Who we are and why we fight

At Suffolk Business School's "Build Boston" forum about casinos last Thursday morning, Stephen Crosby, chairman of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, shared a brief, private chat with No Eastie Casino co-chair Celeste Ribeiro Myers. Crosby conveyed the commission's goal to facilitate a process wherein communities see as many benefits and as few consequences as possible from expanded gambling. Myers politely shared with Crosby her concerns that "communities are being worked by the process instead of the other way around." She also shared her frustration at community members' inability to get any real data or answers from Suffolk Downs or the City.

Crosby reassured Myers, telling her that the opposition's voices are being heard. "That's what people like you are for," he said. "To share your side and inform residents."

When Chairman Crosby took the stage for the opening remarks, he proceeded to make what some might find to be an especially candid observation about the relationship between casino developers and host communities. With Foxwoods CEO Scott Butera and Suffolk Downs COO Chip Tuttle sitting a few feet away, Crosby said, "We know that this is not a fair negotiation in many respects."

He's said this a handful of times over the last year, and guess what – he's right. Gazillion-dollar casino companies, with their nearly unlimited advertising budgets, are old pros at getting what they want out of communities in which they want to build. You might say that even in casino negotiations, the house always wins.

That's why Boston shouldn't even entertain the idea that dropping one of the world's largest casinos into a densely populated, local business-driven community will be a net gain for the neighborhood. It's why hundreds of ordinary East Boston residents, representing a true cross-section of the neighborhood, are standing up to defend the neighborhood we love. (VIDEO: "East Boston Residents Speak Out Against the Casino")

We do it begrudgingly, because we all have better things we could be doing with our time. We didn't wake up one morning thinking, "Let's fight a multinational corporation today!" We'd rather be spending more time doing the things we love: organizing neighborhood associations, fixing bikes at the Central Square farmer's market, leading parishioners, taking our kids to Constitution Beach, supporting local businesses, ballroom dancing, weeding our community garden plots, studying English, joining a nonprofit board, or training for our next 5K.

Instead, we're forced to oppose a predatory corporation, run by billionaires, that wants to move in up the street, suck dry local businesses and working-class neighbors, and place yet another 24-7 burden on a neighborhood that's been through enough. A burden about which our elected officials have been starry-eyed for years, ignorant of its consequences. (ICYMI: "A quick and dirty rundown of why a Boston casino is a bad idea"). We'd rather be doing other things, for sure, but we stand up and declare, "Enough."

We fight this because we believe East Boston is defined by hard work and long hours, not shortcuts. Eastie is the safest neighborhood in Boston. We're supportive of families with children, thousands of whom go to school less than a mile from where the casino would be built. Ours is a neighborhood in recovery from its own history of substance abuse problems that can hardly stand hundreds more of its residents succumbing to the traps of gambling addiction.

East Boston is a neighborhood of older adults who have seen their fair share of struggle here. They've stood up to similarly powerful forces trying to come in and take advantage of the neighborhood. There's a spirit of activism, of stubbornness – an idea that we know how to run our own lives, thank you very much, and we don't need anything or anyone – airports, casinos – to save us. We're a people with a big imagination, able to come together to envision a plan for the neighborhood's future that provides "jobs with justice" and benefits more than just a few wealthy casino owners.

We're told that a casino is the only development solution for the land at Suffolk Downs, the only way to bring jobs to East Boston. This is simply not true. Mayoral candidate and District Attorney Dan Conley knows this.* When asked this week what he'd do as mayor if the East Boston casino proposal were to fail, he said he'd support "a broader vision" for the neighborhood, recalling the decision Mayor Menino once faced of whether or not to bring the Patriots' stadium to South Boston.

"Instead of one project, a stadium, the city has created tens of thousands of jobs across a decade and it's still going," he told reporters. "Now it's referred to as the Innovation District. . . . Maybe that's what the area over in East Boston ought to be? I think there are many things we could do over there with some imagination and some partnership and some planning."**

Indeed.

This is another turning point moment for the neighborhood. I hear it in the voice of the mother who says her family will most likely move away if a casino comes to town. Her family has that option. Tens of thousands of others do not.

We speak out not because we hate development or love to fight. We do it because we must. We sure aren't getting the whole truth from Suffolk Downs or our elected officials. We perceive a threat to the place we call home, and our instinct is to stand up and fight, yes, but also to envision a neighborhood that continues to determine its own destiny, support its own, build from the bottom up, and welcome all who share in that vision.

Steve Holt is a writer who lives in East Boston. He volunteers with No Eastie Casino

* Note: Conley says he's "agnostic" on the casino issue in general.
**Not an endorsement