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Faxes Sent to Babette Josephs

Letters

From:	CL
To:	Representative Josephs
Date:	Monday, 06/02/08
Subject:	H.B. 2420 - You are a disappointment

We have elected you time after time with no memorable results.
You have finally reached a seniority level that would permit you
to really make a difference. You have backed down! How very,
very disappointing. For the first time you will not be getting
my vote this November.

Dear Gaming Oversight Committee Member:

How do you make the world a better place? Do you give back?
Are you a kind friend? A good neighbor, father, mother,
sibling, teacher? What will your legacy be?

I am pleeing with you to do the right thing in this fine city
of Philadelphia and leave her to grow and prosper through local
business and strong-minded, budding community leaders. Not
through revenues built upon by a casino planted in the hearts
and souls of the neighborhoods in this city.

What will our city become? Worse yet, what will she be known
as? This unique place we call home needs to be protected from
the interests and pockets of the so-called leaders of this
state. I invite Govenor Rendell and the judges allowing this
atrocity to occur to meet the people who will be most affected
by this decision - the families, the children, the local
businesses. Would they then be able to look at the faces of
this cities future and see dollar signs in their eyes? Or
would their humanity become ever-present to envision what a
huge mistake they are encouraging on our doorsteps.

I am mostly sad for this city. For even after the casino walls
are built and the money flows in, this city will be forever
changed - and not for the better.

Please DO NOT ALLOW THIS CASINO TO DEVELOP ON OUR DOORSTEPS!!!
OUR CITY AND THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE HERE, WORK HERE AND SPEND
THEIR TIME, ENERGY AND LOVE TO MAKE IT A BEAUTIFUL PLACE -
DESERVE MORE!!!

Most sincerely a Philadelphia resident, teacher, friend,
community gardener, Temple Univeristy alum and human being,
Lesley Grill

I am writing to ask for your assistance regarding the proposed
design of the South Street Bridge. I believe that current design
is a terrible mistake and must be reworked to address its glaring
flaws.

Please take the time to make sure the flaws of the proposed South
Street Bridge are addressed. Please make sure that PennDOT and
the Streets Department follow their own best practices and build
a new bridge that is sensitive to its true context - the
neighborhoods it will connect - and NOT the interstate it will span.

We should be reconfiguring our cities away from dependence on
cars and trucks. Our next Mayor has enthusiastically endorsed the
Next Great City project. Yet, we are investing in infrastructure
that directly undermines the principles of environmental
sustainability embodied by this proposal.

The proposed bridge design is configured to serve the needs of
the interstate - NOT the needs of the neighborhoods it connects.
Instead of building a bridge that considers the needs of
pedestrians and cyclists, the designers configured the proposed
bridge to facilitate commercial truck traffic. The new bridge
will accommodate five lanes of traffic and be equipped with wider
turning lanes the intersection of the on ramps to facilitate
access to I-76. By enlarging the intersection, the new bridge
will allow tractor trailers to use the South Street Bridge to
enter and exit I-76.

Contrary to their own practice, the designers of the proposed
South Street Bridge are putting the needs of the interstate ahead
of the needs of the neighborhoods the bridge connects. If the
proposed bridge does what it is designed to do, tractor trailers
will rumble down South Street. In addition to posing a safety
hazard to pedestrians and cyclists, tractor trailers will smother
a quiet residential neighborhood with diesel dust and hamper the
rebirth of the South Street West commercial corridor.

The South Street Bridge never served as an access point for
tractor trailers and commercial traffic. Currently, the tractor
trailers cannot use the South Street Bridge to access I-76. The
turning lanes at the top of the on ramps are too narrow to
accommodate the turning radius of large trucks.

PennDOT's website recognizes its commitment to context sensitive
design. Its website states: "PENNDOT has embraced FHWA’s Context
Sensitive Design initiative committed to changing the way highway
projects are developed, constructed and maintained. Context
sensitivity emphasizes the broad nature of solutions to
transportation needs by focusing on enhancing the quality of life
across the Commonwealth for transportation users, communities and
the surrounding environment."

