I agree with her. I finally made it LW this spring. It isn't what it was originally purposed to be, which wasn't surprising - I didn't see artists affording it. But it isn't a chain store anywhere/nowhere. They have found a middle ground that seems to mostly work. The Saturday afternoon I was there it was alive and vibrant.

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"Things are starting to get interesting right about now"

All comments made by me on his board are given freely and probably worth what you paid for them.

And you're just making that up.

http://changingskyline.blogspot.com/...sx-tracks.html

Just let the Casinos build.
They paid millions for lobbyist, probably graft, the property, the engineering, demolishing and cleaning up the old sites.
So what they will probably hire all their employees from outside the City, they were planning on that anyway.
They won't have to pay property taxes but their employees get to pay income taxes. Another boondoggle for the rich.
The City and State can pay for new highways and police, our taxes will double because of that.
Now Fumo and Evans want to derail something Rendell has been fighting for to attain over 12 yrs. His wife is a Supreme Court judge what do you think that Court is gonna vote when it comes down to it.
Why waste money trying to change what has already been back-roomed. Build the Casinos so the poor people can spend their social security checks making them richer.
Yeah for gambling.
It had been fought as the scourge it is for half a century. Now that the mob no longer controls it, government has legalized it so they can make money and the politicians can become richer.

Wow, that was quite a rant. I haven't picked a side with the casinos. They didn't really seem to help Detroit. In fact the only time they seem to work is in a city or town that's sole purpose is to act as a casino town. Otherwise they just act as isolated entities that really have nothing to do with the city itself. They'll attract tourism? Really? How many people are going to come to the city to gamble and then pop down to the Mall to check out the Liberty Bell? Come on. Put them all just over the city line below the airport. They'll do more for the city outside the city than they can do here.

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The idealistic are no longer concerned with influencing public opinion and creating a free world of responsible and ethical social choices, but rather imposing opinion through legislation, mandating these ethics, and outlawing choice in what the loudest sample finds offensive.

Ban the Bans. It's a slippery slope between Idealism and Fascism.

If I'm not mistaken, the casinos haven't hurt Detroit either. I've heard that one of the prime reasons the hotels and other amenities never materialized in detroit was because they kept changing the rules and raising the taxes. I'm not a big fan of the slut parlors but I don't think they need to go down by the airport either. I do think foxwoods should be moved though, that area is already congested and some stupid light rail project isn't going to fix that.

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"You down wit OPM?"
Fumo: "Yeah, you know me!"

Detroit's an entirely different kind of mess. Still, the casinos didn't bring all the changes they promised to bring. They never do. In fact if anything, they ruined Greektown which was one of Detroit's only surviving downtown neighborhoods.

I agree that's a bad location for Foxwoods. If there's ever any hope of de-suburbanizing that part of South Philly, dropping a casino there will forever seal that area's fate as a conjested parking lot and stop light he11.

I'm not crazy about the casinos coming to Philly, but I never got why they decided to separate them. Why not put them near eachother.

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The idealistic are no longer concerned with influencing public opinion and creating a free world of responsible and ethical social choices, but rather imposing opinion through legislation, mandating these ethics, and outlawing choice in what the loudest sample finds offensive.

Ban the Bans. It's a slippery slope between Idealism and Fascism.

I was thinking the same thing. then zur and I's el realignment proposal starts to make even more sense.

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"You down wit OPM?"
Fumo: "Yeah, you know me!"

I thought the readers of this thread would be interested to know that there is a group of developers and builders who are embracing the vision of the Penn Praxis Plan.

Interestingly, this group is made up of developers who are smaller than the "mega" builders like Toll Brothers and a number are not from the city.

Funny how many of our home-grown developers are either against the plan or afraid of it. I think their resistance is based on how they adapted to the development process under previous adminstrations. I hope they get onboard.

They're also forcing Sugar House to redesign their property...again. Sugar House said they've redesigned their plans twice now to satisfy these neighborhood groups, and I don't blame them when they say they're not going to do it again. There's no satisfying these people, and hiring architects to completely redo your plans, after you've already received approval, isn't cheap. I'm all for an improved Delaware Riverfront, but I think some compromises will have to be made with regard to projects that have been already approved.

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The idealistic are no longer concerned with influencing public opinion and creating a free world of responsible and ethical social choices, but rather imposing opinion through legislation, mandating these ethics, and outlawing choice in what the loudest sample finds offensive.

Ban the Bans. It's a slippery slope between Idealism and Fascism.

I think one of the benefits of the Penn Praxis Plan is that it could encourage smaller developers to build in the city. By dividing some of the larger parcels into smaller lots the current property owners can sell them off piecemeal. Each portion that gets developed would make the remaining portions more valuable. Smaller projects could create a domino effect that would eventually encompass the entire river-front.

As it stands now, the owners of these larger parcels are waiting for the Holy Grail of developers to offer them a kings ransom. I don't think the city can afford to wait that long. Prince Charming isn't coming anytime soon.

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