The Mystic River and a pair of rail lines are all that separate Assembly Square in Somerville from the wasteland in Everett that casino magnate Steve Wynn wants to transform into a resort casino. The two properties are so close that a decent golfer could tee off on one and hit the other. They share a common industrial heritage. Until work crews began clearing Assembly Square for construction, the land on the Somerville side of the Mystic looked just as forlorn as it does now in Everett.
Assembly Square and the old riverfront Monsanto plant in Everett are, in many ways, two sides of the same coin. Now, however, they’re on sharply divergent development paths. One builds a new economy, and the other builds an elaborate structure for siphoning cash into the hands of one wealthy corporation. Somerville is creating a new neighborhood, while Everett’s mayor is parading Steve Wynn through City Hall. Everett’s is a considerably less ambitious and less constructive endeavor, and it’s one the city doesn’t have to settle for. Somerville could have had what Everett now has (a less than certain shot at one of three state casino licenses), and turned that offer down. That alone should give Everett pause — especially because the city could easily replicate what is happening at Assembly Square.
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A rail link is much different than light rail. Trains come by every hour rather than every five minutes. Also, because it's closer and there is no river to cross, you can ride a bike into Boston from Somerville. You've got that pesky river to cross on the Everett side. I've not heard of developers jumping up and down to build on the site. The land has been sitting there for how many years?
Don't get too excited about Assembly yet...they kicked out businesses to make room for this neighborhood like 10 years ago. And I was over there yesterday and they finally opened a burger place, but they built it so close to Christmas Tree shop that the entrance was narrowed and created a huge traffic jam...bad location given that the land was huge. And they are projecting years more before retail opens.
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Two things...first, Kitchener below has either not been to Lucerne or he is oblivious to the social downside of casinos, but most likely both. I was in Lucerne for the music, not the gambling, but what was perfectly obvious was the immense wealth of the area. There are no places similar in density or economic status to Everett, East Boston, Dorchester or the other neighborhoods that casinos, with their promise of instant wealth as the answer to economic fear and uncertainty, would prey on. Frankly, unless, disguised as banks and using my investments and savings to gamble with, let the rich risk their play money as wish. But putting a casino in or near a neighborhood would be, if not a disaster, at least a profound negative. Let Kitchener fly off to Lucerne to gamble, not to East Boston, Revere or Everett.
Secondly...this may be the secret to Mayor Menino's perserverance even given his ill health. He sees a casino on the Blue Line as a capstone to his career. I see it as a mill stone around the neck for the people of Boston.
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The same thing could be said for the site at East Boston, Its transit oriented location, near the water, with good access to highways makes it a terrible spot to put a casino. (even more so because of the closer proximity to housing in EB)
Menino and Deval are gonna try and make thier final kickback paycheck by trying to put in a Casino in Boston and throughout MA, when almost everyone doesnt want it, before they get booted out.
I applaued mayor Curtatone for standing against the Casinos and having an actual backbone. This is probably why Somerville is having such a great resurgance of businiess and housing, unlike Evertt and parts of EB.
I hope McMurrow realizes that nearly the same thing could be said for almost everyother site, infact foxbourgh didnt have the convergence of all said factors and they still thought it was a bad idea. Imagine what could become of these sites besides a regresive tax based casino? A waterfront park, mixed income and buisness districts, or imagine instead of slots and racetracks we had a New England Revolutions Soccer stadium.
In the long run Casinos are hurting local and state economies. Look at the numbers, they take more out of economies than they put back in. Its a regresive tax that siphons money away from savings and consumer spending, the things we need to get the economy stable again. Even Donald Trump addmited it "People will spend a tremendous amount of money in casinos, money that they would normally spend on buying a refrigerator or a new car. Local businesses will suffer because they lose customer dollars to the casinos."
I'd have to agree that their would be a great number of locals coming in to an Everett casino. But it really depends on how the casino is marketed. Will people be popping in for an hour during the day or will it cater more to people who are on vacation in Boston and staying for a few days in the hotels? In terms of a destination spot, I can see people from all over the world (who had possibly been thinking about Boston as a destination) decide to come because of that little extra boost. It would be close to the airport for those destination travelers. These potential high-rollers would never attend if the casino were located in Holyoke. In Vegas the hotels cater to both high and low income gamblers. With just one casino I'd bet it would be expensive. It would have to be. The Blackjack tables would probably be ten (maybe twenty) dollar minimum bet. No nickel slots, expensive restaurants and expensive hotel rooms. Why would Winn want to serve the working class Everett locals? It would be interesting. I think it has more potential for drawing people to Boston than you might think.
Nothing against working-class Everett locals, bless them all, but I don't see them making Mr. Winn much richer and would only provide bad PR if they did.
Getting any development done in the immediate Greater Boston area takes years and years, sometimes decades. Remember, the current Assembly Square development is actually what I'll call "Assembly Square II". This one has taken over fifteen years to get going, having gone through several iterations over that time, and with IKEA ultimately dropping out. "AS I" opened over thirty years ago, in the early eighties, with two malls and a huge movie complex. Remember, the main mall was anchored by Jordan Marsh and KMart, and the secondary mall had Circuit City? Well, that first development thrived for a while, but crashed in less than twenty years, for a variety of reasons. The development of AS II overlapped with the demise of AS I. The area is complex and the public input on every project in the area is extensive and intense. Who knows just what will happen with AS II? But, I'm betting that there'll be an AS III one day . . . . . . . And as for the Monsanto land, all bets are off on that one. It's even more difficult to get to, from any direction. That, and the clean-up required, will keep it from development for a long time to come.