MA Casino Developments

[617]

The casino will do a lot of good for the area...cleaning up a brownfield, adding jobs/entertainment...along with some social but I don't gamble much so I'm ok with it.

In terms of traffic, assembly is adding SO much more especially with partners opening...that's rush hour all over it, but no one gave 2 shits about hat impact on Sullivan sq. I don't get it.

 

[JumboBuc]

The casino will do a lot of good for the area...cleaning up a brownfield, adding jobs/entertainment...along with some social but I don't gamble much so I'm ok with it.

In terms of traffic, assembly is adding SO much more especially with partners opening...that's rush hour all over it, but no one gave 2 shits about hat impact on Sullivan sq. I don't get it.

Right, because the real issue that most people (not you, Rifleman) have with the casino isn't traffic at all. It's gambling. But the legislature and the electorate have overwhelming approved gambling. They haven't approved traffic, however, so that's the front this battle is being fought on.

 

[whighlander]

Oh Okay, Then lets just build a billion dollar destination casino along with having first rate star entertainment on a infrastructure that already SUCKS.

I trust you that my commute will be fine in the end.

My point is that traffic sucks now how can a billion dollar casino in this area make it better for the area?

Rif --its ready, load, aim fire -- not ready load fire aim

to put it in more direct terms as Bill Buckley said about preferring the gov't be in the hands of the first 400 names in the Boston phone book rather than the Harvard Faculty

I'd rather trust putting the transportation system planning and execution in the hands of Steve Wynn rather than the Mass DOT and especially the T bureaucrats

 

[West]

The casino will do a lot of good for the area...cleaning up a brownfield, adding jobs/entertainment...along with some social but I don't gamble much so I'm ok with it.

In terms of traffic, assembly is adding SO much more especially with partners opening...that's rush hour all over it, but no one gave 2 shits about hat impact on Sullivan sq. I don't get it.

Are you sure no one gave 2 shits? Go back and look at the first post in the Assembly Row thread, from 2006. It posts an article that refers to nearly a decade of dispute up to that point, with the dispute settlement revolving around the new T station to help address opponents’ traffic concerns. Seems like many shits were given about the traffic impact of Assembly, more than 2.

Having asked that, I do suspect more shits are being given over traffic from the casino than were given about Assembly. And the reason for the disparity is the morality issue of gambling, as JumbBuc suggests. But I think you're exaggerating the disparity by forgetting a lot of debate over traffic at Assembly.

 

[lapradetom]

I have just returned from Las Vegas, which included a visit to the WYNN resort, and the buildings are an asset to the Vegas skyline. I can personally say that it was some of the best food I've ever had, and it was one of the cleanest, classiest, most beautiful establishment's I've ever seen. It is obvious from his properties that Steve Wynn does things first-class. It is time for those whom choose to keep fighting the Everett project to stop the nonsense. Wynn is going to spend almost two billion dollar's to help take the Boston area entertainment/hospitality/restaurant scene to a whole new level with his resort, while cleaning up a polluted industrial wasteland. It really is embarrassing that we have top officials still fighting this project.

 

[393b40]

I have just returned from Las Vegas, which included a visit to the WYNN resort, and the buildings are an asset to the Vegas skyline. I can personally say that it was some of the best food I've ever had, and it was one of the cleanest, classiest, most beautiful establishment's I've ever seen. It is obvious from his properties that Steve Wynn does things first-class. It is time for those whom choose to keep fighting the Everett project to stop the nonsense. Wynn is going to spend almost two billion dollar's to help take the Boston area entertainment/hospitality/restaurant scene to a whole new level with his resort, while cleaning up a polluted industrial wasteland. It really is embarrassing that we have top officials still fighting this project.

How much did Steve Wynn pay you to write that?

 

[TheRifleman]

I have just returned from Las Vegas, which included a visit to the WYNN resort, and the buildings are an asset to the Vegas skyline. I can personally say that it was some of the best food I've ever had, and it was one of the cleanest, classiest, most beautiful establishment's I've ever seen. It is obvious from his properties that Steve Wynn does things first-class. It is time for those whom choose to keep fighting the Everett project to stop the nonsense. Wynn is going to spend almost two billion dollar's to help take the Boston area entertainment/hospitality/restaurant scene to a whole new level with his resort, while cleaning up a polluted industrial wasteland. It really is embarrassing that we have top officials still fighting this project.

