Last night, after gorging myself at the Phillies roller coaster-like loss to the Marlins (SERIOUSLY, guys, getting everyone's hopes up and then leaving men on base is worse than blueballs! Or so I've heard...) I was driving home and heard some disturbing news on the radio.
Foxwoods Casino is in talks to relocate to The Gallery at Market East!
Oh, what horrible news this is. Casinos in general are just bad news - drunk gamblers stumbling around at all hours of the night, increased traffic, people driven into debt by excessive betting and then taking it out on the community - all around there's not much good that can come of it. Sure it might provide some jobs and increase tourism, but there are more sanitary ways to create jobs and are gamblers really the types of tourists we want in the Philly? I think it's safe to say we don't want to become another Atlantic City.
But then to take all the negatives about casinos, and plop them right down in the MIDDLE of a city that's already having trouble with people beating others with hammers on the subway... well that's just adding insult to injury.
To be fair, I don't actually know if casinos elevate crime. And I've gambled myself and find it fun (craps, anyone?) so I don't think all gamblers are lowlifes. But when I think about the sorry state of the Gallery and Market Street as it is today, I don't see converting it into a casino as a step up by any stretch of the imagination. I mean you've got Chestnut, with its restaurants, cafes, and delis, then Walnut with its theatre and quality shopping... and then there's Market Street with its trash, abandoned buildings, graffiti-ridden bus stops and public transportation nightmares... it deserves a better revitalization plan than a flashy slot-machine haven.
Is that really what we want people to see when they step off the train for the first time? Or when they venture from City Hall to Old City to partake in the historical treasures of Philadelphia? I think not.
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3 comments:
great time last PM hot dogs coming out my a.....
just to play some devil's advocate here, but don't casinos bring in a lot of tax revenue? ...possibly for funding our ailing public school system.
and does this mean theyre replacing the gallery with the casino or are they just adding to the gallery? i was gonna buy some hot kicks there!
Thanks for the comment Brian. I'm sure casinos do bring in a lot of revenue... but I guess the question we have to ask is a) can we get that revenue elsewhere and b) is the revenue enough to justify the negative effects of the casino.
And I believe they'd build it on top of the Gallery. When they first built the Gallery they put pads on it intending to allow high-rises or office buildings to be built on top.
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