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Saying No to Casinos in Chinatown Part 6
***Updated***
WHYY, “Now Chinatown must take the fight directly to Foxwoods”
- John Chin, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development CorporationPressure must to put on the City Planning Commission, City Council and the Mayor to ensure that this process that they enacted is an “open and transparent” process. They must be held to the highest standards to ensure that the citizens have every opportunity to participate in all discussions. If this is not the process, then the CED legislation needs to be amended. Anything less would be unacceptable.
Philadelphia Chinatown always seems to get shafted and nothing’s different today as City Council by vote of 14 to 1 passed re-zoning the Gallery at MarketEast as a Community Entertainment District despite such clear community opposition. Does anyone care about Chinatown other than Chinese people?
Here’s a question, Do you think gambling should be considered community entertainment?
This is a big step for Foxwoods but there are many other steps ahead and if we were able to gather 20,000+ signed petitions with broken English (or for some us very bad Chinese) we’ll be sure to meet the City and Foxwoods each and every time.
With Mayor Nutter declaring a $1Billion dollar shortfall this week and budget cuts leading to the closing of area Fire Departments and Recreation Centers, all this does not bode well for the city cited as “The Next Great American City.”
Links
NBC Philadelphia, Philly City Council Clears Way for Gallery Casino
KYW Newsradio 1060, City Council Approves Casino Zoning for Foxwoods at Gallery
The Evening Sun, Philadelphia’s Chinatown seeks to keep out casinoSaying No to Casinos in Chinatown Part 5
Our Center (Community Outreach) Director, Harry Leong, had a 10 minute interview with WHYY and other news station before a press conference called at City Hall. Harry also led off that press conference in front of the Mayor’s office speaking about the petitioning and efforts by our church and many others. Our staff had been working hard on gathering signatures and organizing them. We presented 23,514 signed petitions to Mayor Nutter which he graciously received in front of news cameras.
Over the weekend, many of our church’s Chinese members with their broken English boldly collected signatures at the Greyhound Station, Gallery and Reading Terminal. I am humbled by their courage. This has brought the three congregations of our church together in ways we would have never perceived.
The Mayor still seems pretty intent on passing legislation.
Saying No to Casinos in Chinatown Part 4
Some 600 or 700 people marched from the Chinatown Friendship Gate to City Hall 9AM Saturday. Many Chinese churches in the Philadelphia area also showed their support with us. This was definitely a historic occasion on many fronts particularly for our church and for Chinatown. It was historic for City Hall because they’ve never held hearing on a weekend but rushed this special hearing to consider re-zoning the Gallery at Market East as a casino district. All to say this was a pretty significant deal. There were hours of testimony and in the I felt like it was all very anti-climatic. Despite much opposition, zoning was still passed. It was all very eye-opening to me.
Links
- AOL New Video of NBC10 News, Emotional Residents Fight Gallery Casino Move
- From Philly.com
•Council Committee Backs Zoning for Gallery Casino
•Gallery Slots Get First ApprovalSaying No to Casinos in Chinatown Part 3
The heat has turned up to oppose the Foxwood Casino Proposal in the Gallery at Market East. This past Saturday members from my church and some other organizations stood on the corners to inform the community and gather support to march to City Hall this coming Saturday, Nov 1. For three hours I was able to interact (even with my bad Chinese) with over a hundred people and the response was interesting to me. Many were very uninformed and most were only concerned with the economic prospect of this development rather than the social and health concerns.
This is what I expressed to my congregation,
Take another look at this through the lens of the Scripture: Chinatown, in many ways, is “the widow, the fatherless, the poor, and the alien” amongst us. God calls us to share His heart of concern for the “least of these”. We cannot be like the many that come and take advantage of the delights of Chinatown only to overlook those who live here. As a church in this community we cannot have a parasitic relationship with her, being here just for the food. Chinatown is more than just shops and restaurants. We need to be a voice for those who have no voice or those that believe they don’t.Our mission is to be and bring Christ’s hope and restoration to our community and engage the systems that work against that. This is new territory for us but we believe that what we’re doing is right.
If you’re in the Philly area, join us. Add your voice to ours. Someone needs to speak up for the little guy. Chinatown is an easy target. Here’s some basic facts:
City Hall is trying to pass legislation when they have
- No cost-benefit analyses
- No economic or social impact studies
- No traffic studies
- No planProposed for the Gallery at 10th and Market
- A slots parlour that could grow to one of the largest in the country
- Open with unlimited free alcohol service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
- Estimated 20,000-28,000 patrons a day, including 50 bus trips a day
- 200 feet away from residencesWE WANT A FAIR PROCESS
- Public input
- Open processes and no backroom deals
- Time for real studies and careful consideration
- The option to reject the planCALL TO ACTION
At 9:00AM Gather at the Chinatown Friendship Gate (10 and Arch) at 9AM
At 9:15 March to City Hall
At 10:00 The hearing starts at City Hall, Room 400 (4th Floor)This Saturday will be the last public hearing before all meetings will be conducted behind closed doors.
