Tuesday, August 08, 2006
I'm not sure I know how to think about the most recent development concerning the Seneca Nation's downtown Buffalo casino project. The Seneca wanted the city to sell it a two block stretch of Fulton Street. The city wanted an enforceable contract promising 1,000 new jobs, a pledge to not expand the casino beyond the current 9 acres, and provisions pertaining to the hiring of women and minorities. The Seneca said it wouldn't sign, and is now saying that it will build a smaller facility. Details are hazy about how much smaller we're talking about-- I've heard it described as something like a doublewide with some cigarette machines and some slots, but I'm sure they have something bigger than that in mind. Even so, this looks like something approaching a win, and I can't figure out if it was designed that way, or if the city just wandered into it and got lucky. On the one hand, Richard Tobe is certainly smart enough to have engineered this. On the other hand, the Mayor is all over the record as favoring the casino. Why would he scuttle it in this sort of backdoor fashion? Although I yield to few in my admiration for Tobe's intelligence, this seems like a pretty high-risk way to go about busting a deal. The city's demands hardly look like dealbreakers-- what exactly is in there that made the Seneca push away from the table, and how could Tobe have known what the pressure points would be?
And then, of course, there is the burning, bottom-line question: will the city, with the wind at its back now, find a way to screw this up?
And then, of course, there is the burning, bottom-line question: will the city, with the wind at its back now, find a way to screw this up?
// posted by Bill @ 4:14 PM 
Post a Comment