Voters in Revere approved the Mohegan Sun / Suffolk Downs casino proposal with 63% of the vote. Voter turnout was high – 44.3% – with 7, 195 YES to 4,177 No votes.
Last November Revere voters approved the casino proposal by a 6,567 to 4,233 vote.
Congrats to all of the folks who worked hard for the last several weeks for the possibility to bring jobs and much needed revenue to Revere.
Please share widely!
Decisions like this are exactly what makes Revere Revere.
The shame is that so many folks outside of Revere worked so hard — and for such transparently selfish (and, in the legislature, venal) motives — to bring this about.
I wonder what Governor Patrick’s stance on casinos would be if Milton were ground-zero, instead of Revere.
I would have voted no, but the process is wired to provide substantial inducements to the host communities, many of which are in genuine distress.
Its kind of amazing that any of the communities turned their backs on that, and so many have.
I think you’ve identified the real culprits in the rest of your post.
More than half of Revere’s voters didn’t bother to vote on an enormous issue that will have a tremendous impact on their personal lives, their children’s future, and their homes.
Factor in the number who are eligible to vote but aren’t registered, and it’s a very sad picture indeed.
That’s high turnout for a special election, nearly double the number of folks that came out from Markey v. Gomez.
will have more of an impact on daily life in Revere than a casino will?
…but in the hierarchy of elections turnout tends to be higher for the higher offices vs. local issues. I think candidate elections generally do better than issue elections in that regard as well, though as I recall (and maybe johnt001 can confirm), Milford had impressive turnout for their casino question as well. I agree for one question off-cycle 44% is on the high side.
57% of the registered voters in town turned out for the casino referendum. I believe that was the highest percentage turnout among all the referendums for casinos. The presidential election in 2012 is the only recent race with a higher percentage at 72%.
On the other hand, a recent contested local race for selectman had 3,000 voters turning out, about 16% of the registered voters in town.
Revere, Everett and Springfield……but luck isn’t what you actually need is it? We are all in this together and what I see is we want and need sustainable economic development, infrastructure, housing and increased aspiration for robust education and jobs that provide living wages. Income shift from lower/working incomes to wealthy corporate monopolies via casinos is only a Wynn for the owners. What a gimmick.
I sometimes wonder where these communities would be if the past eight years of time, talent and treasure had focused on legislative reform, progressive taxation and economic justice across the Commonwealth instead of predatory gambling and special interests?
Rock on.
Springfield has had no hope in anything in nearly 20 years. We get no support from the state, other than a nanny Control Board which, while doing some genuinely necessary yet politically unpopular things, did them in a ham-handed way which caused a massive exodus of our teaching talent. In 2008 our Lottery Aid + Additional Assitance was $47m. Additional Assitance was eliminated in 2010, and our Lottery Aid is now just $33m – six years later. We have been at the Proposition 2.5 Levy Ceiling for the past 2 or 3 years due to the housing bust. Every year brings reduction in municipal services, nothing gets better, it only gets worse.
There is no job growth in Western MA – only job contraction. Poverty is increasing here, Eastern MA is shipping homeless people here and housing them in hotels because there aren’t enough shelters in Eastern MA – which is a convenient way for Eastern MA to rid itself of this burden. We never hear of any movement to try and promote Western MA as a cheaper place to do business – high-cost Eastern MA dominates this state.
Is it any wonder why voters in Springfield voted for 3,000 jobs? Or for retail development downtown (there is almost no commerce taking place in downtown Springfield because more than 80% of the housing units downtown are low-income)? Or for concerts and shows (since Foxwoods opened 20 years ago the number of shows at the downtown venues can be counted on two hands – in the past we had amazing acts play there every year)
That was the narrative that the campaign pushed. It wasn’t about the impact of the casinos. It was about jobs, entertainment, and development – things this region has almost none of.
…on the point you’ve mentioned before about shipping homeless west? I think of homeless as people who may move a bit to find work, but are otherwise more confined than the rest of us. Is Boston really saying to its homeless, for example, “We have no shelter for you, but here’s a bus ticket to Springfield.”?
