Excellent Question from the Winthrop Police Chief

Negotiating in BAD FAITH?

Rich Boyajian motion to write a letter in support of the referenduim.....

to REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL!

Winthrop vs Goliath Casino Negotiations

Exploiting your neighbors!

Suffolk Downs Neighbor‎Celeste Ribeiro Myers

Hmmm while we know where Boston stands and what they're trying to accomplish... let's check in on Winthrop, you know the home of one if not THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE STATE...

NOTE WINTHROP'S LOCATION:

Preserve Your Community!

From: Celeste Ribeiro Myers

On Tuesday, No Eastie Casino was out in FULL FORCE at all of the East Boston voting locations, holding signs, talking with our neighbors about casino impacts, and making our presence known to 10,000+ voters. That happened because of YOU! Braving the cool weather, 40+ volunteers fanned out across the neighborhood to tell the truth about how Caesars is going to impact our neighborhood. To all who served -- even if it was through a smile or a handshake to one of our volunteers on your way into the polls -- thank you, thank you, thank you.

We're hearing some amazing stories from Election Day -- stories of conversations with folks who are beginning to see the truth about an East Boston casino, of the deep love for our neighborhood that everyone felt, and of the kind words of hundreds of "silent supporters" at each of the locations.

But the amazing thing we heard from almost everyone who volunteered was the sense that most of the voters with whom we interacted on Tuesday do not favor a casino at Suffolk Downs.

That is very, very good news for our community, of course. Again, we can only credit our No Eastie Casino volunteers for having those tough conversations with neighbors about casino impacts, reaching out to small businesses and inviting friends to meetings. The word is spreading ... fast. People are listening. We are winning the battle for "hearts and minds."

 

But we cannot let up. Caesars will spend whatever it takes to get a "yes" vote when the time comes. We don't have endless amounts of money (and in reality, neither does Caesars), but we do have something they can never have: amazing volunteers like you who care so deeply about the place we call home. If you haven't attended an event or supported the cause yet, we need you now more than ever to join the growing chorus of "No Casino!"

One immediate need we have is to raise some money to bolster our efforts. Among other things (such as printing the many great handouts we have!), we will be hiring a part-time campaign manager for No Eastie Casino. All of the work thus far has fallen on the shoulders of our fabulous volunteers, but we feel the increasing workload merits someone's more focused attention. If you or someone you know might be interested in learning more about that position, please respond to this email.

Can you donate $25, $50 or $100 to keep a casino out of East Boston?

We will soon have a Paypal site up and running for easy online donations; in the meantime, if you are able to give a little bit to the cause, please respond to this email. Someone will be in touch with next steps. (and thanks!)

Thanks again for your continued support. On Tuesday, we reached thousands of our neighbors with our message that East Boston is not an airport ... not a casino -- but a thriving, family-oriented community.

Stay the course!

Celeste Myers and Brian Gannon
on behalf of
No Eastie Casino

 

 

 

Host Community Advisory Committee

FROM HCAC:

We would like to let you know about two upcoming opportunities to share your ideas about what should be included in a mitigation agreement. This coming Wednesday, August 22nd at 6:30pm, there will be a meeting of the Host Community Advisory Committee (HCAC) at the Paris Street Community Center Gym. An agenda for the meeting will be posted in the City Clerk's office as well as on the website prior to the meeting at www.cityofboston.gov/gaming. If you are unable to attend, there will also be office hours on Tuesday August 28th from 8am to 8pm at 46 Bennington Street, 2nd Floor. At the office hours, you will have an opportunity to speak one-on-one with a staff member of the Office of Neighborhood Services. For more information about these meetings, please see the attached flyers.

Casino critics: Pols gambling with vote

By Chris Cassidy
Saturday, June 9, 2012

 

Critics of a Suffolk Downs casino are keeping open the possibility they may sue to stop a $1 billion Caesars resort in East Boston based on a memo last fall from Secretary of State William Galvin warning lawmakers that a neighborhood-only vote would trigger a wave of legal challenges.

“I think it does leave the door open for us if they were to keep it to an East Boston-only vote,” said John Ribeiro of the anti-casino group Neighbors of Suffolk Downs. “I’m sure somebody would be looking at — given his statement — whether it was a legal vote.”

Galvin wrote a letter to Senate Ways and Means Chairman Stephen Brewer in September urging lawmakers devising the gambling bill to allow a citywide vote on a proposed casino — not the ward-only referendum that legislators ultimately passed.

Galvin warned, “This could lead to challenges (on equity principles and one person one vote) as it would appear that the interests of the entire city could be affected by the establishment of a gaming facility.”

