Not in my beautiful park
Wednesday, Dec 12, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Like I’ve said before, I keep hearing that the old Congress Hotel is a prime site for any new Chicago casino. CBS 2 reported the same thing last night, and also reported that Mayor Daley has ruled out other sites that have been discussed…
“Well, it’s not going to be near the lakefront, of course. It’s not going to be in communities, it’s not going to be I Navy Pier, it’s not going to be in my beautiful park, Northerly Island,” he said with a smile and added it would also not be at McCormick Place or Block 37.
“My beautiful park.” Yeah, it was a joke, but humor often masks hard truths.
* Meanwhile, hizzoner pushed again for an immediate transit bailout…
Reacting for the first time to a new gambling expansion package, Mayor Daley Tuesday cautioned that winning legislative approval for new casinos should not be tied to a bailout of the CTA.
The mayor warned a complicated gambling deal — even the one that emerged Monday with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s reluctant support — will take time to work out. […]
“The solution is to pass a transit bill immediately,” he said. “Pass it.”
But the Republicans aren’t buying into that yet…
“People will be very reluctant to put a vote on a massive gaming bill without knowing what benefits their districts derive, and I don’t blame them for that,” said state Rep. Brent Hassert (R-Romeoville), the House GOP’s point man on gambling.
* The Daily Herald editorialized today against Speaker Madigan’s proposal to allow middle class women and minorities to buy into any new casinos. The DH echoed state Sen. Rickey Hendon’s argument that the plan would be unfair to wealthy women and minorities…
Madigan’s plan to assure minority and female casino ownership by letting them buy into a $5,000 ownership lottery is odd on its face. It could make it difficult for women and minorities with substantial financial backing to get an ownership share.
* The Tribune, however, cuts to the chase of this argument…
Too often in Illinois, though, “minority participation” has meant the same wealthy people getting wealthier: Time and again, they land the set-asides. Poor and middle-class people? They may not share in this public-supported bounty.
Case in point: The failed Emerald Casino project included set-aside stakes for minorities and women. We’ll award a tall stack of casino chips to the political insider who first details how that group came together: Chaz Ebert (wife of Roger), former Chicago Bear Shaun Gayle, auto dealer extraordinaire Al Johnson, Connie Payton (widow of Walter), Sandra Degnan (wife of longtime Daley operative Tim), and so forth.
That privileged group epitomizes one problem that can flow from mandated set-asides: The investors start to think of themselves as beneficiaries entitled to win big, even if they voluntarily put their money into a shoddily run company.
In the wake of Emerald’s collapse, the minority and women investors have been demanding to get their money back — from Illinois taxpayers, no less. And Jones has been angling furiously for a way to bail them out. […]
[Wealthy minorities and women] can band together as investors and compete with other bidders for one or more casino licenses. That opportunity is wide-open to the rich people whose alleged victimhood upsets Hendon. Madigan’s plan takes care of less-than-wealthy people who just want a stake in the game.
* On the other hand, former Chicago Bear Shaun Gayle, was one of those Emerald investors and he made a good point in an op-ed this year…
Emerald was forced to sell off 20 percent of the company to minorities, so they mixed in with us their own “illegitimate minorities” — shareholders placed in the minorities category by Emerald’s management who are fronting for someone other than themselves or have undisclosed political ties. And they had us fund the entire deal. That way, if things went awry, it would be our money at stake and not their own. The press feels there’s no way we could have that type of wealth and gotten into this deal without being “connected.” I offer no apologies for having the money to invest; truth is, many Chicagoans watched me earn it. As for who is or isn’t politically connected, there is a team of Gaming Board investigators paid by your tax dollars to weed out connected and corrupt investors trying to get into gaming. They’ve already identified and announced more than a few who are corrupt. Still, the media ignore those names and continue to list mine, Chaz Ebert and Connie Payton as wrongdoers just for effect, when we’ve never been accused. Even when a clause in the new gaming bill floated in Springfield included the minorities, the press led an outcry, blurring the line between “legitimate” and “illegitimate” minorities by reporting the clause was written for “Emerald shareholders,” when the bill specifically singled out women and minorities for inclusion.
