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Please no casinos near my house!

Join Frank DiCicco in his effort to give us voters a say.

On March 15 vote YES to place the casino location referendum on
the May 15 ballot.

Thank you,

Mary O. Reinhart

Dear Governor Rendell, Gaming Commissioners, State Representatives, Mayor Street,
and Philadelphia City Council members,

I ask that the big box casinos stay 1,500 yards away from our houses, schools,
stores, mosques, synagogues, churchs and the vital street life of our residential
communities on the waterfront and throughout the city. Surely there are other sites
in Philadelphia (or beyond) that would present a viable compromise in which all
parties benefit. I support a referendum on the May Ballot so that the people of
Philadelphia may have a say in this process.

I know that if we DO get a referendum on the ballot, Sugarhouse and Foxwood will
flood our streets with candy, t-shirts and thank you notes to persuade our
beleaguered neighborhoods that a casino will be friend to the community. But the
truth is that ultimately, these casinos bring lower wages, higher crime, increased
bankruptcy, gambling addiction, distressed local businesses, and no real new
revenue to the communities while Gaming interests get very rich. By placing the
referendum on the ballot we will demonstrate both the strength of our city to make
its voice heard, and our respect for the legacy we were handed over two hundred
years ago in this very city. The birthplace of democracy.

Can't we be a bit more farsighted, creative, and healthy in our decisions?

How do we see ourselves? Do we see a population of Type 2 diabetics lined up in
front of one-arm bandits, throwing money away on a long shot because they think
it is their BEST chance to get ahead? I don't like the odds. But our State government
has legislated its belief that gambling is our best bet to get ahead and to finance
convention centers and schools. That is the message our state government is
sending to our children as the first generation of Americans who will grow up with
legalized gambling.

We can do better than that. We can come up with a more ambitious, inspiring use of
our Delaware Water Front as it connects to our vital and historic neighborhoods.

We can come up with a more ambitious goal for our children than service jobs in the
gambling industry. (Like the $6.6 million workforce development project that is
intended to develop a skilled workforce for the area's life-science industry.)

We need to set the bar higher for ourselves and our children. If gaming is to be a
part of our state's culture, it should not take the starring role on the rehabilitation
of our neighborhood waterfronts. Gaming should take a role in revitalizing
industrial areas that do NOT flank established neighborhoods that are vital to the
history, fabric, and sense of community in our city. Break new ground. (How about
Central Pennsylvania, where people could hike, cross-country ski, gamble, eat
regionally grown arganic food, have spa treatments and tour anthracite coal mines.
I'd come visit. But I'm digressing.)

I heard that New Jersey is putting a billion dollars into its gaming industry to shore
up the threat from neighboring states. And Pennsylvania expanded legal gambling
to compete with Delaware. WHERE DO YOU THINK THIS ESCALATION WILL LEAD?
WHAT KIND OF COMMUNITIES WILL BE LEFT IN ITS WAKE? Vegas is the exception.
Not the rule.

Thank you.

SIncerely,

Peggy O'Donnell
Division 15, Ward 15

I implore you to DO THE RIGHT THING and spend some time on due diligence
concerning the safety and welfare of our citizens and the impending negative
impact of casinos on our community, for which the state seems to have no regard or
respect.

Below you will find a very small sampling of information readily available on the
terrible effect that casinos and gambling have on communities everywhere.

Take a few moments and check out these websites and the negative impact that
gambling can have on communities around the country.

All of this makes me very sad because I really care about and love this city.

Gambling and Homelessness
“Alcohol, drug use, loss of work, and poverty are the most recognized causes of
homelessness. But there is an increasing trend of acceptable behavior that is
destroying families and adding to the problem of homelessness … gambling”.

http://www.casinowatch.org/costs/increases.html

http://society.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5005112-106808,00.html

http://www.agrm.org/news/gambling.html

http://www.hereshelpnet.org/gambling%20is%20it%20worth%20it.htm

http://www.lava.net/~manis/gambling.html
Addicted gamblers have the most serious troubles: theft, arrests, loss of jobs,
bankruptcy, marital conflict, and suicide. Some of these troubles are faced by
problem gamblers who are far more numerous than addicted gamblers. The
Harvard study reported that the number of problem gamblers rose from 4.9 million
in 1976 to 11 million in 1997. Altogether, addicted and problem gamblers rose to
over 15 million in 1997.