Galvin’s caution is now echoing around the Hub.

“We’ve heard from folks all over the city who say they want to have a say and want to have a vote,” said Celeste Myers of No Eastie Casino, who is also Ribeiro’s sister.

“I’m sure it will get people riled up. The reality is our officials aren’t listening to us. I think they’d likely latch on to any legal recourse they have to get their attention.”

Myers said her group isn’t threatening legal action yet, but left the door open: “There’s no telling what the future will bring.” She said the memo “shines a light on the fact this bill was absolutely crafted with Suffolk Downs in mind.”

A Suffolk Downs spokesman did not return a call for comment yesterday. Brewer could not be reached for comment.

http://bostonherald.com/news/politics/view/20220609casino_critics_pols_gambling_with_vote


Mayor Menino and Senator Petrucelli sold their support for $16,000 in 'charitable contributions' that we know of.

This project will cost ALL of Massachusetts taxpayers + $500 MILLION.

Maybe all of us should decide if we want to reward wealthy investors with our tax dollars.



.

Suffolk Downs Opposition!

Gambling Addiction [and CRIME] increases within a 50 mile radius.


We are ALL neighbors!




From: No Eastie Casino
Subject: This Saturday, We Need YOU at a Visibility in Maverick Square, 10-noon!
Date: Wednesday, June 6, 2012, 10:16 PM

Dear Neighbors,

If you're opposed to a casino in East Boston, we need you to join us in Maverick Square this Saturday from 10-noon. We'll be assembling on the island by the bus stops. This is the first public demonstration / visibility for our group, and the first opportunity for casino opponents to stand together and say, in unison, "Not in our neighborhood!" We have some signs made, and there will be materials to make more. We'll have some light refreshments to share with passersby. Come ready to meet your neighbors, strike up an enlightening conversation, and make a public statement together. Please invite others ... a good showing on Saturday, especially after Suffolk Downs' extravaganza on Tuesday, is of the utmost importance. Let us know if you have any questions, and as always, stay tuned for more ways to plug into the movement.

Thank you,

No Eastie Casino Team

ps... We need more reliable volunteers! If you'd be willing to serve as an occasional volunteer with the campaign to defeat the casino -- to make signs, flyer in the neighborhoods, do phone banking, donate money or assist with other needed campaign tasks, for instance -- (and haven't already told us at one of the meetings) would you please reply to this email with your name, phone number, availability, and a volunteer area or two that interest you? I know we're all busy, but the more people who step up to volunteer, even for an hour a week, the less we'll all have to do. Thank you!

Photo by Nancy Lane

TRIPLE DOWN: Celeste Ribeiro Myers, John Ribeiro Jr. and his son John F. Ribeiro started No Eastie Casino, a group of people opposed

Anti-casino community group gives Suffolk frowns

By Frank Quaratiello
Tuesday, June 5, 2012

 

The driving force behind opposition to a Caesars Palace at Suffolk Downs is a pair of East Boston natives who said a resort casino will destroy the community they love.

“We’ve already got the airport. I feel like a casino will blow us out of the water. It will be the tipping point,” said Celeste Ribeiro Myers of the group “No Eastie Casino.”

Myers, 40, an executive assistant, and her brother John F. Ribeiro, 42, a computer scientist, started the Neighbors of Suffolk Downs group in 2010 and then No Eastie Casino last year. The two groups have a few dozen core members and an email list of nearly 500, Ribeiro said.

"There’s not a single community in the country that’s better off by having a casino,” he said. “There’s not one net positive.”

“I’m worried about traffic, increased crime and the burden to infrastructure,” said Myers, a mother who worries about drunken drivers from the casino careening down neighborhood streets. “I’m concerned about the impact on small businesses.”

Myers and Ribeiro are up against City Hall, fighting a proposal that already has the support of Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

“We’re hitting the streets,” said Ribeiro, a father of three who now lives in neighboring Winthrop. “This week, we were out in different business districts and stopped in about 50 businesses, and we found nearly everyone was opposed to the casino.”

In fact, even though Suffolk Downs is only formally rolling out its proposal today, the ground war for votes in East Boston and Revere, which will also cast ballots on the resort casino, has begun in earnest. Myers said she doesn’t believe some local officials — some of whom she has campaigned for in the past — are representing the best interests of their constituents.

“The deck is stacked against the community,” she said. “It seems like they are advocating for Suffolk Downs, not the community.”

