Established in 1985, Asian Americans United exists so that people of Asian ancestry in Philadelphia exercise leadership to build their communities and unite to challenge oppression.

Asian Americans United

Time to call it like it is:
Bringing slots to Philadelphia is not democracy – it’s a circus.

NO SLOTS SPOT
Grand Opening & Anti-Casino Circus
was held on Thursday, June 25 at lunchtime

Thanks to everyone who helped make this a very successful action!

Video by Michele Tranquilli

Check out other coverage of the event!

Media Mobilizing Project has photos of the event here.

Philadelphia Activist Groups Open Their Anti-Casino “Circus” Office – by Paul Kurtz, KYW1060

A Million Stories: The Circus Is Coming – Tom Dreisbach, Philadelphia City Paper

Casino Foes Lease Office, Hold Circus – Fox29

Philly Casino Protesters Hold Street Circus – NBC10

Anti-Casino Circus & No Slots Spot Opening, June 25th, 2009 at noon at 718 Market Street

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No Blank Check for Casinos – Support the campaign to stop predatory gambling

May 14, 2009
Show your support. Sign the letter.

Last week the No Casino in the Heart of Our City Coalition began a campaign targeting the City Council to make sure council regulates the industry to their full ability and prevent predatory practices.

Thanks to Media Mobilizing Project for creating this video.

There is a letter for the campaign now circulating that can be signed online. You can see the full letter and sign here. The demands are below.

Also, please help collect signed letters! You can:

  • email the link for this page to others and/or
  • download the letter and help others complete the letter by identifying their City Council representative (must be Philadelphia residents to sign). Refer to this online interactive map to find the right district. You can refer to our Fact Sheet and the 15 Things Your City Councilperson Could Do to Protect Philadelphians to assist you in making this appeal.

    You can either send the letters directly to the appropriate City Council members or to the No Casino in the Heart of Our City Coalition, c/o Arch Street United Methodist Church, at 55 N Broad St, Phila. PA 19107. Please do this no later than June 14.

Thank you for participating!

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The Faith Subcommittee of the
No Casino in the Heart of Our City Coalition

Thanks to Media Mobilizing Project for creating this video.

It is time for people of faith to mobilize as a community in opposition to the plan to put casinos in the heart of Center City where people work and live. There are two issues here:

  1. First is the issue of gambling in the heart of the city and its subsequent impact on residents and the city and likely consequences all of which City Council has refused to consider.
  2. The second is the process by which this has happened. It is an ill-considered plan being driven by Big Money and Greed and facilitated by apathy combined with a lack of courage and absence of righteous indignation. Our faith traditions are clear about what happens with this combination: the poor and disenfranchised will suffer. Because we serve a Higher Power we are called to stand up and advocate on their (and our) behalf.

We hope you will join us to help shift the public conversation toward “what is just?” And “what is moral?” We need your voice and your ideas. Please contact Robin Hynicka at robin @ archstreetumc.org to join the subcommittee and please help us spread the word.

Down through the ages people of faith have stood up for justice.

It is now our turn.

In the name of the One who calls us to love one another, we are
The Faith Subcommittee of the “No Casinos in the Heart of Philadelphia Coalition”
Rev Kevin Palmer, Black Clergy
Rev Robin Hynicka, Arch St United Methodist Church
Harry Leong, Chinese Christian Church and Center
Rev David Tatgenhorst, St Luke United Methodist Church
Rev Beverly Dale, Christian Association at the University of Penn

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15 Things Your City Councilperson
Could Do to Protect Philadelphians

(They have the power. Why won’t they use it?)

Download our Fact Sheet and a copy of the 15 Things.

  1. Introduce and enact legislation that prohibits tax breaks, abatements or City subsidies of any kind for casinos.
  2. Introduce a bill to restrict the hours for serving food and alcohol within a CED (gambling zone). Requiring a 2 a.m. closing time on food and alcohol is a way to discourage all-night gambling, a notorious habit for problem gamblers.
  3. Call for the enactment of basic consumer protections against predatory gambling practices and don’t grant zoning for either casino until basic consumer protections are enacted. Consumer protections can and should include: a ban on free alcohol services, on-site lending prohibitions, mandatory casino closing times, and restricted zoning to limit the spread of negative spin-off businesses.
  4. Refuse to grant zoning for the casinos’ cheapened new plans. Force them to put together the financing for the expansive plans they pitched in order to get their licenses in the first place.
  5. Refuse to pass zoning for the Center City Foxwoods casino until Foxwoods has submitted a full plan for the public to review. Thus far they haven’t shown even a scrap of paper to deserve such privileged zoning rights.
  6. Commission a study to determine the accuracy of a state agency’s statement (Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, Staff Report on City’s Five Year Plan, July 26, 2007.) that the two casinos could cause as much as a $200 million increase in annual law enforcement costs.
  7. Demand that the City of Philadelphia contract for independent economic and social impact studies by experienced academic researchers prior to granting zoning for the casinos.
  8. Hold a public safety hearing and ask the Police Department as well as gambling and crime experts to testify about how much it would cost to police casinos in Philadelphia and whether location is a factor in the cost.
  9. Hold a public hearing about slots machine technology and invite experts from both sides. Specifically engineered slot machines aren’t based on luck. In fact, slots are often called the “crack cocaine” of the gambling industry because of their addictive features. People deserve to know the product they’re getting.
  10. Demand public disclosure of the casinos’ marketing plans targeting of people of color.
  11. Submit statements to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board opposing any future requests for license extensions by casinos seeking to come into Philadelphia.
  12. Introduce a City Council resolution denouncing predatory gambling practices and hold investigatory hearings on the predatory practices of casinos and appropriate governmental response.
  13. Work with state legislators, specifically Senator Larry Farnese and Representative Mike O’Brien, to enact state-level protections against predatory gambling in Philadelphia.
  14. Assert that Councilmanic prerogative does not apply in the case of bringing the predatory, new business of slots gambling to Philadelphia since it will impact all Philadelphians.
  15. Take a public stand, challenging those public officials who maintain that slots parlors will be good for Philadelphia.