On another page of its website, PennDOT states: "The CSS
initiative focuses on applying the flexibility in design
standards to meet local community needs, promote joint use of
transportation corridors by pedestrians, cyclists and public
transit vehicles, develop a comprehensive transportation program
and allow sufficient flexibility to encourage innovative or
unique designs for particular situations."

With a proposed lifespan of 75 years, the bridge will
inextricably alter the neighborhoods and the lives of their
residents it connects. We cannot let this happen. Action must be
taken to mitigate its potential disastrous effects.

The proposed bridge has a projected lifespan of 75 years. 75
years is a long time to be stuck with a bad bridge. Particularly
if the proposed bridge turns out to be not just bad, but a
terrible bridge. For this reason, we must take the time to make
sure we get the design right. To quote Ben Franklin, "a stitch
in time saves nine."

Thank you for your assistance.

Dear Gaming Oversight Committee Member:

Hey guys? What's the holdup with HB 1477?? Please put your
efforts behind moving this Bill out of Committee and put it out
on the floor for a vote. Passage of this bill into law is a
much needed basic protection for those of your constituents
forced to live near these casinos.

Democracy is alive and well thanks to those elected officials
who listen to the common constituent- the little guy who has no
great clout or a bunch of cash- rather just a voice and a vote.

Please don't give into the corporate influence and political
paybacks that are trying to jam these things into densely
populated thriving neighborhoods regardless of the
consequences. We are counting on you to protect us.

Please, it is your job to represent the common people and I
hope you will do the right thing and move HB 1477 out of
committee and pass this into law.

Thanks.
-Mary

Dear Governor Rendell:

City Council, and the City of Philadelphia will not stand your
bullying tactics and undemocratic actions that have attempted
to shove casinos down the throats of Fishtown and Pennsport
neighborhoods.
Shame on you for working for business intersets instead of the
citizens of Philadelphia.

Dear Governor Rendell:

As someone who has benefitted from your leadership in
Philadelphia, and volunteered to help you get elected Governor
of Pennsylvania, I was very disappointed to read your
disparaging remarks about City Council relative to the casinos
on Delaware Avenue.

Delaware Avenue is a terrible place for the casinos, for many
reasons:
1) The casinos will be alarmingly close to stable residential
neighborhoods, particularly the Sugar House site near
Fishtown. Also, I currently have a house for sale in South
Philadelphia (4th and Mifflin), and one potential buyer decided
not to put in an offer due to the pending Foxwoods casino only
a few blocks away.
2) Delaware Avenue is already choked with traffic in the
evenings and on weekends, as thousands of people drive to Home
Depot, Lowe's, SuperFresh, Ikea, and all the other stores.
Adding casino traffic will make this bad situation much, much,
worse.
3) The casinos will only further separate the Delaware River
from the urban fabric of Philadelphia. We need more public-
minded development on the river to encourage everyone to enjoy
and care for it, and we don't need any more windowless boxes
right on the shores of the Delaware.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I am sure that
there are other sites in Philadelphia that would be more
appropriate for casino development (such as the old
international terminal at the airport), and I believe that City
Council and Mayor Nutter's administration can work together to
identify and develop them.

Pamela Zimmerman

Dear Governor Rendell:
Back off and let city council and the citizens of Philadelphia
pursue a casino development process in whatever measured manner
we see fit. I am increasingly dubious of your true intentions
with respect to gaming in the Commonwealth. Make me pround and
redirect your energy and voice to attracting vice-free business
headquarters to our great city!

Dear Governor Rendell:

As our former, beloved mayor I am shocked and saddened by your
bullyish attack on city council. As mayor you were a man of the
people. As governor you have become a very disappointing man of
the money with little regard to the people who elected you to
office with the belief that you would run our state the way you
did our city.

I urge you to come to your senses and consider a more sensible
placement for casinos. We as tax paying Philadelphians deserve
to have our neighborhoods kept safe and habitable. A casino on
the waterfront would not allow for a 1500 foot buffer zone and
thus greatly impact the quality of life for our neighbors living
in this area.

Yes, casinos will bring jobs and revenue to our city, but with
this comes a sharp increase in crime. Would you want your family
living less than 1500 feet from a casino? Please reconsider and
do what's right?

