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Comments
Screw it, let's just have
Screw it, let's just have Eastie make all our major decisions from now on. That makes sense.
Is this even constitutional?
How can the state say - oh - every resident in the state gets to vote on this if it's in your town - except you slobs in Boston - then only one district? How can that even be legal?
Some anti-casino lawyer should sue just to hold the damned thing up.
Thanks for the parting gift Mike Ross - don't let the door hit you on your way out of city hall. Can't even imagine why a district councilor outside of Eastie would vote in favor of this.
The way the should've done
The way the should've done this would be to give East Boston residents a more proportionally important vote. Why should a person in West Roxbury or Roslindale have as much input to something that will never affect them?
What they should have done
is to have both a city-wide and an East Boston vote - and if either group voted "no" that veto would be binding.
And anon, a casino in East Boston will never affect people in West Roxbury or Roslindale? Certainly not as directly as people living right next to it, but last time I checked, all the city's tax payers contribute to the budget for - police, fire, paramedical, emergency room care, garbage disposal, etc. If a major development is likely to increase those costs significantly, then we all will have to pay, not just the folks in Eastie.
I hope that someone sues over this as well.
More to the point,
not only will the whole city of Boston, but the entire Greater Boston area, and possibly the whole Bay State, as well, will end up paying the tab in tax dollars for casinos in East Boston, but it'll turn East Boston into another Atlantic City, Mohegan Sun, or, perhaps, a Reno, NV East, if one gets the drift. Who needs that? People in Eastie don't need it, and neither does the Bay State at large, because it'll also add to congestion and existing overall traffic problems here in this area.
Casino
I hope there is a bike lane and Hub Way planned for the casino.
Dont worry, Menino made sure
Dont worry, Menino made sure there was going to be a flyover ramp for drivers and 5,000 parking spaces. You know, 1950s style dumb growth. As the city removes flyovers in JP and Charlestown, East Boston gets the retro treatment.
Because we know that those throngs of
gamblers from New Hampshire and Maine will use their bikes when they flock to the new casino - right?
A better way: buses
You know, if the city really wanted to eliminate traffic and some other impacts, and didn't have its head stuck in its ass, there is a solution:
No parking lots on-site. No road access except for emergency vehicles, trucks and buses. No pedestrian access either, to prevent "spillover parking."
Instead, customers of the casino must arrive by bus. Any kind of bus. So private shuttles would be acceptable too. Might have to put a restriction to make sure that the bus operators aren't abusing a nearby facility, that's all.
Those Maine and NH gamblers would arrive by long-distance bus -- even under current plans, many of them probably will bus it.
Locals would also use shuttle buses. The casino could probably support 24 hour span. Heck, maybe it could even double as an Eastie/Downtown bus late-night. Nice benefit there. And park-n-ride lots near major highways for suburban customers.
This solves the problem of added traffic. It cuts the cost of new road infrastructure. And it nearly eliminates the drunken driving problem.
+1
+1
+2
+2
(adam I really miss upvote :( )
What? That's going to effect
What? That's going to effect the entire city one way or the other. I would think that the referendum would be appealed in court (if that is even the right term to describe suing about disenfranchisement.)
Herald Strikes Again
From their coverage:
The Boston City Council has voted 11-3 to hold an East Boston-only vote on the Suffolk Downs casino. That vote will be on election day Nov. 5.
Was Menino stacking the vote on his way out the door with an extra anonymous councilor? Was s/he district or at-large?
Makes sense
It makes sense to make it Eastie only because that casino will heavily impact East Boston. Not someplace like Dorchester or North End you guys will be alright.
If it's a Eastie-Only vote,
If it's a Eastie-Only vote, then let the Eastie people have to deal with the tax implications of new police, fire, ambulance, gambling addictions, road infrastructures and so much more. What about everyone else's opinion? The Casino easily affects the whole city
Looking at the size of the
Looking at the size of the mitigation package that Menino brokered I am pretty sure East Boston would be able to take care of themselves off of that money and their own tax base if they were cut off from the rest of the city. Those implications are why there was a mitigation process, if anything East Boston will be sending money from that package back to other parts of the city from what is received. Many of the affected roads and transit options are state controlled as well.
many gaming industry experts think Boston mitigation deal flawed
The general tone among most industry commentators is that the city/state's revenue estimates for a Boston casino are wildly generous - ie a casino in this area will probably pull in only about half the official forecasts. Since payments are based on revenue, we'll be getting a lot less than the pols are telling us. But we'll all still have to pay for the negatives.
Good for Eastie
I for one, do not want to tell the people of East Boston what is good or no good for them.
Boston City Council
Boston City Council Terminology? "12-to-O'Malley"
Well ...
Twelve councilors voted against a citywide referendum. Only Matt O'Malley voted for it.
I forgot Boston had 13, very
I forgot Boston had 13, very lucky number, I was thinking the O was meant to be a 0. My bad.
Eastie gets 100% of the vote and only 20% of the cash
Of the $52 million that the city (optimistically) expects each year, only $10 million has to be spent to mitigate impacts to Eastie. And no one from East Boston has any say on how the money is spent, but a new Boston government committee gets to decide. Menino and his machine are so confident that Eastie will do whatever they want that they didn't even hide that they aren't even giving East Boston a fair share. The East Boston politicians don't want the neighborhood to have a say because of effects, but because they think the vote will pass easier.
"Mitigation money" for East
"Mitigation money" for East Boston - $10Million a year is peanuts!! Should be way more money, All the land along waterfront border street side and marginal street has been taken or sold or leased to developers,existing old structures are ready to be torn down and rebuilt by private owner developers , if you think about it, there is not enough of city owned comercial/residential land parcels in East Boston where this mitigation money can be used to build any city related buildings that will be useful for housing, substance abuse centers etc.. Mitigation money is only going to be useful to fix what East Boston already has in place. Unrelated to casino,If I were the owner of Liberty plaza, I would demolish exsisting structure from where kappys is to the auto parts store, build 2 -14 story highrise condo buildings one on the kappys side and one on the autopart store side with a road in the middle and have retail on lower level of buildings, make it more modern like what they have in Medford..get rid of mcdonalds!!!! Looks like shit!!!
If You Can't Vote, Help East Boston and Revere Fight The Casino!
Vote NO!
It's not a matter of East Boston vs. the rest of the city, it's the politicians stacking the deck, hoping that East Boston and Revere residents can be persuaded to accept the casino, although many of them are firmly opposed. One way for all of Boston to fight this, is for residents of the rest of the city to support their eastern neighbors' fight against it. Most people, when they hear the real facts of what a bad deal this is, don't want the casinos.
I will be voting NO in Revere!
I see where you're coming from, Elmer.
I'd vote against the casino(s), too, if I resided in East Boston or Revere. Putting casinos in East Boston sounds like the first step towards more casinos in this area, which we don't need.
If West Rox wants to vote...
Then Chelsea and Winthrop should vote, too.
Anyway, unrelated... As a Revere resident, I'm firmly against the plan. The legislation was specifically set up to benefit a select few well-connected casino developers. Disgusting. And as a result, intended or not, the negative impacts are highly concentrated on very specific areas. If the state was truly concerned with the public welfare, they'd either keep casinos banned or open up gambling to just about any entrepreneur who walks in the door. Now, you can squabble over which is better (no gambling or gambling), but I can tell you right now what is not even an option: a handful of mega-casinos. No, no, no.