Menino spokeswoman Dot Joyce countered Boston needs the “economic benefits” of a resort casino: “In major metropolitan cities like ours, we’re always competing. One of the ways we remain competitive is by having an entertainment venue that is popular in other cities.”

“Suffolk Downs, as it is, can’t survive,” Joyce added. “This is about retaining jobs and expanding an industry that has been there.”

Ribeiro and Myers don’t see it that way.

“Boston is doing much better than any other city in the country that has a casino,” Ribeiro said. “We don’t need it.”

 

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20220605anti-casino_community_group_gives_suffolk_frowns

 

 

 

No Eastie Casino: Protecting Local Businesses

Steve Perskie from the NJ Gambling Commission at the Gambling Commision educational forum:

"Let me make you a promise. Your legislation requires that operators put up a $500million investment. With that kind of money, you can be sure they're going to build an impressive structure with restaurants, bars, nightclubs, shops. Make no mistake: the delicatessan down the street is going to go out of business. The nightclub around the corner is going to go out of business. Nothing the Mass. Casino Commission can do is going to change that."

The Dumbest Location in the Commonwealth

Maybe you weren't paying close attention to the backroom deals, secret promises and typical Massachusetts corruption....or even that the Gambling Industry crafted the legislation. Maybe you even wrongly believed it wouldn't effect you.

Those schemes and promises resulted in the line on the Slot Barn map being moved to reward Bob Kraft, generous campaign donor. Maybe you didn't notice.

Bob Kraft managed to find Steve Wynn, currently being investigated for FCPA violations (bribing foreign officials), and we won't  re-hash how Drexel Lambert a la Michael Milken made Steve Wynn rich and screwed everyone else.

We won't dally about Gregory Bialecki sleeping with Bob Kraft, nor his investment in Gambling stocks that Governor Slot Barns defended.

The clowns wrongly believed Kraft/Wynn was a Slam Dunk. How'd that go for ya?

An owner of Suffolk Downs contributed to ruling Mayor Menino's secret charity that doesn't have public reporting requirements.

An owner of Suffolk Downs contributed to Senator "Amnesia" Petrucelli's secret charity that doesn't have reporting requirement. (And his charity wasn't even legal.)


Senator Petrucelli commissioned a report, then claimed it wasn't really a report, he's very confused with the lies he has told. What is clear is that his lying will cost Massachusetts taxpayers + $500 million to fund this "Something for Nothing Scheme" for his buddies.  

As candidate, he lied about his college graduation - he didn't even finish college!

It's time to retire Mr. Petrucelli to count the money he's been promised and manage his charitable endeavors.

What else don't we know?

This one tops them ALL! The dumbest location in the Commonwealth!

There are two roads that go in and out of Winthrop. Which one of them would you take to avoid Suffolk Downs traffic? — in Winthrop, MA.

One of the phony arguments used to promote Gambling is the $$$ flooding across state lines.

Every day, Massachusetts residents are forced to travel to other states for flights because MassPort and the short-sighted Political Elites refuse to divert flights to Worcester, turning neighborhoods into polluted parking lots.

Enough already!    

This Boston-centric universe can reward $46.5 million for a Boston development, but abandoned tornado-ravaged communities.

Chronicle aired a segment on the abandonment of Western Massachusetts and the community destruction:

Friday, May 4: After the Storm

These are OUR tax dollars that are being mis-spent by goose-stepping politicians that are betraying us and allowing their already over-inflated egos to be stroked by Lobbyists and Campaign Contributors, ignoring facts and their constituents.  

Time for change!

Massachusetts: Flaws Become Apparent

Disenfranchisement, the loss of voters' participation, was an issue opponents protested in the march to approve Predatory Gambling legislation, consequences be damned!

Too many Massachusetts voters wrongly believed this didn't effect them.

Surprise!

Back room deals and secret meetings seem to have moved Foxborough on the map to make the Bob Kraft/Wynn deal possible.

Is anyone asking?

And then there's that Pedestrian Brdige to Nowhere....and the rail line that will cost Massachusetts taxpayers.....

Who is asking about the appearance of corruption on Beacon Hill?



No say for some who would be casinos’ neighbors
In nearby communities, a feeling of frustration
By Mark Arsenault
Globe Staff

WALPOLE - Mike McCarthy lives close enough to a Gillette Stadium parking lot to smell the hibachi grills on game day. He does not mind Sunday tailgaters a few hundred feet from his house, but he draws the line at a billion-dollar casino.

Though he lives closer than almost anyone to the proposed site of a Wynn Resorts casino, he will not be allowed to participate in a local referendum if the project makes it to a vote. The casino would be in Foxborough; McCarthy lives just over the town line, in South Walpole.

