the seneca’s buffalo creek casino

How can Bruce Jackson possibly write an entire article on the impact of a Buffalo casino (“The Seneca’s Buffalo Creek Casino,” Artvoice v5n3) without considering the fact there are four different casinos within a 20-minute drive of the proposed Buffalo casino? A casino will do little to revitalize the city and the jobs created will not have a profound impact on the economy, but the negative impacts will be negligible.

The purported $150 million Judith Einach says will be sucked out of our local economy in the first year is already being sucked out by casinos in Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and Salamanca, not to mention those in Vegas, Atlantic City and all over the internet. Anyone in Western New York who wants to gamble already has ample venues locally, online and many more a cheap flight away.

There is no evidence that a Buffalo casino will suddenly generate an additional $150 million in gambling losses by Western New York residents. I have been traveling to Vegas for work several times a year for over a decade and have wagered at many casinos on the Strip and make the occasional visit to all three casinos in Niagara Falls and others in Syracuse, Windsor and Detroit.

Having a casino in Buffalo will not cause me to wager a single penny more than I currently do. It will give me another option on where to place those wagers, and instead of heading to Canada and Clifton Hill, I may head to downtown Buffalo on a few of those occasions.

The compact with the Senecas is appalling and a huge missed opportunity. One hundred percent of the revenues generated could belong to the taxpayers and be used to fund local projects, had New York State simply changed the law and allowed the host county or city to open and operate the casinos, instead of a sovereign nation of Indians. But given the many other gambling options locally, there is no evidence that a Buffalo casino will negatively impact the City of Buffalo. If anything it will bring a small share of the money being wagered in Canada and elsewhere back to Buffalo.

There are many Western New York residents who enjoy gambling and spend a portion of our discretionary income doing it, much like others play golf or hockey, attend Bills and Sabres games or any other hobby. Having a casino in Buffalo will not “seduce” us into gambling our lives away, any more than a golf course on the same location would induce some duffer to golf himself out of a job while frittering his life savings away.

Aaron Walker

Snyder

I just have just read the interview “Suing the Governor” (Artvoice v5n5) with attorney Robert Knoer by Bruce Jackson.

Excellent interview and very insightful, though I did find most of Robert Knoer’s comments rather colorful. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought the Buffalo casino site was to be located in an established residential area instead of the barren landscape that it truly is.

I digress.

I am neither for or against a casino in Buffalo, but as I revisit the Niagara Falls area, mostly to view the new construction, I find it a sad metaphor that all I need to do is turn 180 degrees around to see the same old, tired, depressed city that I had the misfortune to grow up in.

I suspect—no, I know—that the same result will occur in Buffalo. I have no doubt that a glittering, state-of-the-art building will be erected and we will all be bedazzled by its splendor, but again I will simply make my 180-degree turn to see the same old brownfields that I have been looking at since I was a kid.

As if Atlantic City is not enough proof that casinos do not work for the better of the community; we not only build one to prove this point but we build another just to drive home the fact that we simply do not learn from our mistakes.

Yes, welcome to Western New York, where our industrial heritage has either been forgotten or is treated like a bad joke. Instead of our government initiating a program where current or even past owners of industrial properties should be forced to clean up and maintain a caretaking work force, we are grasping at straws of casinos and Bass Pro shops that will never pay a livable wage scale.

Mark Williams

Olcott Beach

belated love notes

I am now a resident of California and have found it too easy to fall out of the loop with happenings in my hometown of Buffalo. For the last two years I have professed my love for a certain Paul the Pastry Chef through your paper and I missed my opportunity this time around (“Love Notes,” Artvoice v5n6). I desperately would like to know if you could include my note in this week’s paper:

To Paul the Pastry Chef:

Cocoa, sugar, Frangelico…

lady fingers, flour and mint.

Espresso, cream, marzipan…

almond, caramel, rose tint.

One apart from the other seems meaningless,

empty and void of taste.

Bombes, cassatas and frangipan,

look at all the wonderful things you create!

Time has passed between us and you no longer are mine.

Yet I rest assured knowing things will work out,

they’ll work because of you and your delicious design.

I love you,

—Barista.

Henrietta Leonard

Yosemite, California

correction:

We misspelled Mary Ellen Bossert’s name in “Art for a Hot Date” (Artvoice v5n5). Sorry, Mary Ellen.