* More gaming/capital/transit stuff…
* Federal transit aid in jeopardy over gridlock
* Feds to Metra: Transit gridlock might kill rail upgrades, new projects
- Levois - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 10:04 am:
That park should have stayed an airport, eh?
- Garp - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 10:07 am:
If anyone watched the discussion last night on Chicago Tonight about passing a gaming bill you saw how difficult this will be. Senator Hendon couldn’t be more confrontational as he blamed Madigan for “screwing” black people and just about everyone else he could think of. This is not going to pass.
The funny but sad part is, I believe, this is exactly what Madigan wants. Chaos, generated by others while he looks like the calm, professional trying to work things out. But nothing get done and everybody else looks bad. After the performance I saw last night, there is no way on earth this state is ready for expanded gambling.
- Tom - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 10:12 am:
I disagree that Gayle made a good point in that piece. Why is he a “legitimate” minority member. He was clouted into that investment just like Degnan’s wife and the Rosemont mobbed up guys. It’s not like he was randomly chosen from the big book of wealthy black guys. I agree with Madigan that if you are going to do set asides, the decision on who is benefitted should be open to all and not just those who happen to know somebody who knows Emil Jones or Rickey Hendon.
- Macbeth - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 10:17 am:
They’re gonna need mass transit if they build that casino at the Congress. It’s a prime spot — a great location for playing some poker, a walk to the Art Institute and the new Modern Wing, and a picnic in the awesome Millenium Park (not to mention what will be the key foundation for a spurt in the South Loop development) — but good god: the parking situation isn’t *that* great.
Metra and Amtrak can easily capitalize on this — and I look forward (as I’ve been saying) to finally gaming nearby — but the mass transit will be the *key* for this.
Makes me wish I still worked for the state. I coulda gamed on my lunch hour. Wait — would that be an ethics violation?
- Snidely Whiplash - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 10:25 am:
Poor rich women and minorites. It just isn’t fair that they, too, can’t turn their $10M into $50M overnight. Let’s find a way to shake $10 more a month out of every poor and middle class person, so that these deserving souls can finally make it into a bracket that let’s them, too, outsource their jobs to Third World countries. Afterall, our middle class have a duty to better the lot of the rest of the world’s poor by becomming poor, themselves …
- Macbeth - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 10:27 am:
Also — if the Congress Hotel is the spot, better kiss the Eisenhower goodbye for the next ten years. You think traffic is bad now on the Eisenhower? Wait’ll they put in the casino.
I see fifteen years of Eisenhower nightmares.
But if there’s poker at the end of that expressway, count me (and my chips) in.
- Ghost - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 10:27 am:
I agree with Daley, the CTA/RTA bailout needs to be seperated from gambling epansion, or for that matter, a capital bill. This needs and deserves its own seperate consideration. Its a major major issue and should not be bundeled/brudened with the other stuff.
I also thinks this little bit sums up the Hendonesque quiblles with poor rich minorities ===That opportunity is wide-open to the rich people whose alleged victimhood upsets Hendon. [they can put together a pot of money and bid for the whole enchilada like everyone else]. Madigan’s plan takes care of less-than-wealthy people who just want a stake in the game.====
- Niles Township - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 10:32 am:
I still think the casino is going to wind up at the old post office. There is plenty existing parking in the area as well as old warehouses and car repairs shops that could be flattened for even more parking. The proposed development for that site is never going to get off the ground with the amount of work that building needs without a casino funding it. I see a casino with a hotel tower and maybe a condo tower as part of the project. Look who owns the site? Neil Bluhm is a part-owner of a casino in Niagara Falls, Canada and has bid for an IL license before (Des Plaines). The casino would be within reach of downtown and the conventioneers, but not in everyone’s face on Michigan Ave. I’m still against it, but if it happens, it will happen here.
