OLG Toronto/GTA casino proposal (where to put it?)

[TheTigerMaster]

Perhaps we could put it in Rouge Park. Far away from any type of civilization.

I'm serious. No NIBYers to complain about their neighbourhood and we get millions of dollars per year in taxes. It's a win win.

 

[canmark]

Toronto Star: 'No' side hijacks first public consultation on Toronto casino plan

NOW: Councillors crash casino consult

 

[RC8]

Please enlightenment me, how so ?

Serious businesses don't want their offices located next to a casino. It exposes their employees to social and financial risks that don't benefit their professional life at all. It also means that executives who fly in (or walk in) for meetings might be trying during negotiations to make up for losses they took in the casino. Office property values could be severely affected as a result. This is why New York City did not allow a casino in Manhattan.

The underlying problem is that we would need a massive casino on the site in order to make a good profit for the city, but this would have widespread negative impacts. Meanwhile, if the casino was smaller, then its impacts might not be so great but the city won't be making much money at all from it.

Casinos do not belong in the middle of successful well-functioning parts of the city. They inevitable shape their surroundings in certain ways. You can see in Viña del Mar, Chile, how a casino can seemingly fit in within a very nice neighbourhood, but look closer and you'll see only the richest people in the country can afford to live near it, there are no office business operations near it, and neighbouring communities have suffered because they cannot compete with the entertainment offered at the casino (which is subsidised by casino-goers).

I don't care about a casino 'in Toronto'. If people want one at Woodbine Racetrack I have no opinion on it. But downtown it has the potential to do tremendous damage, and very little good.

 

[Johnny Au]

I oppose casinos, as it creates many social problems (and the benefits of a casino are outweighed by social costs and policing costs). However, if a casino must be built, it should be in Woodbine Racetrack (since there are already gambling facilities there and is practically surrounded by industrial land). Locating a casino downtown is only asking for great economic and social devastation (and traffic congestion).

 

[PinkLucy]

From Rosario Marchese's Facebook page this morning:

Toronto City Hall staff just confirmed that City Council will offer the province only a Yes or No on the casino question. The province will decide on the casino's location, not City Council. If so, then what is the purpose of the long public survey, asking about the relative merits of different casino locations? Now we know: there is only one question for the public: Yes or No?

 

[ShonTron]

Since Godfrey and Co are simply not trustworthy, I would have to say a flat out no (which would not otherwise be my position on this, if a suitable location and size was neogitated).

That said, the city has the zoning, servicing controls and could give OLG and their private partner a hard time.

 

[TrickyRicky]

If it's just yes or no then the entire exercise is a waste of time. We can put this issue to bed because there will be a 100% chance of no vote.

 

[ttk77]

Yeah....that just made me switch my opinion from mixed/tentative to absolutely not. There are just too many of the proposed locations where I do not want it to go.

 

[TOareaFan]

I oppose casinos, as it creates many social problems (and the benefits of a casino are outweighed by social costs and policing costs). However, if a casino must be built, it should be in Woodbine Racetrack (since there are already gambling facilities there and is practically surrounded by industrial land). Locating a casino downtown is only asking for great economic and social devastation (and traffic congestion).

Your last point lost me. If we work on the assumption that gambling (and gambling houses) draw crowds of people because they are popular why would a casino that is physically attached to the region's major transit hub and an easy walk (largely underground) from a lot of our major tourist hotels create traffic issues but a casino in a remote part of town with minimal non-car access not cause traffic congestion?

 

[PinkLucy]

For the same reason that events at the ACC and Rogers Centre cause traffic congestion even though they are located close to hotels and transit. Except with a casino, it would be every day.

 

[jaycola]

For the same reason that events at the ACC and Rogers Centre cause traffic congestion even though they are located close to hotels and transit. Except with a casino, it would be every day.

A sporting venue is a poor example. The casino will not occupy and empty out all at once. You will never have 20,000 or 40,000 people coming to or leaving the casino within a 30 minute window as you do with sporting events.

Those out of town guests will likely walk or take transit if it is built in a convenient location. Build it in the far flung regions of the city and that is what will cause the traffic, if ot non the scale of a sporting event.

 

[Hanlansboy]

No matter what side of the issue you stand on, after studying the various proposals in detail, and the general publics reaction to them, I just can't see city council approving a casino, much less the Oxford one. Such a shame, I realize all the complications involved with making such a controversial decision, but I so badly want to see those twin supertalls built. But, there will be other projects, we still haven't heard a word about 45 Bay, there's a 2 million square foot project just waiting to be built. Either way it's definitely not the end of the world, with all the projects going on here, I'm thrilled either way, what an amazing time to be a Torontonian and a skyscraper geek!

 

[innsertnamehere]

I still wouldn't be surprised if Oxford moves forward with the convention centre expansion and the office towers. so I think we will get half of the rail decking, with the hotel towers,casino, and mall scrapped.

 

[CanadianNational]

It'd be nice of them to propose a different money making attraction - planetarium / cosmology centre, open high-tech lab, year-round conservatory, a new branch of a major art museum, a semi-vertical skateboard park, a museum of sex, an extension of the Ripley's Aquarium...surely there must be something that would up the ante while being a unquestionably positive investment in the city.

Personally, I can't believe that a major development like this would hinge on something as slippery as casino approval. Larger economic conditions in the city, province and country, yes. I hope that Oxford proceeds and sees it through, Casino or not. And I do hope for something more undeniably uplifting than a casino.

 

[Silence&Motion]

Toronto casino: Ford pushes potential jobs, revenue at third public consultation (Toronto Star)

Ford is quoted in the article as saying: “If we can create 10,000 or more good-paying union jobs and bring in revenue of $200 million. . . . I just don’t know how people can say no to that.”

Yes, that's right. Ford is in support of good.... I mean WELL-paying union jobs for casino workers. If only the people who provide daycare to our children, maintain our civic infrastructure, and drive our subways could be as deserving as the people who deal cards and hand out free drinks.