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Foxwoods Casino on Hold Again

In a bizarre turn of events, Foxwoods zoning is up in the air after PREIT turns out NOT to be the exclusive owner of the Strawbridge’s building and another owner shows up to oppose the project.

“The plan,” Cohen said, “is not in Gramercy’s ‘best interests or in the best interests of our tenants,’ and he urged Council to table the issue.”

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Process? What Process?

from DiCicco gives Foxwoods 8th and Market nod, By Kellie Patrick Gates, PlanPhilly, April 15, 2009:
Somekawa said she has seen no studies of economic or social impacts and no analysis on what having a casino will cost the city. “Now you are saying that not only will you allow Foxwoods to choose wherever it wants to put its slots parlor, but now you’re going to forgo City Council approval of the process,” she said.

Watch and read about the press conference that Mayor Nutter and Councilman DiCicco held on Foxwoods casino development on April 15th.

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TAKING OUR MESSAGE TO HARRISBURG:
NO CASINOS IN PHILADELPHIA!

Apr 8 action

Listen to the comments made by members of the No Casino in the Heart of Our City Coalition:

Thanks to Bryan Mercer and Desi Brunette from the Media Mobilizing Project for documenting the meeting.

The Philadelphia Inquirer
April 8, 2009
SugarHouse developers pledge they will get money they need to build
“Facing a chorus of jeers from anti-casino protestors, the developers of the SugarHouse Casino pledged today that they could borrow the money needed to build a project by early next year.” Read the full article

The Philadelphia Inquirer
April 9, 2009
At casino hearing, angry Phila. protests Read the full article

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Mr. Mayor: Do your campaign promises mean so little to you?

As a candidate, Michael Nutter said that, “I do not support gambling as an economic development tool or as a way to fund ongoing government programs, no matter how worthy.”

Now as our Mayor, his tune has changed. In a press conference last week the Mayor proclaimed that, “We will move the city of Philadelphia as quickly as possible to get the two casinos up and running as soon as we can.”

For more, see: Casino-Free Philadelphia on Nutter’s Reversal

As our City tries to dig out of a deep hole in its budget, Philadelphians are being asked to deal with a rise in our taxes and a decline in our services. Some slots boosters are using this painful reality to argue that casinos will help us out of these hard times.

But we all know that creating more poverty and addiction among our residents is no kind of way to secure Philadelphia’s well-being.

Let the Mayor know that candidate Nutter had it right.

Write him at: Mayor Nutter’s Email
Or call him at: 215.686.2181

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Thanks to everyone who made our
Stop the Gallery CasiNO! Fundraiser
a great success!

Mar 7 fundraiser

Tai Joselyn and Helen Gym entertain the crowd at AAU’s party | photo by Dr. Joan May T. Cordova

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Casino Finds Foes In Philly’s Chinatown

on Day-to-Day on NPR, 3 March 2009

A casino planned for Philadelphia’s Chinatown has many opponents in the neighborhood. Critics say the gaming house will not only endanger Chinatown’s historical character – it will feed a compulsive gambling habit that hits Chinese-Americans especially hard.

NPR covers the fight from the press conference – but the link to listen to the story got miced up with the story about steroids in the Dominican Republic. So please click here and then click the “Listen Now” button to hear the story.

Philadelphia Chinatown casino project – interview with anti-casino activist Debbie Wei

by Calvin Ho
from The Swarthmore Migration Project
February 25, 2009

Read or listen to the interview.

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photo of the No Casino march on Nov 1st

Op Ed: City is a slots laughingstock
By HELEN GYM

IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE how answering a call to revitalize American cities could go wrong for Philadelphia, but somehow it happened. Read more… – PhiladelphiaDaily News, January 15, 2009

WHAT’S WRONG WITH A CASINO AT STRAWBRIDGE & CLOTHIER?

