QUOTE(Steve @ Dec 18 2005, 01:53 PM)
Artie, not sure I am understanding...... you oppose both slots parlor and convention center, because of the new restaurants and bars that cater to visitors??????
Your original statement said "The convention center combined with a casino". The proposed publicly funded hotel and convention center project cannot possibly succeed WITHOUT the casino. Period.
Earlier this year, the Penn Square Partners in public presentations stated that the convention center would be utilized an average of 52 days a year, once busines stabilizes. There is no storefront business on the face of this earth that can survive on turning a profit only one day a week, particularly a fancy hotel. The entire idea behind the proposed casino is to salvage the proposed hotel and convention center. The proposed City-owned hotel will provide the rooms necessary to support the proposed slots casino; the proposed taxpayer funded convention center will guarantee an additional source of customers - and revenue - to the proposed slots casino.
There can be no doubt that
with the proposed casino one block away, there is an extremely good possibility that at least some of the promised economic growth in downtown Lancaster might actually materialize. The downside to this economic growth is the social and human costs involved. I highlighted "bars" because that is only one of many undesirable side effects of a gambling casino. The real problem is that Lancaster City cannot afford the social ills it already must endure, as the dumping ground for the rest of Lancaster County; combining this with any kind of legalized gambling will only make an already difficult situation far worse.
My point? If anyone has a conscience, and actually cares about people, they will oppose both the proposed casino and the proposed publicly funded hotel and convention center project.