We need more time, money and information about
this project and its participants in order to deal with the
gruesome impact this will have on our much loved neighborhood.
We have learned that Foxwood cannot be trusted as they failed
to disclose their plans to pursue a presence in Atlantic City.
Please renew our faith in the democratic process - which has
taken such a beating in this day and age - and come to our aid
in preserving our quality of life in this great place. Casinos
do not belong in the middle of a family oriented neighborhood.
We are all aware this is an election year and all of us will be
sure to note the response of our elected officials. Do the
right thing! Sincerely, Diana Werner

Please do something to reverse the bad decision to put casinos
in Philadelphia. This decision will cost our city services,
businesses, and residents far more than any tax revenues from
gaming.

Thanks,
Jeff

My name is Patrick Renzi I hane been working on the
Philadelphia waterfront for the past 3 years.
I am considering purchasing my first home.In order to make this
purchaste I am assuming that I will have my job to make it
possible for me to pay my mortgage. My decision to entrust my
livelihood to the longshore industry is based on the optimism
that exists. However I now have tremendous concerns the casinos
takeover of industrial sites in the Port of Philadelphia will
destroy all hope of attracting the enormous amount of growth
projected for our industry and we will lose everything to our
competing ports.While I worry for my own future, I am also
fearful of the impact the casinos will have on our many
pensioners and their widows as the future of our pension plan
could be in jeopardy.
It is my belief the hasty decision to allow these properties to
be occupied by casinos is shortsighted. If the expanse of this
plan repalaces my famil sustaining job with low paying entry-
level casino work,I will be unable to afford a home in my own
neighborhood.
I ask that you use your legislative powers to delay the
progress of the casino industry until a plan can be realized
that will protect my job,and the thousands of others like me,
who have made our linings on the Philadelphia Waterfront for
may generations
I would appreciate your responding to my letter in writing.
Thank you
Sincerely

Patrick Renzi
154 Emily Rear Apt
Phila Pa 19148

Dear Governor Rendell, Mayor Street, and Representatives: It is
unconscionable that to date the Pennsylvania Gaming Control
Board has declined to provide Philadelphia residents with
critical information about the casino applicants and their
horribly ill-advised plan to set up shop in the City of
Philadelphia. We need more time, money and information about
this project and its participants in order to deal with the
gruesome impact this will have on our beloved home. Please
renew our faith in the democratic process - which has taken
such a beating in this day and age - and come to our aid in
preserving our quality of life in this great place.
Respectfully, Kimberly I. Bravo

You have done our neighborhoods, our city, and our country a huge
disservice. Philadelphia should be proud of its history and the
many close residential communities it has fostered over the
years. Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods and the people who
live in these historic districts are the backbone of our great
city. Vegas and Atlantic City? Souless, seedy, and depressing.
I'm horrified on behalf of the men and women of Pennsport who
were born in the very same houses they now live. You've taken
their neighborhood, now my neighborhood, and killed it.

To our elected representatives and officials,

In moving forward with awarding two casino licenses in the City
of Philadelphia, you have done a grave disservice to the City
and it's people. The two sites are a messy, hasty solution to
what could and should be a well developed waterfront.

In addition, this will only serve to make the traffic problems
on Columbus Blvd worse. As a south philadelphia resident, i
find myself often frequenting the Target, Home Depot, Shoprite
and other retail stores in the area. If the casino is built, i
will have to choice but to resume taking my shopping dollars to
New Jersey to get the retail items that I need.

Once again this city and its lack of leadership has no vision
and strategic plan to improve. Instead we get a hasty award of
two casino licenses shoved down our throats in our backyard.

I would ask that you take a step back and consider the impact
on retail, traffic, the drain on city resources (police, road
maintenance etc) and see if this really makes sense.

You can be sure i'll be doing the same and seeing if philly and
it's leaders make sense for me, or if it's time for me to
change my address or my elected officials.

Sincerely,
Russell J. Rossi

Foxwoods? You've got to be kidding. All the experts who
reviewed Foxwoods agreed it was a mediocre design at best in the
WORST possible location. The PGCB are moron's and should be
thrown out along with Senator Fuomo and Mayor Street. And I'm
none to happy with Governor Rendall for starting this whole mess
and ALL our representative who voted for it that 4th of July
weekend in the middle of the night.

This process is an example of the worst of politics. THROW ALL
THE BUMS OUT!