The Globe did an article on this recently.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/12/02/record-homelessness-overwhelming-shelters/OtrsdYgUdGDFxwJbms3qzH/story.html
It is behind the Globe paywall, but the summary is that the state (which has a legal responsibility to shelter homeless families) is housing homeless families in motel rooms in Western MA because the shelters in Eastern MA are full.
When this was last brought to light about 15 years ago (reported in the Valley Advocate, but no longer online), I believe that it was also stated that since hotel prices are cheaper in Western MA, this was a strategy to make the state’s budget dollars stretch further.
The Globe article gives the story of a woman from West Roxbury, who lost a state housing voucher when funding for a program called HomeBASE was cut by the state legislature. She wound up enrolling her daughter in Greenfield public schools.
Although this is called “temporary”, if even one of these Eastern MA families decides to stay in Western MA, then it is basically a resettlement program, sending poor people out of the rich part of the state to the poor part of the state.
Except that it has been a >20 year decline which coincides with the lackluster good ‘ole boy political leadership. Let’s see……congressional and mayoral leadership – who are the people who have been paid to represent and advocate for the city and region?
There’s one name that comes to mind who is slated for the annual Roosevelt Award 2014. Is it a coincidence that the political leadership has been a closed, self-serving vacuum with no new ideas? I think not. The group of predominately white, male, baby-boomer Springfield pols who do not even look like the community, has spent their time, energy and questionable talent on keeping the status quo of the 70’s in place. Innovation is non-existent and actually discouraged while a culture of “stroke me, I stroke you” is reinforced. The major media source – The Republican (masslive.com) is a bedfellow with the gang. The two political parties are either the “white clique or the black clique” (I can’t take credit for that – a smart, young, native Springfield employee coined that phrase.)
Corruption has deep roots in the city and has only been skimmed by outside law enforcement (FBI) with an ineffective DA (in the past – not presently) that was part and parcel of the culture. Distrust, paranoia and a palpable sense of “poor me” is rampant.
Fantastic medical centers, colleges/universities, Mass Mutual and other businesses are located in the city and region. They and the majority of their employees are intentionally disconnected with the machinations of the city – for good reasons! Why would they integrate with city government like the business communities do in Boston or Worcester when the political pox of Springfield’s incestuous little circle is a disgrace? They have fled to the suburbs or remain isolated from the very city where they are located.
Your points above are what reinforces why the casino proposal for a failing urban community that some have called a “ghetto” is a cynical, gimmick. The falsehood that these might be “resort casinos” must be called out for the lie that it is. Convenience gambling with a market of desperate “local low rollers” is the carrion being served by the pols to the predatory gambling industry.
Springfield’s troubles are deep and pervasive. The business model of predatory gambling can only produce a mild economic boost during construction and long-term economic drain – further worsening the deterioration of a once proud and beautiful city.
I invite you — no, I beg you — to please offer a single example where a corrupt, corroded, and collapsing city, town or region comparable to Springfield has benefited from gambling. Reno? Vegas?
I sincerely appreciate and empathize with the pain you articulate here.
Presenting casino gambling as an antidote to that pain is a flagrant and shameful lie. Anybody who does even a modest amount of research can confirm this.
A shameful aspect of all this for me (a relatively well-off homeowner and Democrat in Somerville) is the unscrupulous way that my own Democratic Party — people whom I KNOW to be well-intentioned and caring — has enabled these abuses by refusing to act, and now worsens it by promoting the lie of casino gambling.
My prediction is that ten years from now, we will be reading the same tale of pain, corruption, and chaos about Revere.
Where even 11 casinos have left a 14% unemployment rate and a shrinking population. None of the alleged benefits seem to have appeared, but you’ll find a plethora of pawn shops, prostitutes, gangsters, and muggers. Not surprisingly, people Trump have done well and all the casino money has led to endemic corruption in city government as gaming companies steer contributions to their preferred candidates.
How much you wanna bet Springfield does like AC does, and like Springfield itself did with the Hall of Fame: direct ramp from the highway into the casino parking garage, no actual contact with Springfield required?