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• NO BULL HERE BUT YOU, JACK

  You avoided the questions about increased civil services, which are a reality & not BS. There is great reason to be concerned and yet you are very blase about it - that's your business, but where is it stated the casino will pay for ALL the extra help "like Foxwoods?" *Are they going to keep the property taxes down; the water costs down; infrastructure, goods and services down (along w/police, fire and emergency) and subsidize everything?) I have every right to be concerned and am not going to "relax" - I'm not anti-gambling, just anti-gambling in Newport and it's been no secret: I'm very pro-business. You are clearly all for it but fail to answer some salient questions that everyone in town should have and is right to ask. But maybe you stand to personally benefit somehow and don't care?
  If you are making money off this deal say so but please stop all this BS you're throwing around to make it happen.Try being honest it will make you feel good.
  
  Also, learn the difference between "your" and "you're" because it makes you look stupid and doesn't advance your cause much.

  Posted by FRED SULLIVAN February 21, 2012 10:45:02

• Relax

  Fred the sky is not falling, when does all this traffic start? The road to the casino is an express right to their door unlike the festivals where the cars must go through the real Newport to get to the venue, also the casino would be paying for all the extra help just like Foxwoods does now,
  
  If you are just anti gambling say so but please stop all this BS your throwing out to hinder it, try being honest it will make you feel good.

  Posted by Jack February 20, 2012 14:50:43

• IRRELVANT

  Jack, it's entirely irrelevant if the argument was already made: one is "a sport" and the other is LEGALIZED GAMBLING. Jai-Alai was a fad.
  
  And Jack, if you're such a proponent of this, why don't you get out in front of it and post some verifiable facts (with citations) about the cost benefits of bringing full casino gaming into a town (that is not an indian reservation). The ONLY success story in the U.S. (which is not without problems, mind you) is Las Vegas. And you haven't even addressed potential traffic problems and the price of fixing that - is your friend Mrs. Hurley going to go before the residents of the City of Newport and offer to pay for increased property taxes, increased water taxes, dealing with the DOT and infrastructure costs for amending roads and thoroughfares, and traffic optimization?
  
  NO ONE HAS ADDRESSED THE POTENTIAL TRAFFIC PROBLEMS.
  Consider that: middle of summer there's long lines for both exits coming off the Newport Bridge just for Jazz Fest or Tennis Week or Chowder Fest or Boat Show. If they bring in this casino, how's that going to improve? And then what happens when people around here get fed up sitting in traffic just trying to use the bridge to go off-island? It's already a forty-minute drive heading out West Main to get off the island to 195 - how's it going to work after a casino comes?
  
  And what happens if Fall River gets a casino, and Twin River gets a casino, (and, possibly somewhere in middle-western RI) and the Newport version, with traffic problems and increased bridge tolls, starts failing? How will our tax burden be alleviated then?
  
  All you do is talk about how tax revenue will keep our cost of living down, but you fail to illustrate how any of these problems will be addressed.

  Posted by FRED SULLIVAN February 20, 2012 10:14:50

• Rerun

  Fred thats the same arguments that were used to stop Jai alai and none of it happened

  Posted by Jack February 19, 2012 20:30:52

• NOT AGAIN.

  Jack, stop misleading people. Gambling is NOT the answer to our problems, but you're preaching fear by suggesting that without Jai-Alai's tax revenue the cost-of-living would go through the roof. The taxes will go up when the City of Newport has to hire a larger police force to deal with traffic, safety and crime; and increased municipal services will be stretched thin with increased garbage collection and water/sewage usage. In the past you've pointed out that Jai-Alai used to be a dump - but you behave as if that is the only alternative. But let's face it: if Jai-Alai goes under, Mrs. Hurley is going to sell to the highest bidder and some hotel or mall will go in there. It won't become a dump again. There are always options.
  
  I probably won't live to see the outcome, but if they vote in gambling, I hope you get to see the sad, long-term effects this will have on Newport - not just on the area around Adm. Kalbfus - but on the city (and state) as a whole. And I hope someone younger and healthier than me will be here to say I told you so.

  Posted by FRED SULLIVAN February 19, 2012 17:28:36

• Vote

  The people have NEVER voted on expanded gambling at Newport Grand....the vote was for gambling anywhere in Newport.....Newport Grand is not, as far as I am concerned, in Newport but rather in the old dump and removed from neighborhoods and children.
  
  The idea of a casino on Bellevue Avenue or on Goat Island should and was shot down but with a track record like Newport Grand I see no reason not to approve it. The old complaints of the mob coming in and we will all be robbed or shot etc have been proven false and not one person has been forced to go in the building and gamble.
  
  This resolution limits the casino to the Newport Grand site and no where else. This will help with our taxes and avoid losing the monies we now get if and when a casino opens in Fall River or New Bedford.
  
  Gambling may not be the answer to our tax problems but the absence of the monies now derived from it would surely drive the price of Newport living through the roof.
  
  Hopefully the Newport taxpayer will use their common sence and approve this even if they have no intentions of ever placing a bet, it is one way to get money into our city with out us paying.

  Posted by Jack February 18, 2012 14:40:55

• Grand Bill

  How many times do the residents of NP have to vote this down for our "surposed" representatives to listen to the will of the peopel.

  Posted by Gordon February 17, 2012 09:01:23