I'm not against the CASINO but seriously you must work for WYNN: I'm not sure if the casino industry really improved any area in it's existence besides the desert. Atlantic City is demoralized. I'm hoping that their is so much going on with Education, Biotech, Healthcare that a Casino will balance itself out in the end.

Traffic situation is the main issue to me and should be to a lot more people that live in the area. Everett and Somerville are already a clusterfuck to drive around on the weekends. A casino is not going to make it easy going in and out of the city.

The casino industry is not a positive to humanity in the end. It adds no real value to the community and its one industry that sucks in the money but does not really distribute throughout the community like other industries. The casino takes from the community and demoralizes it.

 

[DBM]

defenestrate Fenway

"Defenestrate." He he he. Someday I'm going to defenestrate you right off of the Somerville Armory into a dungheap of clamoring beseeching Green Line extension activists right below. And your (not-so) little dog, too!

 

[atlantaden]

The casino industry is not a positive to humanity in the end. It adds no real value to the community and its one industry that sucks in the money but does not really distribute throughout the community like other industries. The casino takes from the community and demoralizes it.

You've been to Monaco?

 

[TheRifleman]

You've been to Monaco?

I never been to Monaco but I heard Monaco is amazing: Billionaires haven for gambling.

So I can't give you any insight on why the Casino Industry worked in that area I just don't have enough information.

 

[tangent]

I'm not against the CASINO but seriously you must work for WYNN: I'm not sure if the casino industry really improved any area in it's existence besides the desert. Atlantic City is demoralized. I'm hoping that their is so much going on with Education, Biotech, Healthcare that a Casino will balance itself out in the end.

Traffic situation is the main issue to me and should be to a lot more people that live in the area. Everett and Somerville are already a clusterfuck to drive around on the weekends. A casino is not going to make it easy going in and out of the city.

The casino industry is not a positive to humanity in the end. It adds no real value to the community and its one industry that sucks in the money but does not really distribute throughout the community like other industries. The casino takes from the community and demoralizes it.

Because the financial district just drops money from helicopters on the downtrodden?


The key thing to any industry are the net flows of money into or out of a geographic area and the concentration of that wealth. So are all the profits acruing to a few people that live elsewhere. So in that way I think the casino industry is pretty much a net suck. Just like the financial industry in general.

 

[tangent]

I never been to Monaco but I heard Monaco is amazing: Billionaires haven for gambling.

So I can't give you any insight on why the Casino Industry worked in that area I just don't have enough information.

Monaco is actually a third the size of Everett and has a smaller population. Pretty sure they just kick out the poor people.

 

[lapradetom]

I do not work for Wynn, but after seeing his facility in Las Vegas, I would be proud to! Every person working there was so professional and polite that it would seem they think likewise. Anyone who has been there can clearly see that it is an absolutely beautiful facility, and an asset to Las Vegas. Why would Boston not want such a facility? Mass. residents voted FOR casino gambling, let's accept that fact, and welcome a world-class facility for Boston.(would you prefer a Motel 6 with a casino attached?) We've been suffering with traffic problems forever anyway, we can surely figure out a few tweaks here and there to accommodate development.

 

[SeamusMcFly]

I do not work for Wynn, but after seeing his facility in Las Vegas, I would be proud to! Every person working there was so professional and polite that it would seem they think likewise. Anyone who has been there can clearly see that it is an absolutely beautiful facility, and an asset to Las Vegas. Why would Boston not want such a facility? Mass. residents voted FOR casino gambling, let's accept that fact, and welcome a world-class facility for Boston.(would you prefer a Motel 6 with a casino attached?) We've been suffering with traffic problems forever anyway, we can surely figure out a few tweaks here and there to accommodate development.

Mainly because it was built immediately after or alongside the Pallazzo expansion at the Venetian to set the opulence level at the highest level.
Steve Wynn cut his teeth working up to managing the Bellagio, which was the previous high water mark for Vegas opulence, and was printing money hand over fist. He took what he knew and saw working, and upped it a notch in his competition with Sheldon and the Sand's. It's not like he's a genius, he just knows how to follow a winning blueprint. The buildings do look very nice and high quality, but I never set foot in them.

 

[Arlington]

You've been to Monaco?

