NO $L0T$ IN ANACOSTIA

I am from Jersey , South Jersey about 30 minutes from Atlantic City. My father is a musician who played a lot of the African-American owned jazz club that existed there before they bought gambling and casinos to AC. So will say that Gambling helped not only AC, but New Jersey as a whole, I would say that A, you would had to have lived there to know and B, who did it help. I have scene very little good come from casinos and gambling.

Now here I am in DC, Southeast DC, Anacostia to be specific and some folks are trying to put slots here in my neighborhood. They tried last year and their tactics were shady at best, I sure with the onslaught of the stadium here this time it will be no different. Appearantly, they are canvasing the city, seeking signatures so beware.

Last time this signature campaign happened I was asked "would you like to help create jobs here SE?", I have also heard such as " would you like to increase the Tax base of this area, by usin gambling revenue?".
The thing i don't get is why don't they put slots in neighborhoods where they obviously have more disposable income or where demographic studies and analysis suggest higher incomes.

I hate to always examine things through the filter of race when it comes to the way some things go down in our communities, but sometimes it hard see it any other way. Why not slots on the tourist racked Georgetown Waterfront, Southwest Waterfront, foot-traffic laden Adams Morgan, or the now uber cool U Street corridor, why Anacostia? In Maryland as well, why in Oxon Hill /Fort Washington, Pimlico and Baltimore City, but not for Timonium Fairgrounds (near where Gov. Ehrlich lives) that actually has the best facilites to support it ?

Anyway I just wanted to give you all the heads up that if someone approaches you at the supermarket, on the street, at or in the Metro, on the Bus, anywhere and starts asking you to sign something, just make sure you are clear about what you are signing. Additionally, because this is the season for petitions of people trying to get on the political ballots, I am sure that he slot signature seekers will be trying to blend in so just beware.
I have seen first hand how gambling and casinos do not help the community that hosts them (in fact in AC the homeless population increased, crime skyrocketed, and the overall AC population decreased). Anacostia will never rid itself of its reputation if slots are allowed here, reason being is because slots will not be the end of it, as the Anacostia Waterfront develops it will become more and more enticing for those invested in Anacostia to have slots, gambling and a casino-like atmosphere.
Furthermore, slots and gambling (in my opinion), let our elected officials and business community off the hook of creating and building real economic development in long-neglected, overlooked and stigmatized parts of the city.
Read more about gambling in AC
http://www.forbes.com/commerce/2005/05/05/cx_da_0505topnews.html - This a critique and brie but telling analysis of how gambling has not made good on the promises that it makes.


http://www.forbes.com/2005/05/25/cz_ao_0525casino.html- This is a piece written by Audrey S. Oswell is president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, in response to the one above. Notice how in his retort he does not address the rise in crime,or even decreasing casino employment rolls. I put this one up to show the contrast in how the issue is handled; with all the double speak here DC imagine how this piece might sound.
Read the Wash Post article about slots here

D.C. Slots Canvassers Deployed

By Robert E. Pierre and Elissa Silverman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, July 3, 2006; B01

Out-of-town canvassers have begun a frenzied push to collect about 19,000 signatures by July 10 to place a video slots initiative on the November ballot.

Those circulating petitions are camped out in front of grocery stores and Metro stops, mostly in pairs, earning $2 for each valid signature they get from a D.C. voter.

Their actions are under intense scrutiny, because a similar effort two years ago was derailed by widespread election law violations, including fraud, and a hefty fine for the slots proponents who hired them. Canvassers had amassed 56,000 signatures in five days, but the D.C. Board of Elections ruled that many had been forged or improperly collected.

The political action committee formed to lead the new effort contends that this time is different, that workers have been trained and warned to follow the law.

"We're aware of what happened last time," said Jeffrey D. Robinson, an attorney for slots promoters. "We're confident that this will be done right."

The initiative, formally called the Video Lottery Terminal Gambling Initiative of 2006, would put up to 3,500 slot machines near Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Good Hope Road SE and allow similar sites to be set up throughout the city. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and many community activists in Ward 8 oppose the effort.

Video slots supporters -- financed by Shawn Scott, an entrepreneur based in the U.S. Virgin Islands -- must collect the signatures of at least 5 percent of registered voters citywide, and those signatures must reflect at least 5 percent of the registered voters in at least five of the eight wards. Robinson would not say how many employees had been hired but said they were spread "across the city."

Some residents say they were approached by a few local petition circulators early last week.

Yvonne Moore, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 7, said that on Wednesday, she was asked to sign a petition as she left Covenant Baptist Church, at South Capitol Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE in Ward 8, and that she promptly told them, "You better get off church property."

Community activist Dorothy Brizill, who successfully challenged the slots initiative two years ago, e-mailed the elections board Friday to complain that circulators who live elsewhere were obtaining signatures alone or stationed so far away from their required D.C. witness that they were in violation of the law. Although outsiders can assist, a D.C. resident must be "in the presence" of each person who signs a petition.

As of Friday afternoon, the elections board said it had not received a formal complaint about the petition drive. Brizill, however, said she plans to challenge the process.

In front of the Safeway at Piney Branch Road and Georgia Avenue NW on Saturday, a man and a woman with petitions sought signatures from shoppers entering and exiting the store. The pair, who would not give their names to a reporter, said they had traveled to the District to work for a California-based petition management firm hired by slots proponents. They would not name the firm.

The pair pointed to a young woman sitting in a plastic chair on the sidewalk, listening with earphones to a CD player cradled in her hand, as their witness.

"Why are they putting [slots] there in Ward 8?" Jeannelle Wallace asked when approached at Safeway. "It's the poorest area in the city. I think that's terrible."

She signed anyway.

Standing outside the Giant at Brentwood Road and Rhode Island Avenue NE, a man who identified himself as Stormy Burnette said he arrived from San Francisco on Friday night and was staying with about 20 other out-of-town circulators at the Quality Inn on New Hampshire Avenue near Takoma Park.

Some residents object to the outsiders' involvement.

"For me, it's somewhat misleading that I'm walking into my local grocery store and they're asking me to sign a petition involving my community even though: A, the person isn't a volunteer; B, they're not from this community; and C, they're a company profiting from this work," said Christopher Carr, who was shopping with his mother at Giant.

This year's signature-gathering effort is based out of an office in a gallery tucked in an alley off Third Street NE, a few blocks from Union Station. Robinson would not say how many signatures are being sought, only that there would be substantially more than required by law to make up for any signatures that might be thrown out.

In early 2004, former D.C. Council member John Ray and businessman Pedro Alfonso were recruited to be the public face of the initiative. This time, political activist Barry Jerrels, who lives downtown, has been recruited to promote the initiative.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company