Economic needs are key as N.Y. seeks casino sites
Mike Groll/Associated Press
Developer William Walsh and his son, Peter, see their planned casino helping to generate jobs in Binghamton, N.Y.
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Developers competing to build a casino near Binghamton say the city has been listed among the most depressed, obese, pessimistic, and fastest-shrinking in the nation.
It may seem odd for backers of the planned Traditions resort to highlight local lowlights to the state officials who will soon choose upstate casino sites, but a big goal of New York’s gambling expansion is to bring jobs to upstate areas that need them the most.
Casino applicants like Traditions are promoting not only their ability to make money with a local casino, but how badly it is needed.
It’s an argument that resonates in New York’s Southern Tier. ‘‘The economy is so depressed around here, anything is a plus,’’ Steven Shaffer, owner of Pepe’s Bar-B-Q, said as he grilled chickens under a tent on a careworn Binghamton city street. ‘‘That’s how bad it is around here.’’
The Binghamton area boomed in the 20th century as IBM evolved in this area from a maker of punch-clocks into a high-tech powerhouse and waves of immigrants came for work, many to make shoes at the Endicott Johnson factory. The old story is that newly arrived immigrants would ask officials, ‘‘Which way E.J.?’’
Back then, a job represented lifetime security and neighborhoods thrived, recalled 68-year-old lifelong resident Diane Stento, who interned for IBM in high school when her father worked at E.J.
Many of those old businesses have left the area or dramatically scaled back. As in many upstate areas, the economy slowed.
‘We have to look at other revenue-generating opportunities and other ways to put people to work here.’
Bill Walsh, Prospective casino developer
MY COMMENTS*************************************************************
Following our class discussion on the situation that has lasted in the state of Michigan, my selected article on casinos follows this pattern of "loss" here in America. Many of our cities and states have been hurt when a major company, like in Detroit, The three automakers, and in Upstate New York, IBM, leaves for whatever reason, mostly financial, and the town is , to a large degree, left jobless. I have watched documentaries and read newspapers over the years, dealing with things as this. Why companies move to greener pastures is many times obvious. Tax deals, less cost, cheaper paid wages and such, may be better for the company, but the people left in that state are decimated. The whole city of Detroit, for instance, is fallen on hard times. Surrounding areas, if they were dependent on the automakers, are at a major loss themselves. Workers move to where the business and jobs are, and virtually no one wins except the company profit line.
Now, in upstate New York, IBM leaves for finer pastures along with Endicott Johnson, another major business, and the people in Binghamton suffer too. a casino may be there only option to bring lots of jobs into the area. Politicians and businessmen alike are putting their hopes into something that will revitalize the economy and build up the area. Hopefully things will work for the better for the masses.
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