Links
Casino Free Phila.
Download flyer for this Saturday
Facebook: Tell City Hall NO Casino In The Heart of Philly!
Philly.com – City Council to hold hearing on Foxwoods casino
photo credit – Morgan Jones
Saying No to Casinos in Chinatown Part 2
Here’s some video that I was able to capture last night during one of the more vulnerable and emotional moments at the forum. This has certainly become a very volatile situation. There was no hearing last night, no dialogue. People were just very angry.
Whether these politicians and investors realize it or not building a casino at this location is institutional and environmental racism against the many minority populations in the Chinatown community. We can debate those terms but the point is that this cannot ultimately be good for the community. There may be economic gain but at what cost?
Read
•Philadelphia Inquirer Article, Chinatown Residents Fear Lure of Gaming by Jennifer Lin
•“Environmental Racism, Chinatown and the Gallery Casino” by Helen Gym
• angryasianman.com picked up the newsI googled around looking for related things and found these links
• Great Asian American Resource page at the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse ServicesFrom an interview with Dr. Timothy Fong (whose name comes up in every search on this subject), Director of UCLA’s Gambling Studies Program. He said this in his findings,
What did the focus groups reveal?
Number one, gambling was a common thing that a lot of community members did. Number two, it was very socially acceptable. And number three, almost everyone knew one or two people that they knew had a gambling problem. It was a very common thread that they also didn’t know what to do about that person; where to send them, what to say to them, what to do about it.What was also very interesting was that the casinos were very aggressive in marketing toward Asian communities. But they didn’t blame them for that. They didn’t say that that was a bad practice. This is just a reality. We learn about a lot of bus tours that were marketed for Asian communities. Fliers that were marketed toward that community.
Sign the Petition
Saying No to Casinos in Chinatown
Tonight I attended a public forum as a representative of my church regarding a proposal to place casinos courtesy of Foxwoods at The Gallery in Philadelphia which is right at the entrance of Chinatown. This has gotten some press and after tonight’s meeting I’m sure it will get some more. There were some very angry people there. Typically you don’t find many Chinese folks speaking up about things much less political things but they were out in force tonight. In fact I’m very impressed with this gathering because it’s much more diverse than I had anticipated. There were many voices. Among them were educators, students, long time residents, church goers, business owners and community leaders. They weren’t just Chinese either. There were many non-Asians in the crowd.
Our church (CCCNC) officially took a stance of opposition against this proposal a couple of weeks ago and we’re trying to prayerfully handle this with much grace, wisdom and peace. We know we need to be a voice for the many aliens and poor in our community. We know first hand the effects of gambling among the Chinese as we counsel many compulsive gamblers and the families devastated by their habits. This is probably one of the most important things we’ve been involved in for our community.
Please pray for us.Representatives from Mayor Michael Nutter’s office (Terry Gillen), Councilman DiCicco and State Representative O’Brien were receiving comments and arguments tonight at the Holy Redeemer School. It was not a good night to be in their shoes. If we want to build the next great American city, this is definitely not the way. The cost will be greater than any economic gain. This is institutional racism.
For More Info:
Asian Americans United for facts, petition, links and more.
Casino-Free Philadelphia, dedicated to say no to any casinos in the city of Philadelphia
Foxwoods Casino PAArticles
PlanPhilly – City Set to See Foxwoods Design
PlanPhilly – City Sees Foxwoods DesignOther Resources
Gambling, Addiction and Asian Culture
Casinos Aggressively Market to Asian Americans, But Few Services Help Addicts
California Provides Glimpse Into Asian Gambling Culture
Resources from The Conference on Assessment & Treatment of Compulsive Gambling Among Asian American held on October 26, 2007 via AsianMentalHealth.org“There’s this interest in gambling among the Chinese that transcends anything you see in any other socioeconomic or ethnic group” – Gary Loveman, Chief Executive at Harrah’s
Sign the Petition
Events
"HERO" An EPIC MOVEMENT EAST COAST Conference January 15-18, 2010, Philadelphia
Verge Missional Community Conference,
February 4-6, Austin, Texas
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