Reportback from the Sugarhouse Blockade
Hey guys. A number of folks have asked me to write about my experiences in jail yesterday with the other activists from Casino Free Philadelphia. Most questions have been focused on the "what was it like" track – how did they treat us, where were we locked up. That stuff was interesting and hard and frustrating, but let’s get through it quickly. A short while after 6am Tuesday morning, fourteen protesters, including me, blocked the entrance to the Sugarhouse Casino construction site (or, as Casino Free Philadelphia likes to call it, the site of Neil Bluhm, the casino’s financier’s, future bankruptcy).
After three warnings from the head of Civil Affairs, we were taken one by one into waiting paddywagons, divided by gender. The images that stick with me are the Reverend Jesse Brown calmly walking to the wagon in the hands of the police, the first to be arrested – Denerale of ADAPT and Liberty Resources chanting "No Casino, No Way!" through the entirety of his arrest, Ellen of Asian Americans United keeping the crowd chanting with a myriad of creative slogans throughout the process, and the last minute when George Lakey and I were the final ones to be picked up and put into the backs of the trucks.
Jail is smelly and boring, and they don’t feed you much. The four other women with whom I shared cells – Ramona and Andrea, two Queen Village grandmas, Dawn, a FACT charter school music teacher and Old City resident, and the brilliant Lily of CFP – found many ways to pass the time. We joked about the lack of privacy, made musical instruments out of the plastic bags that contained our scanty lunches, and sang lots of songs.
As the hours ticked by and we wondered whether or not we'd have to spend the night in the Roundhouse, we also talked about whether or not this action had meant something. Before I was in jail, it was an easy choice to participate. I'd been volunteering with CFP for about 18 months, and knew it would come down to the image that hooked me on the campaign in the first place – the idea of an Old City doyenne in her fur coat sitting in front of a casino-site bulldozer. This wasn't exactly the same – but the message was clear. Pastors, grandmothers, and community members citywide knew that casinos were bad for our city.
We got that message across for sure. As the hours went by, FOX News, the Inquirer, KYW, WHYY – all focused on the pastors, grandmas, and the message that casinos were bad. While in the cell, a few other things became clear, too:
1) The people of Philadelphia are with us. In the station, police officers, guards, nurses, and other staff were aghast that we had misdemeanors to contend with, rather than summary charges. They also agreed that casinos would spike crime without giving us the resources they promise.
2) Lily brought up that Sugarhouse now hopes to bring just 1700 slots to the city. The initial vision? 10,000 slots, 5k apiece for Foxwoods and Sugarhouse. Foxwoods investors have watched a coalition of Chinatown leaders, students, pastors, and community members shunt their casino plans around the city, without a permit or a groundbreaking in sight. Sugarhouse has had to drastically cut their projections of what they'll build – a fortified box with 17% of what the casinos hoped to build, instead of a gargantuan shrine to gambling on our waterfront.
So yes – this was a success, and I've set my doubts aside. I think we have enough juice to keep Neil Bluhm and his comrade-in-casinos Ron Rubin guessing for a long time as to whether or not Philly is a good place to park their addiction palaces. As a volunteer, I'm going to follow the lead of the CFP, AAU, and other leaders who have built a powerful coalition against casinos and for businesses that enrich rather than rob our communities of resources.
CFP is already calling for support for their actions and celebrations around the Sugarhouse groundbreaking in a few days. Everyone who has a vision for a city that builds up everyone should plan to be there – October 8th, 2pm at Frankford and Delaware, in advance of the 3pm groundbreaking for Sugarhouse. At 4.30, folks'll head to a discussion on pathological gambling as a major hidden public health issue at Drexel. Timothy Fong, MD, co-director of the Gambling Studies program at UCLA School of Medicine, will present at Geary A Auditorium, 245 North 15th St.
I personally stand against casinos in Philadelphia because I know that they will hurt more jobs than they create, break families and bank accounts, and rob our neighborhoods of local businesses and hope that they need now more than ever. That's why I stood in front of Sugarhouse's driveway yesterday, and I hope, next time, you'll be standing there.
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