the middle of neighborhoods."
Philly to be largest gambling city - USATODAY.com
