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The Philadelphia Airport is the Place to put a Casino
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| 10.28.2008
Philly’s Tarnished Image Brings Casinos to Downtown - We Cleaned Up Our Image So We Can Have a Sober Tourist Trade Instead.. Gambling has a net cost not a revenue gain for a society. However Philadelphians can gamble in Atlantic City, and now Chester, come back home in debt and cause, (with some frequency) social problems for their relatives and neighbors and community while revenue to pay for the damages is elsewhere. The airport is where gambling would bring revenue to Philly with minimum local costs. Governor Rendell urged casinos to come to the airport, but they refused. They would rather set the precedent of having the opportunity to bring gambling to the population hub of a major US city. Perhaps local residents could quickly set up a rather small amateurish casino at the airport, and start bringing wage tax revenue to the city right away. Anti-casino activists are planning to sit-ins, so Mayor Nutter wants to tarnish the image of the Liberty Bell with a Casino near by. Protests delay revenue for the city, while police overtime adds new expenditures. If exhausted police officers get too rough it will add to the historic black eye Philly got due to the Mumia mess and the Osage Avenue fire, where Mayor Goode dropped a bomb on a city block. If there is a constant revenue source from a small casino at the airport, everyone will hate each other less, regardless of whether a casino is ever built close to downtown. This year, Pax Christi a Catholic Peace Group and People Concerned Conventions are coming to Philadelphia. Something they didn’t do when Mumia was on death row, and perhaps won’t do so in the future, if a gambling flavor gets mixed in with the historic freedom festival atmosphere. Society Hill Towers with new residents who are quick to be rich and quick to go broke will make rich retirees and its traditional laid back residents less likely to want to stay. The most expensive restaurants will also be less attractive with slightly rowdy patrons, now and then. Philadelphia’s historic image no longer soured by past current events could now soar if the casino doesn’t get in the way. Image is important for the tourist trade. Philly’s image problems go all the way back to the Rizzo years. Past arguing that Philadelphians don’t come out to support Mumia, the way NY and LA does because they are too afraid of the police, or Philadelphians think he is guilty, made us seem like rednecks to the tourist trade craving maximum punishment for a famous author who supposedly committed murder, only after watching his brother beat up, for little or no reason, doesn’t mess with those wanting the Liberty Bell as a backdrop for their convention. By the way, I remember people demanding “Why doesn’t Mumia or his brother say what’s happening”. And Billy, Mumia’s brother, somehow got a suspended sentence for allegedly punching a cop. Some Philadelphian’s didn’t want to get involved because they didn’t think they knew what is going on; this factor was never added into the arguing over Mumia. There is a bright local future, if casino fights near local residents don’t get in the way. Mumia now serving life imprisonment solves a lot of local tension. Mumia acting all angry and rebellious, while cooperating with the prosecution to the extent of leaving his brother out of the mix, created a local roller coaster, that most locals are glad is behind us. But Mumia is now entering the national, not local, political fray. He top critic of the Obama campaign, claiming that a Black President, now, would be like a city getting a Black Mayor when the treasury is bare and tax base gone. Rome’s last Emperors’ were blamed for the collapse of Ancient Rome and since Mumia claims the US Empire is about to fall, and thus Mumia claims Obama would be blamed. Sorry Mumia, the British Empire has been declining without the starvation and chaos that besieged ancient Rome. However, President McCain holding onto the tough USA image, until the currency collapses, could make the US more similar to Ancient Rome than Britain. Bidden says Obama can’t win unless he wins PA. And rightwing smears against McCain fit into Mumia’s insight in a destructive way. Come on Mumia, at the end of 4 or 8 years in office, Obama, like Carter, may pardon more than his friends’ friends, unlike the Bush’s and Bill Clinton did. It is clear to me that if your brother would have testified in your defense, the prosecutor held over his head that he would also be charged with murder, whether or not Billy was responsible for the first shot. Mumia has a right to be a pessimistic voice for the future But the rest of us, let’s not let Mumia’s predictions, that future US history will resemble Ancient Rome’s collapse, end up helping it become so. Richard Kane Google RichardKanePA |
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