From time to time I will post thoughts on my great town Philadelphia. This is my first.
Dear Philadelphia,
Lets all not forget what went in down on the waterfront folks.
Go to U of Penn area or Northern Liberties and see what real community based development looks like. They have shops, theatres, restaurants, brewery’s etc. Now go to the Casino on the waterfront and what you have is a glorified casino Wal-Mart / desert! There is nothing there for the community. It has attracted no businesses. In short it a complete failure from a modern-day development standpoint.
I would be all for something that looked like the North Liberties Piazza Development with a casino on the top floor completely away from walking traffic and not at ground level. But that will never happen. They tried to put a casino in at the Gallery Location and it did not fly. It’s not going to fly in this neighborhood either until the developers put the local businesses and neighbors first and create a livable place where people come for all things (other than gambling). These casino people just don’t get it and they have no vision. What they also don’t get is that the location is very valuable and will be developed in due time. Let’s wait for the right kind of development to go in and lets see what the online gaming industry is going to do to the bricks and mortar casinos. According to Silicon Valley’s complete focus and total commitment, (to this utterly horrible idea and complete waste of our nations most talented) it will put most casino locations out of business in the next 5 years.
Casinos are modern-day dinosaurs and there is a very big Bulls Eye on them and its being aimed from Silicon Valley as we speak.
Good things come to those that wait.
Your Pal,
Thomas
