FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FAST (Fishtown Against Sugarhouse Takeover)
Press Contacts:
Morgan Jones, cell 215-833-6508
Scott Seiber, cell: 215-432-4229

FACT Letter Reveals Lack of Support

Fishtown Action (FACT) recently sent a letter to the Governor and others requesting inclusion in the resiting process (http://www.planphilly.com/node/3528). A geographical analysis of the signatures indicates that FACT's representation of Fishtown is far smaller than they claim. In addition, the representation they do have is about a mile or more from the proposed site.

July 17, 2008

The SugarHouse principal has taken control of a Pittsburgh gaming hall under construction.

The cash-strapped developer of Pittsburgh's slots casino yesterday signed over control of the project to a firm led by the primary investor in Philadelphia's stalled SugarHouse Casino.

Gambling operator Don Barden, who had missed payments in connection with his $780 million Pittsburgh riverfront casino, the Majestic Star, agreed to partner with Chicago billionaire Neil G. Bluhm and Bluhm's Walton Street Capital L.L.C. to complete the project.

July 5, 2008

Guv says he'll ask SugarHouse, Foxwoods to pick new locations.

Claiming that "the political landscape has changed" in the battle over casinos in Philadelphia, Gov. Rendell said yesterday that he will meet with operators of two proposed gaming houses about abandoning their Delaware River sites.

Rendell spoke a day after two powerful Philadelphia legislators - State House Appropriations Committee chairman Dwight Evans and State Sen. Vince Fumo - threatened the operators with legislative recrimination if they didn't agree to relocate the casinos.

Rendell said in an interview that opposition to the sites by the lawmakers and by Mayor Nutter were reason enough for him to convene a meeting with them and the casino operators.

July 4, 2008

Since taking office, I have taken every opportunity to move legislation and educate my fellow lawmakers on the need to re-site the Sugarhouse and Foxwoods casinos from their proposed locations along the waterfront to an area of the city that makes more sense from a land-use perspective. Representative Bill Keller and others have joined me in making this fight in the legislature and with the city.

I am pleased to report that last night those efforts came to fruition with an agreement among Governor Ed Rendell and House and Senate leaders, including Representative Dwight Evans and Senator Vince Fumo, to sit down with all interested parties and encourage the casino operators to voluntarily re-site to an area of the city that will achieve the economic development goals of the city and state while minimizing the quality-of-life impact on local residents.

July 3, 2008

On the eve of the fourth anniversary of legislation that brought casinos
to Pennsylvania, Philadelphia's legislators had a message for Foxwoods
and SugarHouse: Move willingly from the waterfront and we'll help you.
Fight us, and we'll make you move.

http://www.planphilly.com/files/casinomove.doc

Sen. Vince Fumo and Rep. Dwight Evans are leading the charge, but had
many other members of the city's delegation with them when they
announced a unified effort at a 9 p.m., July 3 press conference.

In a letter to Mayor Michael Nutter and Governor Ed Rendell, Fumo and
Evans called for a casino relocation meeting with the mayor, the
governor, the Philadelphia delegation and the principals of both
Foxwoods and SugarHouse.

July 1, 2008

Neil G. Bluhm, the Chicago billionaire who is bankrolling the development of a $700 million slots parlor on the Philadelphia waterfront, is pursuing a deal to help Don Barden financially in building his casino in Pittsburgh, according to a partner of Bluhm's.

Stymied by legal controversy and neighborhood opposition in Philadelphia, Bluhm now is looking to expand his casino holdings in another part of the state.

Never mind the unfavorable court rulings, or the pressure from Gov. Rendell, or even the potential damage to his own budget. Mayor Nutter is digging in against the proposed riverfront casinos.

"Can the casino plans at their proposed locations work or not? An honest, legitimate, third-party analysis must be conducted," Nutter said in a speech about the future of the Delaware River front Thursday night.

But the mayor's question was rhetorical. He has already decided that the proposed developments are not a good fit for the city, and leaders of the organization he asked to study the question, PennPraxis, are also on record opposing the casinos as presently designed.

Last Thursday, my constituent service office was picketed by a group of pro-casino advocates and members of organized labor, demanding an end to delays on casino construction. While advised that I would be in Boston, seeing my daughter receive her Master’s degree but that I would be available this week to meet with them, they instead chose to protest in my absence.

While the group is called FACT, they refuse to listen to the underlying facts that surround the need for re-siting the Foxwood and Sugarhouse casinos. Put as simply as possible, both these sites represent poor land use, will have a long-term negative effect on the surrounding communities, place an untold strain on infrastructure and need to be moved.

05-13-2008

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed in early April to move up oral arguments in the latest controversy over SugarHouse Casino's development site in Philadelphia to the mid-April arguments set in the city. Many thought that might move a decision in the matter up as well, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Arguments in the consolidated cases brought against the city of Philadelphia by a group of state lawmakers and by City Council over a license given to SugarHouse to build on state-owned riparian lands originally were scheduled to be heard Monday in Harrisburg.

A trio of state legislators from Philadelphia is proposing a do-over for
the process that put two proposed casinos on the Delaware riverfront.

State Sen. Vince Fumo and Reps. Bill Keller and Mike O'Brien hope that
the new legislation will move those casinos, Foxwoods in South Philly
and SugarHouse in Fishtown, to locations near Philadelphia International
Airport.

The legislation faces significant hurdles here and in Harrisburg.

The 2004 state gaming law says that only casino developers can ask the
state Gaming Control Board for new locations. Foxwoods and SugarHouse,
which have spent millions of dollars on plans for their sites, say they
have no interest in moving.

Gov. Rendell, eager for taxes on gambling to pay for property-tax relief
across the state and wage-tax relief in Philadelphia, has told local
casino opponents that relocating Foxwoods and SugarHouse won't happen.