Consider these concerns:

  • Because of its location atop a transit hub, next to neighborhoods and along a central business corridor, the 8th and Market site exposes the maximum number of Philadelphians to the worst and most addictive form of gambling – slots parlors, which overwhelmingly target the poor, elderly and other vulnerable populations.
  • Philadelphia has failed to engage in any cost-benefit analysis of this location. National studies consistently document serious negative economic and social impacts, including bankruptcy, foreclosures, divorce, domestic violence, child abuse and suicide.
  • The zoning process moved at an unprecedented pace with no studies, no planning, no cost-benefit analysis, no design, and despite significant opposition. In addition, this location showed marked difference in process from the waterfront locations (where neighborhoods had 16 months to review plans of development before zoning was introduced and foundations donated thousands of dollars for an alternative and broader planning process through PennPRAXIS) as well as other large-scale projects.
  • In the past, the City has often claimed itself a passive victim of unjust state legislation. But with the City owning the Gallery location, the City has done a 180 on the gambling issue and become a direct financial partner with a casino operator, promoting gambling to its residents and transit riders and redesigning its central historical, business and residential corridor around a gambling anchor.

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A Question of Place
by Debbie Wei
November 15, 2008

From AsianWeek: The Voice of Asian America
http://www.asianweek.com/2008/11/15/a-question-of-place/
Please read this article to find out why this issue is so important to us.

NO CASINO IN THE HEART OF OUR CITY

AAU says NO CASINO IN THE HEART OF OUR CITY! NO CASINO IN CHINATOWN!.

Sign the petition online!

Find out more about why casinos are bad for Philadelphia and get involved!

For more information, contact Helen at 215.808.1400, hgbf @ aol.com.

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MEMBER MEETINGS 2008
Join us for our weekly AAU Meetings!
Thursdays at 6 pm

NEXT MEETING –
Thursday, July 9th, 2009 from 6 to 8:30 pm
at Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School
1023 Callowhill Street (north of Vine Street)

This is a members meeting where we’ll talk about the different areas that need our support, whether it’s our weekly after-school program for youth or weekend petitioning. We’ll also discuss updates to the NO CASINO campaign and other AAU business.

Food contribution: $3–$5. If you’re planning to come, please contact Ellen at 215-925-1538 ahead of time. If you are new to AAU or want to become a member, please call or email us!

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14th Annual Mid-Autumn Festival!

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

photo of the Mid-Autumn Festival parade through Chinatown

Photo: Dr. Joan May T. Cordova

We are organizing for this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival! If you’d like to join the committee or help out in some way, please contact Judy or Ellen at 215.925.1538 or aau @ aaunited.org.

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NEWS

To download a pdf copy of our latest newsletter, please click here.

Paths to Leadership

photo of leadership program students at Wissahickon Creek

In the summer of 2007, AAU organized a summer program titled Paths to Leadership for middle school youth from both FACTS and from other local schools. The youth participated in a variety of leadership development activities, learned about environmental and community issues, and developed a plan to implement a recycling program at the FACTS. Youth met with leaders at FACTS to present their plan to create a recycling program. The 2009 program will run from July 20th to August 14th.

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Club AAU

photo of Club AAU

In 2007, AAU created an after school club at FACTS designed for middle school youth. Students are challenged to learn about community and environmental issues as well as strengthen their leadership skills. Currently, Club AAU members are working on an educational recycling campaign in order to support the work of the youth from AAU’s summer Paths to Leadership program.

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AAU Launches High School Youth Leadership Program

Following in the long tradition of our first summer program, AAU continues to work with high school students to provide leadership training and opportunities for them to mentor and tutor younger students. AAU provides training and support for high school students who volunteer as tutors and mentors in the FACTS aftercare program. FACTS after care is a homework help and enrichment program for 25 FACTS students who attend kindergarten through 6th grade (and that is run by AAU youth alumna, Anh Ha and two other FACTS staffers). AAU Executive Director Ellen Somekawa and Anh worked to design training sessions for high school students that were supportive and team building, helped them understand the needs of the FACTS students, and nurtured their potential for being positive role models and mentors to the FACTS students.

This youth leadership program has distinct cycles that correspond with FACTS marking periods. The high school tutors who participated in the first cycle were pleased by the positive impact they had on the FACTS program and its students; many are continuing on in the second cycle. Thanks to our dedicated, responsible and caring volunteers: Jessica Do, Kenneth Huang, Xin Lin, Dior Miller, Winnie Rao, Stephanie Tran, Ada Wu, Yan Zhang who successfully finished our first session. Another crew is now starting up for the second session.

We are still recruiting volunteers who are prepared to commit to a regular weekly schedule of volunteering and who are willing to come to training and evaluation meetings. Send us an email at esomekawa @ mac.com to find out when the next orientation and training session will be held.

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photo of Chinese dance class

Folk Arts Classes at FACTS

AAU partners with the Philadelphia Folklore Project and FACTS to offer children the opportunity to study kung fu and lion dancing with Shu Pui Cheung and Chinese dance with Shu Yuan Li. By creating opportunities for students to learn from elders and artists that live in their communities, our folk arts programs help bridge generations and build respect for diverse cultural traditions.

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updated: 4 July 2009