Letters: Casino location 'insane, immoral'

WE ARE hardworking volunteers and spend many hours fighting to maintain the quality of life of the residents south of Packer Avenue that live in our two communities.

District 1 comprises 221 residences between 13th and Broad streets, South of Packer Avenue - three blocks from the proposed Live! Casino. District 2 comprises 1,250 residences and is a few blocks farther west, and is already heavily impacted by the traffic that the sports complex generates now.

Our convent, rectory, the Mastery Charter Elementary School and Stella Maris Church are within two blocks of 10th and Packer.

Placing a fifth large entertainment venue, this one 24/7 and with many negative and dangerous problems, so close to already impacted residences and the above-mentioned children, many new young families, and 60 percent seniors, is insane and immoral.

We testified at length before the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), along with other district directors, obviously to no avail. We guess they call that a dog-and-pony show.

All our local politicians have a nonvoting seat at every Sports Complex Special Services District Board meeting, which they attend or send a representative.

Councilman Kenyatta Johnson was present in November 2012, with the other elected officials or their representatives when the voting board members first voted unanimously to oppose any casino south of Oregon Avenue. That unanimous opposition has been discussed at every district meeting since 2012. Our opposition should be no surprise to anyone who is listening and paying attention to their constituents, unless they are living under a rock.

Since none of our elected officials testified in opposition to this site before the PGCB or gave us any support, knowing our unanimous position in opposition, we had no reason to invite them to our most recent community meeting on this subject.

With state Sen. Larry Farnese, state Rep. Maria Donatucci and Johnson now sending letters to our people (with their free postage privileges) trying to shift the blame to us for the casino site, it is now time to throw this negative casino decision right back on them, where it belongs. If they could agree on that united front now against the community leaders, why could they not have agreed to the same united front to testify on our behalf against this already heavily-impacted area, against this proposed 7-acre casino monstrosity.

We support and have always supported the unions, especially as they built Wells Fargo Center, Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park and, most recently, Xfinity Live! in our back yard.

However, there were two fabulous Center City sites for Philadelphia's second casino that would have afforded even more building jobs and would have captured out-of-town visitors attending the Convention Center. Those union jobs did not have to come at the expense of the last shreds of quality of life for residents south of Packer.

Judy Cerrone

Director, District 1

V.P. of SCSSD executive board

Barbara Capozzi

Director, District 2

treasurer of SCSSD executive board

Who's happy with Pharrell?

Shame on Pharrell Williams. How dare he not stay in lockstep with Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, the "leaders" of the black community? How dare he bring up an instance that the mainstream media has been loathe to cover because it shatters the myth of Michael Brown as an innocent child?

Most importantly, how dare he put the focus on the family and community that led to this 18-year-old "child" shoplifting and then using his size to intimidate the store owner when he attempted to stop him from shoplifting? Doesn't he know that the only issue that exists here is the racism of a white cop shooting a black man who tried to take his gun and then charged at him after the officer fired a warning shot?

The most disturbing thing about Pharrell's comments are how much they show his ability to think as an individual, understand facts and make his own decisions.

Shame on the media for covering Pharrell's comments, giving them legitimacy and disseminating free thought among the masses; it sets a dangerous precedent. Soon people will begin discussing the flaws in the ACA, the welfare system, the immigration system and any of a myriad other flaws that the news organizations have been avoiding coverage of than to the ongoing riots in Ferguson. And we all know there's no place for facts, discussion and educated opinions in either politics or news.

Steven Tomlin

Philadelphia

Limitations

There should be some sort of a reasonable "statute of limitations" regarding all of these women's accusations after 10, 20, 30 and even 40 years ago.

How can Bill Cosby, who claims his innocence, defend himself properly when any of his evidence and witnesses may no longer be around?

Memories become diminished and cloudy after all that time. Cosby is in his late 70s. I am somewhat younger than Cosby, but I was told that men, even at my age, suffer from three things. One is loss of memory. The other two, I forgot.

Mayer Krain

Philadelphia