“We don’t get a say,’’ said McCarthy, who has lived behind the stadium parking lot for about two years. “We would have to put our faith in the people of Foxborough, and that is a very powerless feeling.’’

The state legislation that paved the way for casino gambling in Massachusetts, signed by Governor Deval Patrick in November, gives tremendous power to local residents to decide if a casino will be built in their community: No casino project is eligible to compete for a coveted state license until voters in the host town - or, in large cities, the local voting ward - endorse the project in a referendum.

The legislation, however, gives little say to residents in neighboring towns.

Under the law, casino developers must negotiate agreements with these communities to provide money to deal with traffic and other potential spillover problems, but a neighboring town cannot stop a casino by refusing to negotiate or by asking for unreasonable compensation. The state Gaming Commission can bring negotiations between a developer and a neighboring town to conclusion, “in order to allow the applicant to submit a timely and complete application,’’ according to the law.

This has left some residents near proposed casino sites feeling disenfranchised.

John Ribeiro has been a leading opponent of a casino plan at Suffolk Downs. But he and his neighbors are residents of nearby Winthrop and will not be allowed to vote on the project.

“We have residences in Winthrop that are closer to Suffolk Downs than some places in Revere and East Boston,’’ he said. “We can ask for whatever we want from the casino developers, but when you come right down to it, if East Boston and Revere vote for it, there’s going to be a casino there, whether Winthrop wants it or not.’’

The state law expanding gambling in Massachusetts authorizes up to three resort-style casinos, spread among three geographic areas. The Western region has drawn heavy interest from developers, especially along the Massachusetts Turnpike. The operators of the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut have proposed a gambling resort in Palmer; MGM Resorts International, one of the largest casino operators in the world, wants to build next door in Brimfield.

The residents of Monson, a town bordering Palmer and Brimfield, are pinched between the two proposals and will have no vote on either project.

“It’s very frustrating,’’ said EmmaLadd Shepherd of Monson, former co-president of the group Quaboag Valley Against Casinos. “It’s one of the reasons the organization started . . . because we could see what was going to happen.’’

The group has lobbied, unsuccessfully, in favor of voting rights for surrounding communities. “We’re a very small town and we have quite a few towns abutting us,’’ she said, adding that a casino nearby “is definitely going to affect us.’’

In crafting the casino legislation, state lawmakers considered the option of extending the vote to surrounding towns, but decided to let those communities address concerns through the agreements for compensation.

“If we went too far one way, we would give communities that might be impacted essentially a veto power over another community’s ability to establish a business within its boundaries,’’ said state Representative Joseph F. Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat who played a leading role in guiding the casino bill to passage. “If we went too far the other way, we wouldn’t recognize the impacts on communities that would clearly be [affected] by the establishment of this new industry.’’

If voters had the power to block projects in other towns, “it’s possible we’d never have a resort casino,’’ [WOULD THAT BE SO BAD?] he said. “Impacted communities could for any number of reasons veto another community’s ability to establish a resort casino. That didn’t seem reasonable, and the reality is that would be contrary to what we were attempting to do by bringing this new industry on line.’’

In Boston, neighboring wards may also be denied a vote on a Suffolk Downs casino. Under state law, proposals in Boston, Springfield, and Worcester can proceed with approval of just the local voting ward, unless the mayor and city council choose to expand the vote citywide.

In Springfield, Ameristar Casinos is planning to compete for development rights, and Mayor Domenic J. Sarno has already called for a citywide vote.

But in Boston, Mayor Thomas M. Menino insists that only voters in East Boston, the neighborhood most directly affected, should have a say in the construction of a casino at Suffolk Downs. [Mayor Menino fancies himself king, having served beyond his useful lifem now waves his sceptre and decides for an entire City? Maybe it's time to allow the City Council to decide. Maybe it's time to determine what this will cost the City. ]

Councilor Matt O’Malley, who represents West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain, is urging a citywide vote. He said his constituents deserve a say on any casino proposal within the city.

“Constituents of mine, and of all of my colleagues, should have the right to vote on this because it is clearly something that will affect the entire city of Boston, for good or ill,’’ he said. “I say this as someone who is supportive of casinos and would likely vote in favor of one. The fact of the matter is we all pay taxes, which pay for the police and the fire and the infrastructure and all the services.’’

A citywide vote, he said, “would also make the whole process more transparent, cleaner, and better in the long run.’’

“I applaud the mayor of Springfield for calling for a citywide vote because it really does affect the entire city,’’ he said.