Today, City Council Votes on Casinos!
Dear City Council Persons, Darlene Mealy, Rita Joseph and Crystal Hudson:
Today the City Council will be voting on the Casino Text Amendments, allowing any Casino that obtains a State license to locate here in NYC without having to go through the public review process of the “Uniform Land Use Review Procedure” (ULURP) in the community board in which they are trying to reside.
We would like you to vote No to this amendment and stand with your local City councilperson in whose districts the current proposals are being considered, despite the fact that a casino is currently not being targeted for your district.
The *community and the local Council person should be allowed to either agree or disagree, because placing a Casino in the heart of any community will have a drastic change to that community for decades to come. But not just that particular neighborhood, as these Casinos will be readily and easy available (by a simple train or bus ride) to all New Yorkers, even the ones that you represent.
As they say, United We Stand, Divided We Fall!
*We are aware that a new five person appointed board is being created to address any opposition to a Casino’s location, but we are also aware that the local city councilperson is outweighed by the other appointees, including the Mayor’s, Governor’s and State Representatives’, all who have supported Casinos in our city.
Casino Facts
We want to remind you of some facts about Casinos:
- For every $1 that they make, the public will pay $3 to off set the negative consequences (i.e gambling addiction, prostitution, money laundering, increase crime, increase depression, foreclosures, bankruptcies, etc.).
- Casinos never hit the financial profits that they claim they are going to make, it is always below.
- Casinos hit their profit ceiling, within three years, then proceed with a consistent downward spiral.
- Casinos make their money off of people who have gambling addictions.
- 56% of our population of New York City is at or below the poverty level, which has the highest rate of gambling addictions.
- Young people have the highest rate of gambling addictions (24.8%).
- Our City’s sea levels are rising or our land is sinking, thus placing tons and tons of added weight onto our shore lines in the form of Casinos and the many industries that support them, i.e. hotels, seems to be a prediction for disaster that the public will have to pay, instead of the imaginary stream of wealth coming into the City’s coffers.
Specific Information For Your Districts
As a City Council person who represents large communities of color here are some more specific information on your population.
- Gambling addiction is more common among Non-Hispanic Black adults (25.1%)
- New Yorkers with an annual income of $30,000 or less report higher levels of gambling addiction (24.1%)
- Individuals that live within 10 miles of a casino are twice as likely to have a gambling addiction.
- Urban casinos are typically placed in low income areas.
We urge you to vote No on the Text Amendment and not take away the power of the local city councilperson along with the community to decide if they want a Casino in their community.
Take Three Minutes to Protect Your Community!
Copy and Paste the above letter to City Councilpersons who represent Downtown Brooklyn and Central Brooklyn.
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