On Monday, members of Casino Free Philadelphia went to the Conshohocken branch of the PA Gaming Control Board and washed their windows for them, hoping for a little more transparency. As they put it, “We Came. We Saw. We Washed. Then they called the cops. It was not kind.” Read Bruce Schimmel’s profile on these merry pranksters. He’s betting on the people, and so are we.

Read this post from mysterious Philly blogger “JF”. Brian Tierney’s shell game, including his 7+% interest in TrumpStreet and the fact that his PR firm represents Foxwoods, is held up for closer scrutiny- and folks, the whole thing stinks to high heaven.

Nothing that we didn’t already know, but it’s good to see all the dots connected so nicely, isn’t it?

When they thought no one was looking, Council voted 12-0 to pass an amendment introduced by Frank DiCicco to the Commercial Entertainment District that hands over all siting rights to the PA Gaming Control Board, to in fact lay down in deference to whatever the Gaming Board in Harrisburg should deem correct concerning these extremely important issues to Philadelphia’s future. To wit: “Nothing in this Chapter shall limit the right of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board under the Act to identify the property on which it will permit a Category 2 licensed gaming facility within the City.” It also contains such gems as the ability to reduce the public access setback requirement, and provisions for rooftop marquees.

Council didn’t have to do this. They chose to do it despite the loud outcry against such provisions in SB 862. Despite the clear, loud, undeniable howling of the residents of the river wards. Bill 60631, the text is available at Hallwatch. Read it and weep, Philadelphia. Come election time, remember, 12-0!

Hallwatch asks a good question today. Can the Inquirer offer unbiased coverage of the casino issue? It turns out that Brian Tierney, owner, publisher and now editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer (and owner of the Daily News too) has a 7% interest in the TrumpStreet casino and sits on its five-member board. Hmmm. Conflict of interest when it comes to reporting on the benefits versus the drawbacks of casinos on neighborhoods? I think so.

The papers have been struggling financially; their fall revenues so far are coming in short of projections. They are in the middle of negotiations with the newspaper union amid lots of talk of cost-cutting. People just don’t want to buy the papers. Maybe if the Inquirer actually reported more of the news? Just a suggestion.

Yesterday, attorneys Irv Ackelsberg and John J. Grogan filed a lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) on behalf of citizen groups, businesses, and individual residents of Philadelphia. The suit charges that the legislature has not issued clear guidelines concerning the social impacts of casinos on neighborhoods, and that to let the PGCB be the sole arbiter of those impacts is unconstitutional. Read my article about it on Hallwatch.

In a surprising reversal of fortune for riverfront neighborhoods in Philadelphia, the PA House voted “overwhelmingly” against the changes to SB862 authored by Senator Fumo and passed by the State Senate earlier in the day. Those provisions would have stripped our Representatives of their authority to negotiate riparian rights. Riparian rights are the rights to build out into the water, on either filled land or on piers. They are particularly important to the SugarHouse and Foxwoods proposals. They are also important to discussing a starting place when it comes to defining public access and areas adjacent to the river, as they are lands already in public hands. Hallwatch has the latest updates. This is VERY good news for Philadelphia!

Since I’ve been covering this beat (starting late July), I’ve had a growing awareness of Philadelphia as two cities, a Jekyll and Hyde city, in both little and big ways. Yesterday is as good an example as any. I attended the Greener Cities Symposium at the University of Pennsylvania in the morning, a conference sponsored by Penn and area businesses and organizations. It focused on planning for sustainability as a city. There were representatives from different cities all over the country, all sharing best practices. There were open panel forums and lots of lively conversation.

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society was one of the event’s sponsors. The PHS has been hired by the city to facilitate community engagement in the recently launched citywide Open Spaces initiative GreenPlan Philadelphia (read my article about the plan). Residents have been crying out for just such planning for years, but Council Members have been too busy wrangling development deals past legal hurdles designed to protect residents to take much notice.

The city has lately been plan-crazy. I guess election time will do that. The river wards felt a flicker of what our local politicians have been quick to point out is false hope when the Mayor announced that PennPraxis would undertake a plan of the Delaware Riverfront, from Oregon to Allegheny. Our local politicians, disagreeing with the Mayor’s initiative, believe it’s a day late and a dollar short. I can’t deny that our Mayor moves in mysterious ways. Both plans were initiated by the same Mayor, and yet the coordination between them will have to come now, after the announcements have been made, instead of being built in from the beginning. It’s a case of the right hand of Philadelphia not knowing what the left hand’s doing.

And this is how things work here. Or rather, don’t work.

Yesterday evening, I attended Vern Anastasio’s 3rd Zoning Reform Forum. All those who’ve signaled an interest in running for mayor were invited, but only three could be bothered to show up: Jonathan Saidel, Frank Rizzo, Jr., and Michael Nutter (the only officially declared candidate). The forum quickly moved to the issue of casinos and SB862, the bill passed by the State Senate and being considered today in the House (protest its passage here). This bill will strip Philadelphia of zoning authority over casinos, something you would think our elected officials would be against. Unfortunately, they’re the ones who invented it in the first place; Senator Fumo and Representative Perzel are its champions.

At last night’s forum, all these three men, who seek to represent residents, could say was, there’s nothing that can be done. Our State Representatives and other elected officials tell us the same thing, and have all along, despite the fact that Philadelphians have been unremittingly yelling their heads off about the the issue for five months now at least, without support from elected officials, and without much support from the press, certainly not from the Inquirer or Daily News. So we have residents saying, besides casinos, look at what’s possible to do in our city, let’s plan for that, and politicians shaking their head and saying it’s not possible.