Respectfully,

Donna Leathers

Dear Governor Rendell:
I am writing as one of the 1.5 million constituents of our
courageous City Council led by Councilman Frank DiCicco and our
elected representatives in the General Assembly (Senator Fumo,
and Representatives O’Brien, Keller and Josephs) and of our
newly-elected Mayor Michael Nutter, who are united with PNA in an
effort to re-site the casinos.

Your intemperate and misplaced attack this week is not
appreciated by the residents of Philadelphia, who have worked for
over a year to relocate the two casinos in Philadelphia away from
neighborhoods.

You, and the casino operators, stand alone in the way of moving
these slots parlors to more appropriate locations. Please direct
your efforts, and the considerable goodwill you have as the most
popular politician in Pennsylvania in the last thirty years, to
finding a better location for the casinos and for creating a
waterfront which will be a valued legacy to good planning and
good government.

Respectfully,

Dear Governor Rendell:
Philadelphia's City Council has the right to express the concerns of Philadelphians
who would be stuck with the disaster of casinos in our city. Who are you kidding
about jobs! Only very low paying jobs with addictions galore that our taxpayers
would be stuck with paying.
Philadelphians told you when you were mayor that we didn't want your casinos.
Stay out of this!

Dear Governor Rendell:
I'm in total agreement with your statement that "One of the
things I have learned in my 30 years in politics is you can't
have everyone love you all the time. If there aren't some
people mad at you, you aren't doing your job" in relation to
Philadelphia City Council's curent review of the two proposed
casino sites on the Delaware riverfront. There's more animosity
coming your way as we contine to put pressure on Philadelphia
City Council to carefully review the potential problems caused
by locating these casinos next to residential neighborhoods and
that these problems are solved before giving the go-ahead to
build these facilities. Sorry for the continuing delay but the
potential impact upon the area is simply too serious for the
rubber stamp approach to urban development.
Regards,
Tom Baier

Dear Governor Rendell:

I am writing to you as one of the 1.5 million constituents of our
courageous City Council led by Councilman Frank DiCicco and our
elected representatives in the General Assembly (Senator Fumo,
and Representatives O’Brien, Keller and Josephs) and of our
newly-elected Mayor Michael Nutter, who are united with PNA in an
effort to re-site the casinos.

Your entirely inconsiderate and contemptible behavior in your
misplaced attack earlier this week on Philadelphia City Council
is not appreciated by me, my neighbors, friends and colleagues
who are all Center City Philadelphia residents, many of whom have
worked with and supported those other residents of Philadelphia
who have worked for more than a year to relocate the two casinos
in Philadelphia away from neighborhoods.

You - and the casino operators - stand alone in the way of moving
these slots parlors to more appropriate locations.

You were once one of my heroes and my admiration began long
before you were District Attorney of Philadelphia and Mayor.

It's now time that you begin to -please- re-direct your efforts
in the spirit of your former and considerable goodwill that once
made you the most popular politician in Pennsylvania in the last
thirty years and to work with the people - and who once supported
you - in finding a better location and solution for unwanted
casinos and in creating a vibrant waterfront community that will
be a valued legacy to good planning and good government for the
future generations of Philadelphians and visitors to this city.

Respectfully,

Dear Governor Rendell:

I support Philadelphia's City Council and Mayor Nutter for
providing much-needed oversite to the process of bringing casinos
to my city. So far, the process has been far from transparent, as
the casinos and the state government have used dirty tactics to
do what it wishes. I am a citizen of Philadelphia and feel that
we have the right to know the effect that casinos will have on
our neighborhoods, and the right to reject them if they will hurt
neighborhoods. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Julie S. Krug

Dear Governor Rendell,
The process that led to the placement of two casinos on our
waterfront has been a disappointing show of bad politics and
constituent disregard. We have been witnessing the continuation
of the long history of mistakes and poor judgment regarding the
river and it's time to reassess and seek the best possible
locations for the casinos. I would appreciate it if you would
allow our city leaders to work through their current concerns
without attempting to bully them into compliance with your ideas.
Thank you.

Dear Governor Rendell:

Our City Council is not a rubber stamp, but the voice of the
people. Allow us, your constituents, to have a voice in how our
community is shaped by the influx of casino gaming. Inevitable or
not, we deserve the opportunity to review completely the impact
such casinos will have on our schools, parks, neighborhoods and
civic life.