- MOON - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 10:34 am:
GHOST
You are right on the money! If minorities (women or others)want a casino they can pool their resources and bid on a license. Madigan’s proposal only guarantees minority participation.
- Macbeth - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 10:37 am:
What’s in the old post office now? Is it completely empty?
- Snidely Whiplash - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 10:40 am:
Good Lord, there’s enough Loop traffic as it is! Why not just put it somewhere in O’Hare Airport, or build it on Chicago land somewhere nearby? Also, if it’s built at the site of the Congress, just where are those thousands of gamblers supposed to park? And, if they can’t park, are they planning on completely overwhelming a public transportation system that’s already been cut to the bone, so that regular riders can’t even get to work?
These guys never seem to consider that one area always effects another. So, if King Richard II is going to put his casino in the Loop, and the only viable means of transportation to and from the Loop remains the CTA for most people, maybe the linkage between the two isn’t so wrong. Give him everything he wants on both ends, and make the rest of us pay for it.
- Niles Township - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 10:41 am:
Macbeth,
It’s empty. There has been a pending development there for sometime involving condo, office and hotel components. Allegedly, they have started environmental remediation which was necessary to get going. Earlier in the year, the Batman movie took it over for a few weeks to shoot scenes where it posed as Gotham National Bank.
- DumberThanYouThink - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 10:45 am:
The Daily Herald writes:
Madigan’s plan to assure minority and female casino ownership by letting them buy into a $5,000 ownership lottery is odd on its face. It could make it difficult for women and minorities with substantial financial backing to get an ownership share. This plan raises questions, too, about who would manage such a casino and therefore be held culpable for its actions.
Can’t wealthy women/minorities just buy stock in the publicly traded companies that are likely to be the bidders?
Should govt create a special set aside for the wealthy?
What is the DH thinking?
- DumberThanYouThink - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 10:52 am:
Wonder why no one asked Cong. Kirk if he asked he GOP state legis allies why the don’t vote for the RTA bill. There is $1 billion bonding authority for METRA projects. That’s the match for fed dough.
Geez
- Bill - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 11:13 am:
Dumber,
When you are not trying to channel Rod you actaully make some sense. Good points,for once.
- Bill - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 11:15 am:
Gamblers could park in the deserted parking tower in Rosemont and take the Blue line downtown to lose.
- NoGiftsPlease - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 11:30 am:
How about block 37?
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 11:38 am:
===How about block 37?===
Because Daley said No.
- DumberThanYouThink - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 11:55 am:
Actually the best place is the space just north of the Sheraton Hotel
- been there - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 12:35 pm:
The old post office has plenty of room for parking indoors, plus room for a hotel on the upper floors, and even a garden on the roof.
- What's in a name? - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 1:33 pm:
Hendon is a demagogue. And not a very gifted one at that.
The goal of minority participation is to get public money or opportunity in the communities that have been historically excluded. An admirable goal.
If you are black and wealthy, I submit you no longer need special help to be included, you’re already in.
Hendon actually suggested that Oprah would be forced to come in the back door like a maid. Really.
Hendon’s motivation is transparent. Make his friends and supporters richer.
He brings nothing to the game.
- Ghost - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 2:04 pm:
So why is Daley opposed to putting it near the lakefront?
Plop it on meigs field, put in a few helisopter pads for wealthy gamblers and so the Gov can visit.
- unclesam - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 3:08 pm:
How about the City build a man-made island off the lake for the casino to be built on? Then, contract out for a ferry service from Navy Pier to the casino.
- A Citizen - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 5:13 pm:
When elected Mayor I pledge to restore and modernize Meigs Field to its former glory and serve as an Airport for easy access for the thousands of Gamblers and Business Folks as well. Bill is welcome to run with me!
- Levois - Wednesday, Dec 12, 07 @ 8:10 pm:
Block 37 is in the loop and I totally disagree with putting a casino in the loop. Thank you!