Two local businesspeople are reaching out to Steve Wynn, the iconic casino developer and one of the world’s richest men to consider coming to Lynn.
On its face, the reach out by Patricia Keefe and David Zeller, should be complimented for its savvy. Lynn could use more positive energy like theirs. Even their logo, “Wynn in Lynn,” should get an award from the local Chamber of Commerce for its classic play on words.
That being said, bringing a casino to Lynn, to the 300 acres or so available for development along the waterfront, is an enormous effort and the Suffolk Downs group in Revere/East Boston has already put in about 6 years of planning for their effort to gain a casino license.
Locating a casino off the Lynnway would require dramatic traffic mitigation efforts and might even make necessary the Blue Line hook-up Lynn city planners and politicians have been trying to gain for decades.
It would also require residents of Lynn to pass a referendum showing that the residents of this city want a casino. This is something that might be easier said than done when a citywide vote is tallied.
There are many who would oppose the casino on moral grounds. Many more would object to the added traffic. Still others would object to the beliefs, whether real or imagined, that casinos bring crime and lower home values.
We believe a $1 billion development on the underutilized Lynn waterfront would be a spectacular boost.
The jobs such a development would create would be a certain plus, so too would the employment of tradesmen and women out of work for so many years as a result of the recession.
Such an investment of capital off the Lynnway would spawn other investment and compliment major investment already there.
However, Mr. Wynn was turned off by his experience in Foxboro. We don’t pretend to know what he is thinking but you can bet he will think very carefully about attempting a foray into the complexities of developing a casino in Massachusetts.
A casino in Lynn or anywhere is not perceived as panacea.
But one thing is for certain, a casino here would bring a dramatic boost to the local economy.
We applaud the efforts of Keefe and Zeller.
They come a bit late into the game but as the old saying goes: better late than never.
View Comments (4)
Unless they're distant relatives of the Algonquin and can form a tribe (heck, the Mashpee Wampanoag ceased to exist from the late 1600's until the early 1980's when casino money was waved in front of wannabe ancestors) then this is nothing but a pipe dream.
Outrageous if they think they can let this slide past the citizens of Lynn, it's taken years to get the gang activity down from 1000 to 300 members. All we need is something to draw them in and if you don't think it's a problem take a look at crime rates down on Salisbury Beach where drug dealers and gang members converge around the strip club. Of course a casino would be a draw. Lynn has a traffic problem now (unless the casino would like to build a highway entrance off of Highland ave for all of Lynn and Swampscott to use since we're inundated with it - we have no ability to deal with it) - Secondly, we have this nice beautiful beach front for the whole citizenry to use that would be destroyed with all the garbage and pollution what would you do privatize it for the benefit of the casinos? - Ridiculous
This is about class warfare all these young hopeful couples moved to Lynn in search of affordable housing where we could find it. The city has so much to offer but we allow our chamber of congress to go around soliciting casinos be built. Yes of course they love to dump the things no one else wants on the laps of less affluent communities. How many chamber members live in town or are they all looking for a handout? I guess they're willing to dump it on the working class for their own pay-off. Absolutely horrid.
Dear Patricia Keefe and David Zeller, this email is to inform you that your efforts to build a casino in the city of Lynn have not gone under the radar. A year ago, when my fiance and I chose to buy a home we looked to the place I was raised as a child, the place were my father has a home and also where he grew up, and a place we saw that offered much potential to working couples like ourselves who could not afford housing in more affluent communities. But we were tired of renting and wanted to build our own equity and future. Gang violence in Lynn has dropped from 1000 to 300 members with great efforts made by the police. The traffic here leaves a lot to be desired but we've begun a campaign on our street to try to get some changes. My neighborhood is a community of working couples, I myself work for a company that does software for the publishing industry. We all take nice care of our homes, my fiance and I hope to get married and raise children here. We walk our dog along the beach and take her to the Lynn woods reservation. All of that potential and excitement in buying a new home, in building a life has now been turned into devastation over the idea that our home will be worthless, that the already temperamental traffic will turn into a nightmare, and that our dreams have been smashed by the greed of a few members of the good old buddy network existing within the Lynn Chamber of Commerce. I will at least promise you this, your efforts to build this casino will not go undeterred, nor unnoticed, nor will those reputations of any town official who goes along with it remain standing. My fiance and I will make every effort to stop the installation of a Casino in the town of Lynn, and will use every resource available to see that you cease and desist to trample the rights of the citizens of this city. To suppose we would welcome with open arms, to suppose we would not mind it where every other community has stood in defiance against it, to suppose we will take it simply because in this economy, we working class are used to being burdened and having our rights trampled by those seeking to profit on our backs. No, we will not stand for it. Nor will the members of our community.
On behalf of my group and community I would like to ask the council members and mayor's office to keep the citizenry well informed in advance of meetings and decisions that will discuss any implementation or outcome of Casino bidding to the city of Lynn; we have a right to be informed and to speak out.
Especially to Congressman Capano, I would urge you to please take into account the citizenry or their opinions before speaking out on their behalf in a newspaper or in any other news outlet.
Thank You
Sincerely,
Concerned Citizens of Lynn, Massachussetts