I can NOT believe this looks to be moving forward?! How is this
even considered good for Philadelphia? What are you people doing?
Don't you represent us?!! Why are you not defending us from this
horrible plan? I work for a living! That's why I pay my taxes and
vote! So YOU WILL REPRESENT US! How about you spend your energies
on working with the citizenry on a positive plan for building and
improving Philadelphia instead of raping it's few underdeveloped
plots of land for GAMBLING!? Is that what we have to depend on to
move our city forward? GAMBLING? IS THIS THE BEST YOU AND THE
STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA CAN DO?

Come ON! Get your acts together and do some work! I'm talking to
you Governor Rendall! Senator Fumo! State Rep Keller! And to you,
councilmembers Dicicco, Brown, Kenney, Rizzo, Goode, Kelly,
Ramos, Greenlee! Do your JOBS and STOP THIS CRAZINESS!

And to you, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, yes, I mean
YOU Chairman Thomas A. Decker, and Boardmembers Kenneth T.
McCabe, Mary D. Colins, Jeffrey W. Coy, Sanford D. Rivers, Joseph
W. Marshall III, Raymond S. Angeli! You are the lowest form of
scum. You are a bunch of un-elected political hacks. And if I
could, I would like nothing more than to personally make your
lives a living hell... just the way you are trying to make ours.
Go back to your Universities and Board-of-Director positions.
Tell the governor you think the Gaming Board should be elected
positions, and resign! Do something GOOD for a change! Resign TODAY!

Sirs,
I am appalled at the decision to place the Foxfoods casino in
South Philadelphia and support Diccios lawsuit to prevent it.

Several weeks ago I noticed Foxwoods casino job fair posters in
my neighborhood, why would they advertise a job fair before they
even knew they were granted a license? It seems suspicious.

Foxwoods is a horrific site. Unlike the Mt Airy Lodge or
Bethlehem which were massive abandoned sites with superlative
road infrastructures Foxwoods is right in the middle of a
neighborhood. A very vocal neighborhood that has been rapidly
gentrifying and is very clear that it doesn't want a Casino
literally in it's front yard.

Atlantic City is a perfect example of how casinos benefit and
transform neighborhoods. Pennsport has only been getting
safer-but with a casino, crime, traffic and pollution from casino
buses will poison a working class neighborhood thats home not
only to the Mummers, but to many families.

At demonstrations I've met one of the retired ladies whose house
is slated to be taken by imminent domain and used as ramp to
I-95. My husband and I are house hunting and were looking
primarily in Pennsport-now my husband wants to move to South Jersey.

Years ago I chose to move to Philadelphia because it wasn't
dependant solely on good timer tourists who cared nothing about
the long range health of the city. I chose Philly because it
treated it's history with class and love and was nuturing and
gentrifiying it's neighborhoods. There are parts of the city that
Casinos will enrich and improve. Foxwoods is not that part of the
city.

I am disgusted, saddened and enraged. I voted against casino
gaming yrs ago. I've been to demonstrations, signed petitions,
called politicians and I vote in every single election. Please, I
beg you, STOP THE FOXWOODS CASINO. SAVE A NEIGHBORHOOD. DON"T
MAKE ME MOVE TO SOUTH JERSEY.
Sincerely,
Nicole Stranko

The arrival of casinos in the neighborhoods of Philadelphia
will benefit no one but the owners of the casinos. Our city is
made up of many wonderful small scale neighborhoods, nurtured
along by the people who live and work in them. There has been
nothing but opposition from the people who live in these
neighborhoods against the proposals to bring the casinos here.
Who supports them and thinks it would be a benefit to the
neighborhoods? Please stand up against this incredibly bad
propostion that could mar our neighborhoods for years to come.

This decision was made with NO concern for the citizens of
Philadelphia. They will only create blight, prostitution, and
all the other ailments you can see just one block down from
the "revitalized" Atlantic City boardwalk.
The traffic will be astronomical. Trips to Target and Home
Depot will be a thing of the past. More construction on 95 will
be awful for communters.
To be a world class city, we need to act like one. The big box
cheap slot parlors will drain the aesthetic and the life out of
the Pennsport community.
Please do something to at least let the citizens VOTE!!!