Dear Governor Rendell:

Dear Governor Rendell:

I am appalled by your statements today, implying that city
council has no business protecting it's citizens from the poorly
made decision to place 2 large casinos close to the heaviest
populated area of the city. Everything that has been said by
anti-casino advocates makes very good sense. The fact remains
that there is no precedent anywhere for placing huge casinos in
the hub of a major US city, that traffic issues has not been
dealt with, and that it has not been shown in any way that the
possible benefits of some jobs would in any way begin to
compensate for the huge lose of quality of life and huge
possibility for damage for placing this type of business in the
proposed locations. Many of our city council as well as Mayor
Nutter have been heroic in their efforts to save our city from
this assault by this corrupt and invasive move on the part of
our state government.

Dear Governor Rendell:

As a strong supporter of all the efforts our city council and
Mayor Nutter are putting into attempting to prevent the casinos
from being sited on the valuable waterfront adjacent to
residential neighborhoods, I am writing to admonish you for
your disparaging comments earlier this week.

Far from making me question what City Council is doing, it made
me question your motivation in this whole process.
Who exactly are you working for? The residents of Philadelphia
as you claim, or the casinos?

Despite the arguments that you have been spouting for the past
few years since the pro-casino decisions were slammed into law
without allowing Philadelphia residents a say in the matter
(More jobs! Increased tourism! Lower residential taxes!),I
think it is pretty clear at this point that there is a strong
constituency who is more than willing to forgo these
promised "benefits" in order to prevent lower quality of life
issues that other cities who have made the leap into casino-
based tourism have already experienced: increased traffic,
higher incidents of crime, overall decreased home values, etc.

I do not disapprove of casinos; they are a form of
entertainment that is enjoyed by many. However, the sites
selected are inappropriate and would be a terrible solution for
how to begin the planning and redevelopment of Philadelphia's
waterfront.

Please look elsewhere for siting options, and stop your
continued efforts on behalf of casino development on these
sites: do we want Philadelphia to finally fulfill it's
potential and emerge as one of the great cities, or follow in
the steps of Atlantic City? The answer seems too clear to
ignore.

I would hate this bitter and unpopular battle to become your
legacy.

Respectfully,

Karen Clancy

Dear Governor Rendell:

I am writing as one of the 1.5 million constituents of our
courageous City Council led by Councilman Frank DiCicco and our
elected representatives in the General Assembly (Senator Fumo,
and Representatives O’Brien, Keller and Josephs) and of our
newly-elected Mayor Michael Nutter, who are united with PNA in
an effort to re-site the casinos.

Your attack this week is not appreciated by the residents of Philadelphia, who have
worked for over a year to relocate the two casinos in Philadelphia
away from neighborhoods.

You need look no further than Atlantic city to see how casinos can DESTROY the
lifeblood of a city.

You, and the casino operators, stand alone in the way of moving
these slots parlors to more appropriate locations. Please
direct your efforts - and the considerable goodwill you have as
the most popular politician in Pennsylvania in the last thirty
years - to finding a better location for the casinos and for
creating a waterfront which will be a valued legacy to good
planning and good government.

Respectfully,

Miriam Marshall

Dear Governor Rendell:

It's both sad and infuriating that the pressure of the
governorship of Pennsylvania has seemingly broken you. Your
attempt at intimidation of City Council is not what I would have
expected from a man who used to be so proud to have worked to
improve Philadelphia -- how bizarre that you now apparently
believe that the City of Philadelphia should have no jurisdiction
over development of city neighborhoods!

I understand that you were counting on revenue from the casinos,
but you're just going to have to find either a mutually-agreeable
site or another way to raise money. It's tough to increase
revenue without offending someone, but as a former Philly major
stated recently, "...you can't have everyone love you all the
time. If there aren't some people mad at you, you aren't doing
your job."

I campaigned for you in your first term as governor. I urge you
to consider a change of heart and a softening of that famous
stubbornness and temper. Try to avoid provoking wholehearted
regret amongst those of us who got you elected into office.

(Note: City Council members, like yourself, hold elected office.
They work for us, not for you.)

With dismay,
Susan M. Waskey
South Philadelphia

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