Live! Hotel & Casino Charged With Racial Baggage, Facing Neighbors’ Pushback

PROPOSED Live! casino at 9th & Packer could bring bright lights to S. Phila. – but its parent company has been charged with dimming its lights for minority customers in other cities.

Not only would it face a welcoming committee of irate neighbors and leaders in a community already heavily impacted by tourism at the sports stadiums, but it would need to explain away to the satisfaction of many in Philadelphia’s African American leadership the racial charges hurled at its developers in their similar operations in other states.

The Baltimore-based developer, the Cordish Cos., claims its operations “welcome over 50 million people a year of all races and ethnicities to its properties across the United States.”

In addition to applying for a casino license in New York, Cordish has been touted by the Philadelphia Inquirer as the next to be awarded the second license deeded to the city of Philadelphia by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

Its New York application triggered a protest from Rev. Byron Williams, Sr., moderator of the Central Hudson Baptist Association. Rev. Williams wrote to state officials, “We pray you join us in challenging the very appearance of possible racist and discriminatory practices in an industry that has such far-reaching economic and ethical ramifications for the future of our great state.”

Stories published in the New York Daily News engendered the cautionary attitude of the Baptist group. Those stories alleged Cordish used restrictive dress codes and other measures to exclude minorities from its entertainment venues in other cities.

Cordish has reportedly denied the allegations, though such charges have been levied against it in other cities.

In Philadelphia, real-estate developer and long time community activist Barbara Capozzi blasted the Cordish site as an irresponsible one, ignoring the reality of what already exists in the immediate area.

She told a packed house of over 700 residents and neighbors granting the 9th & Packer site is a decision “deadly to all.”

She noted, “Even now, its most-immediate neighbors in the already-congested Sports Complex area cannot cope with traffic, trash, noise, drunk drivers and innumerable headaches already generated.”

Nearby schools and religious buildings have been ignored and their presence not taken into consideration, the irate citizenry learned.

Capozzi, who is also District 2 community director of the Sports Complex Special Services District, summed it up by saying, “A casino thrown into the midst of all that is already here will surely push us all beyond the point where we can protect ourselves. This is a very-negative business in the worst location possible.”

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