When my wife and I moved to Philadelphia from Boston 6 months ago we couldn't
have fallen more in love with this city. We felt lucky and special to have found a
home in Queen Village that we could afford and took pride in trying to make it a
special house on our block. To find out a casino is moving in 8 blocks from our new
home, with no concern given to the feelings of the community or the people who
make this city as amazing as it is, is both disheartening and appalling. The
Foxwoods Casino will destroy a neighborhood that is much loved and meticulously
maintained by its citizens. The city, for what it gains in revenues from slot
machines, will lose a large piece of its heart and that's something that cannot be
recovered.
It's interesting to see that the board of directors of the Foxwoods Casino is heavily
made-up of people with ties to Philadelphia. They, along with the politicians who
immorally pushed through the laws that allowed these casinos to come into our
neighborhood, are willingly destroying the city they claim to represent. Philadelphia
is truly blessed to have such a beautiful waterfront. What you are planning to do to
our city is shameful. After two weeks here my wife and I were proud to call
Philadelphia our home and wanted to do everything we could to live up to our
feelings for this city. Now, you cronies have us eager to leave Philadelphia behind.
Thanks for failing both the citizens and the city you were elected to represent.

This decision was made with NO concern for the citizens of
Philadelphia. They will only create blight, prostitution, and
all the other ailments you can see just one block down from
the "revitalized" Atlantic City boardwalk.
The traffic will be astronomical. Trips to Target and Home
Depot will be a thing of the past. More construction on 95 will
be awful for communters.
To be a world class city, we need to act like one. The big box
cheap slot parlors will drain the aesthetic and the life out of
the Pennsport community.
Please do something to at least let the citizens VOTE!!!

Is the Gaming Board crazy?! I cannot believe that Foxwoods was
chosen! This is outrageous and needs to be stopped.
Philadelphia deserves so much better on the waterfront. To be
a world class city, we need to act like one. The big box cheap
slot parlors will drain the aesthetic and the life out of the
Pennsport community. It will create traffic problems in our
neighborhood.

I cannot believe this decision. I have never been so
dissappointed by a decision effecting this city in the nearly
twenty years I have lived here.

Plan Philly conducted a riverfront planning meeting on Thursday
December 14th at the Independence Seaport Museum. 350 residents
took time out of their own lives to participate. In exchange
for our time residents were allowed to contribute "positive
values" to a discussion. We were asked if the
Waterfront "contributed to things that we valued" or "inhibited
things that we valued". This format filtered-out all anti-
casino language, because it just didn't sound positive.

At no point in the discussion were we asked if we actually
advocated for Casinos in our neighborhoods.

At no point did it matter to Penn Praxis that PGCB is rushing
through license approvals as we speak.

At no point did we discuss the impact of Act 71.

One representative of the shipping industry was on hand; to be
fair Penn Praxis could have invited one representative from the
shipping industry for every break-out group.

A raw deal is never a done deal.

Ken Gregory, Philadelphia Resident

"FOXWOODS WORST SITE",
"NEIGHBORHOODS NOT FOXWOODS",
"NO EMINENT DOMAIN FOR I95 OFF-RAMPS"

We waved these signs on 11/14/06 in Harrisburg as Foxwoods
Casino presented its application to the Pennsylvania Gaming
Control Board.

Not there? Then you missed hearing that Foxwoods plans to

(1) build a descending I95 off-ramp in the space above Front
Street to dump traffic into the Dickinson Street intersection,

(2) widen the south-bound lanes of Front Street TO THE WEST,

(3) use our neighborhood for off-site parking for its employees.

Who among us will have roaring traffic on an off-ramp mere
inches from our front doors???

Who will lose houses and businesses when Front Street is
widened???

Who will have Foxwoods' parking monstrosities consuming our
space???

All of us will suffer these horrors - and others- if Foxwoods'
slots slum at Columbus Blvd and Tasker Street is ever built.

It will swamp us with traffic, drunk drivers, corruption,
prostitution, drug dealing, 24/7 flashing signage, destroy
property values, hurt the environment, overshadow us with 30-50
story hotels , slow ambulances, fire trucks and police help and
overwhelm infrastructure and drainage systems. It will devastate
our quality of life.

Foxwoods showed a "community support" video.
4 people from blocks away to the west complained about the
eyesore at Tasker & Columbus (the lot has been controlled for
decades by neglectful casino developers.) One said that, since
tremendous numbers of casino goers will be flooding through the
streets at all hours , we will not need Town Watches since these
crowds will be watching everything that goes on. What??!!

Its obvious the slick Foxwoods investors don't care about the
damage they will inflict. Easing into limousines at the end of
their show they laughed at our attempts to tell them what they
will do to the honest working people who live here..

If Foxwoods gets the go-ahead to build its monstronsity and
implements its despicable plans, we will all erupt in bitter
opposition!


Sincerely,

Mary O. Reinhart
Philadelphia PA, 19147

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