You've been to Atlantic City? Baltimore? East St Louis? New Orleans?

Monaco is actually a third the size of Everett and has a smaller population. Pretty sure they just kick out the poor people.

Exactly. More specifically, Monaco kicks the poor and the working class out with high prices for everything. Monaco in having no income tax and being a beach/yacht resort has such crazy-high cost of living that it ensures that the poor don't live (or vote) there. Casino workers themselves can only afford to live in France and have to cross the border to work, and have only the power to strike when they're screwed (as on their pensions).

Meanwhile, Atlantic City, where gambling was legalized in 1976, has rampant crime, gangs, and went 6 years without a functioning supermarket (2006 - 2012)

 

[kjdonovan]

"Defenestrate." He he he. Someday I'm going to defenestrate you right off of the Somerville Armory into a dungheap of clamoring beseeching Green Line extension activists right below. And your (not-so) little dog, too!

 

[atlantaden]

I was simply answering The Rifleman who said that said that casino's add no value to a community, simply take from it. I gave ONE example of where I felt that was not true. I've been to Monaco (day trip), it's beautiful, clean, stunning! Ok, so only the rich live there but it certainly put Monaco on the map as a destination place. I guess you could look no further than the West End, the South End, Downtown Boston, Chinatown, the Waterfront, etc. as places where the poor and working class have also been displaced, it's called gentrification. Hell, try living on Manhattan, most of the working people commute in from NJ, CT, and the outlying boroughs. And far as your examples of Atlantic City, Baltimore, East St. Louis, New Orleans...those places have been run down for years. I hardly think that one Five Star hotel/casino is gonna take down Everett and Boston and turn them into crime ridden slums.

 

[Arlington]

I was simply answering The Rifleman who said that said that casino's add no value to a community, simply take from it. I gave ONE example of where I felt that was not true. I hardly think that one Five Star hotel/casino is gonna take down Everett and Boston and turn them into crime ridden slums.

Monaco, like Las Vegas or Macao, is an outlier that lies so far out that it is not useful to introduce them into a discussion likely casino outcomes.

And Everett is our crime-ridden slum already (relatively speaking), complete with Mayors and State Reps who resign for corruption and mob ties, the parcel under the Casino having mob-frontmen owners and gang crimes.

The question is not whether a Casino is "gonna take down Everett", the question here is whether a Casino can lift it up as "promised." Based on the experience of most "gritty" cities (Atlantic City, Baltimore, New Orleans, etc), the experience that our gritty city (Everett) will experience is not going to extend much beyond its host-community offset payments--so we'll get upgrades at Wellington Circle, extended evening Orange Line service, and upgrades on 99 and at Sullivan Sq (if Boston'll take its offsets instead of holding out for more or trying to stop Wynn and revive Suffolk Downs). No Monacos in prospect, and the experience in other city-center casinos is not a cause for optimism.

I will stipulate that Wynn's Casino itself will be an island of luxury and prosperity. No one can reasonably doubt that. He is the best in the world at what he does and we are lucky/smart to have picked him.

 

[whighlander]

You've been to Atlantic City? Baltimore? East St Louis? New Orleans?

Exactly. More specifically, Monaco kicks the poor and the working class out with high prices for everything. Monaco in having no income tax and being a beach/yacht resort has such crazy-high cost of living that it ensures that the poor don't live (or vote) there. Casino workers themselves can only afford to live in France and have to cross the border to work, and have only the power to strike when they're screwed (as on their pensions).

Meanwhile, Atlantic City, where gambling was legalized in 1976, has rampant crime, gangs, and went 6 years without a functioning supermarket (2006 - 2012)

Arlington the model economically at least is Singapore:

• Port, major Airport
• Education center for the region
• Biotech
• Semiconductor and high tech
• Financial center for the region
• Casino
• similar population to Boston Metro
• high real estate values

 

[Arlington]

Arlington the model economically at least is Singapore:

• Port, major Airport
• Education center for the region
• Biotech
• Semiconductor and high tech
• Financial center for the region
• Casino
• similar population to Boston Metro
• high real estate values

We are 7/8ths of the way there, and I'd argue that the Red Sox, Pats, Bruins, & Celtics would've been Boston's "high-end/high-roller leisure" bullet point to fill in Boston's list without the need for a Casino.