Quote:
Originally Posted by Baronvonellis
https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/7/17...ayor-lightfoot
Did anyone see the list of 5 sites for the Chicago casino? They are all in southside or westside neighborhoods other than Michael Reese site. I thought the idea was to put it where tourists go, to get money from tourists? These looks like far flung and impoverished locations. I don't think it's a good thing to plop a giant casino into an impoverished neighborhood, that's not going to help anything. It should be next to McCormick to get the money from conventioneers and tourists downtown. I don't think tourists are going to trek to Lawndale or 111th. I sure wouldn't want to go all the way south to 111th, although I might go if it was downtown.
Here are the five sites:
Harborside at 111th and the Bishop Ford Freeway in Pullman
the former Michael Reese hospital at 31st and Cottage Grove in Bronzeville
Pershing Road and State Street in Bronzeville
Roosevelt Road and Kostner Avenue in Lawndale
the former U.S. Steel parcel at 80th and Lake Shore Drive in South Chicago
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These sites are awful. If they're gonna trek all the way down there, they may as just keep going to Hammond, where the tax structure is significantly lower (lower taxes on the casino = less vig for the customer). The only way a high-tax Chicago casino can compete is with a much better location, i.e. downtown or near downtown. Of those five, the most plausible is the Michael Reese location, and the residents (and alderman) have made it explicitly clear they don't want a casino there.