 Todd DormanTodd Dorman is a columnist for The Gazette. His blog has been bringing smiles to readers' faces since November 2007. |
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Riverside Water Park ploy seems slippery
So my father was hospitalized earlier this week with pneumonia. He’s back home and doing great. But I decided to take Friday off to go home and make sure he’s getting along OK.
He turns 81 on Wednesday. Happy birthday!
But first, I stopped by the office, to wrap up a few things. For instance, I wanted to look over my Sunday column, which was already finished and in the can. Then, I got a curious email from Just Say No Casino spokesman Sam Roecker about a noon press conference with Riverside Casino and Golf Resort CEO Dan Kehl. Sheesh.
I responded, explaining that I was about to leave town, wondering what’s up? Roecker sent me a somewhat cryptic message back, saying the announcement was regarding “an alternative for the site.”
I responded again, before I departed, at 9:43 a.m. My email:
Riverside Water Park? Riverside University? Riverside Zoo? Riverside Raceway? Just spit-balling here. Thanks, Sam.
At 11:32 a.m., while I was on the road, Roecker responded.
Getting warmer – will have more at noon
Turns out I was more warm. I have the mind of a CEO, and didn’t even know it.
Six weeks ago, this would have been an intriguing alternative. A wrinkle to consider further. Five days before the vote, it’s tough to see it as anything more than a ploy. Especially after Kehl already has dropped $600,000 opposing a Cedar Rapids casino.
Two things popped into my head when my boss called me with the goods on what the announcement was all about. One was last year’s sales tax vote on flood protection, when “We Can Do Better CR” vowed to come forward with a new protection plan if the sales tax extension failed. I’m still waiting to see that plan. Any day now.
The second thing was Jim Nussle, down in the polls to Chet Culver in the 2006 gubernatorial race, accusing Culver of harboring a “secret plan” to bring back TouchPlay lottery games.
The sales tax failed for a lot of reasons. I doubt the alternative, fake flood protection plan had much of an effect on the outcome. Nussle lost big anyway, and TouchPlay remains dead.
I’m not sure desperation sells all that well with voters. And I’m not at all sure that Kehl really wants to build a water park in Cedar Rapids. If he did, and thought it was a truly good business bet, he’d have pledged to build it regardless of what happens on Tuesday. He might have bought some voter good will with such a no-conditions promise. But he tied it to a no vote only, so any fair-minded person would have to doubt the seriousness of his plans. And I do, as much as I like a fast ride down a foamy flume.
Perhaps Just Say No is looking at polling numbers that show a very close race, and opponents hope that a last-minute Hail Mary will swing some undecided voters their way. Maybe they’re right. And maybe undecided voters smell an obvious gimmick, and swing the other direction.
I figured Just Say No had the advantage going into Tuesday. Now, I’m not so sure.
But thousands have already voted absentee. Many others have made up their minds. Again, this would have made things interesting weeks ago. I’m not sure it changes much now.
As for my Sunday column, I had my very patient boss add a reference to Kehl’s gambit, but it didn’t change my core arguments or my mind. You can read that here tomorrow.
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However a Water Park and family friendly entertainment complex comes into Cedar Rapids, one thing is very clear to me; A water park and related amentities is consistent with Cedar Rapids’ status as a Blue Zone. A Casino operation could not be further from that Zone. Let’s keep Cedar Rapids True Blue.
A Blue Zone is a community based approach to achieving health and well being through intelligent personal life-style choices within a vital community.
A Casino and a Blue Zone do not mix. A Casino would be a health damaging Black Hole in our Blue Zone.
Casinos are designed to separate gamblers from their family funds to direct those funds to casino owners. Advanced neuroscience is used to design electronic slot machines that give the illusion of “winning” when a gambler is actually losing. A Casino is very predatory. A few that win are enticed back with high roller programs until they lose. The “House” always wins.
The scientifically engineered “money transfer” process in a casino takes place in a very unhealthy physical environment; The exact opposite of a Blue Zone:
- A Casino has no windows, no natural sunlight. This design is purposeful, to keep the gamblers inside totally focused on the flashing gaming machines.
-A Casino is the only public/commercial space in Iowa where both patrons and employees are subjected to constant exposure to tobacco carcinogens.
- 2 percent of all gamblers are pathological gambling addicts, and 8 per cent are problem gambling addicts. This 10% of casino customers provides 50% of all revenue to the casino investors. This massive drain of personal and family funds leads to a substantial increase in health destroying stress, divorce, depression, bankruptcy, foreclosure and suicide. There is a 9% increase in crime attributed to any local casino. You do not have to walk into a casino to be a “loser”, -the entire community pays for the huge social and financial costs of a casino economy. Experts that study the social and economic damage of casinos document for every one dollar the casino brings in revenue, the taxpayers pick up 2-3 dollars in costs. The casino owners win, everyone else are big time losers. Even if a casino delivered 100% to “charity”, there would still be a huge net loss.
A Casino is a Health Black Hole. A Casino does not belong in our Blue Zone.
Vote No Casino at the County Auditor’s Office on Monday or in your precinct on Tuesday. Vote No and build a Blue Zone Water Park/Fun Zone on the Cedar River. Keep Cedar Rapids healthy for your family as a real Blue Zone City.
Lots of interesting “facts” stated here with no reference to a credible source. I wonder if Michael just made them up.
Another point – who declared Cedar Rapids a blue zone and what does it mean? Is this just another component of Michael’s imagination?
Don’t base ALL of your decisions on what Wellmark tells you to think. Just the ones they explicitly TELL you to believe.
There is no mention of casinos in the Wellmark propaganda.
- 2 percent of all gamblers are pathological gambling addicts, and 8 per cent are problem gambling addicts. This 10% of casino customers provides 50% of all revenue to the casino investors. This massive drain of personal and family funds leads to a substantial increase in health destroying stress, divorce, depression, bankruptcy, foreclosure and suicide. There is a 9% increase in crime attributed to any local casino. You do not have to walk into a casino to be a “loser”, -the entire community pays for the huge social and financial costs of a casino economy. Experts that study the social and economic damage of casinos document for every one dollar the casino brings in revenue, the taxpayers pick up 2-3 dollars in costs. The casino owners win, everyone else are big time losers. Even if a casino delivered 100% to “charity”, there would still be a huge net loss. – See more at: http://thegazette.com/2013/03/02/riverside-water-park-ploy-seems-slippery/#sthash.qHag0m0b.dpuf
Micheal those numbers would be correct for Linn County if there were not already Casino’s in 2 neighboring counties.
http://uss-mass.org/documents/14%2520Casino%2520Gambling%2520and%2520Crime%2520A%2520Panel%2520Study%2520of%2520Wisconsin%2520Counties.pdf
If you look at the study I linked you will see it comes very close to agreeing with the numbers you presented. Except when there is already gaming in 2 or more connecting counties. Their results show a spill over effect where the large majority of crime and social ills have already happened.
Entertainment and jobs! I’ll take my chances on this boogeyman theory of all the bad people coming to town. I’ll also continue to let people be responsible for themselves and not rely on our Linn County voters to protect them from addictions that they will just satisfy elsewhere. People driving in to spend money here will surely be a drain on the community and cause us to be a slum like every other nice place with a casino.