Philly Casino Watch

In the post “Thank you Mayor Street” by Jamie, he explains the situation in which previous Philadelphia Mayor Street passed the “riparian lands” license to begin building the Sugar House Casino. Well, it turns out that we are not the only ones who thought that it was the wrong move; Mayor Nutter is on our side (so it seems as of now)!

Mayor Nutter asked Commerce Director Bumb to revoke the license because it had been “issued in error” and was “unnecessarily rushed.” Nutter said the issue was “not just about money” and continued, “This is about proper process and procedure and how we conduct ourselves here in the city.”

Of course this has the Sugar House CEO Greg Carlin flipping out, “We have been advised by our legal team that the City’s action to rescind our submerged lands license is contrary to law given the pending litigation surrounding that license.”

Bumb countering Mr. Carlin’s comments states, “The city had not reviewed submerged lands for 20 years […] It was a little-known process involved here, and that probably should have caused us to be more cautious […] We hurried it more in a way that was helpful to the project.” But now he sees there are other factors that should not have been ignored, such as the community.

This is a huge victory for the city of Philadelphia, but it is only one small step in the right direction. It is an uphill battle that seems can never be won…or can it?

Check out this news clip!

Sources:
planphilly.com
philly.com