Former Councilman Nutter defended the position he took on the casino that was proposed for his district- he was against it, but if it was to come, he wanted to be able to make the best bargain he could with casino operators on behalf of his constituency. When asked why he hasn’t done more to represent ALL the people of Philadelphia, he really had no good answer. Neither did Saidel or Rizzo, Jr. Politically, it’s risky, and politicians are not much for risk-taking.

Philadelphia has created a monster in our current ward system. City government is so dysfunctional, so opaque, and so unresponsive that the only way for citizens to get things done is by making personal appeals to their representatives, to whom they then are beholden. Thus patronage is perpetuated.

Politicians thrive in the balkanization of Philly neighborhoods. They play ‘good cop, bad cop’, conveniently blaming each other’s districts or the Mayor for the status quo. In this way, they continue to butter both sides of their bread. Essentially they say they have no power, when in fact, they have too much power, power that rightfully belongs to Philadelphians. Attempts by residents to unite as “one Philadelphia” are frustrated on the one hand by a divide and conquer strategy that feeds antagonisms, and a patronage strategy on the other that keeps constituents beholden to whoever will do them the favor of dealing with their issue. Change is a hard thing to accomplish. Of course, it will take work. But until we get transparent processes that put citizens in charge of outcomes that effect the entire city, we will continue to swim around and around in this political backwater.

Our current crop of politicians has a lot invested in this system; it preserves and augments their power. But it is unjust, and it is becoming painfully obvious that this backwards way of doing things is impeding our city’s progress into the future.

At the Greener Cities Symposium in the morning, people interested in moving our city to a better place met to carefully consider all that getting there would entail. Speaker after speaker presented problems and then offered solutions- this is what we did in Chicago, this is what worked in Seattle. They said, these are the things that are possible if we all get together and press forward. Not one person said it was going to be easy. They built the case for why it’d be worthwhile to develop our city sustainably, and then challenged those in the audience to rise to the occasion, to do the hard thing.

A lot of people think a new mayor will save the city. Personally, I think we Philadelphians will have to continue to do that ourselves. But it sure would be nice to have politicians who were clearly on our side. In the meantime, Philadelphians, back to work.

That was the word most often used in the over 300 faxes that have been sent to State Senator Fumo and Governor Rendell over the last two days from the Hallwatch faxbank. Philadelphians are understandably appalled that their elected officials, who have promised to look out for and defend their best interests, have led the effort to strip them of all authority concerning the two casinos mandated to be located in Philadelphia. Hallwatch filed an interesting report today which points out that Senator Fumo, the architect of the amendment, and in fact one of the chief architects of Act 71, is distancing himself publicly from culpability. It’s good reading. Councilmen DiCicco and Kenney set up a website, www.fightforphilly.com, which asserts that they lead the fight against the amendment, yet neglects to name Fumo as the author of the amendment, and asks citizens to sign a petition that does nothing but suggest they write to Ed Rendell. My question is, where were DiCicco and Kenney, and indeed our Mayor over the summer??? The amendment that passed is the same amendment that failed when Fumo tried to pass it right before this past summer’s July 4th recess. He said he would try again when legislature reconvened, Governor Rendell, in a written statement, made it clear that pre-empting the city’s zoning authority was a priority for the new session, and Senate Republicans were so anxious about potential opposition to the bill, they suggested an early, special session to get it passed before the fall. So. Everyone knew it was coming and the people in this town who we trust, Mayor Street, our Councilpeople, Senator Fumo and even Governor Rendell did nothing to defend us against this threat. If you want a clearer grasp of what’s at stake, listen to the audio (available below the Hallwatch article) from the press conference given yesterday by community leaders. It is truly hair-raising. And speaking of trust, where has the Inquirer and the Daily News been on this issue?? Apparently Brian Tierney, owner and now publisher of both papers, and an investor, along with another paper principal, Bruce Toll, in the proposed gambling establishments, was too busy counting all the money he is likely to be raking in from this turn of events to alert the public. And that’s appalling too!

It was good to see that Paul Levy, the well-respected director of Center City District, is adding his weight to the public cry for better planning of the Philadelphia riverfront, according to the Inquirer. He was one of a group of concerned citizens who took a boat tour along the Delaware to increase their awareness of the river’s history and draw some attention to its possible future. They fear the effects of condo towers and casinos walling the city off from residents. “Random development often produces projects that cannot be sustained, inflicting harm on the surrounding businesses and residents…”, states the article. Meanwhile, Councilman DiCicco, who didn’t take the tour, touted his idea for another nonprofit entity to oversee the riverfront’s development. It’s an old idea that’s been done to death, and done badly. In the Councilman’s favor, he did emphasize the need for public input, and said his office is working on legislation to make it illegal for land speculators to sit on vacant property to the detriment of the city’s development as a whole. That’s a good start. Still no word on the issue from our Mayor or other elected officials.

Between 200- 300 people attended the Casino Town Hall Meeting sponsored by NABR, the Multi-Community Alliance, Representative Youngblood and others. Read PhillyIMC’s coverage here. By all accounts, there were no reasons to be happy about casinos coming to Philadelphia. Vern Anastasio launched a new site: www.nowaterfrontcasino.com. Write Governor Rendell (and while you’re at it, write all our elected officials- you can do it at Hallwatch) and ask him to slow down development of Philly’s riverfront until we have a development plan that includes citizen input. This is a crucial issue that will effect Philadelphia forever. Waterfronts have been developed innovatively all over the world, in ways that increase property values and attract new residents. We have not begun to explore alternatives to casinos on our river.