Big battle to take over
the casino district

By Brian Rademaekers
Times Staff Writer

The first president Mike Seidenberg voted for was Ronald Reagan, and today, the first-time political candidate says he still holds fast to the hallmarks that define the Republican Party.
He wants lower taxes, smaller government and a bigger role for charter schools in public education.
But when it comes down to it, his affiliation with that party has little to do with his challenge to Frank DiCicco, a three-term incumbent Democrat in the 1st Councilmanic District, which includes portions of Frankford and Wissinoming and much of South Philadelphia and the river wards.
Seidenberg’s campaign — from its genesis to the ultimately lackluster course it has taken — has centered on an issue that has dominated politics in the largely river-ward district: casinos.
"Over the last two years, there has been barely an hour or day that has gone by that I’m not addressing some aspect of the casino issue," says DiCicco, who estimates concerns over the gambling facilities proposed for his district have taken up more of his time than any other issue in his last three terms.
For those unfamiliar with what can only be described as the casino debacle, a little background is in order:
In 2004, state Sen. Vincent Fumo, a Democrat from South Philadelphia, authored a 140-page act calling for 14 slots casinos to open in the state, with two mandated for Philadelphia. Fumo has since been indicted on charges unrelated to casinos.
The legislation, known as Act 71, was notorious for being passed in the wee hours of the July 4th holiday weekend with no public knowledge of its existence.
For DiCicco, the first rumblings of the coming storm emerged in 2005, when four of the five companies vying for a casino site in the city announced that their sites would be in the 1st district along the Delaware River.
Last December, the state’s Gaming Control Board awarded SugarHouse casino a license to open a facility on the Delaware River near the Fishtown and Northern Liberties border.
Foxwoods Casino, operators of a mega-gambling complex in Connecticut, was awarded a license to open a facility a few miles south near Reed Street and Columbus Boulevard in South Philadelphia.
Leading up to the state’s decision, DiCicco testified against both sites, and has since publicly declared them as "the two worst sites" in the city for casinos.
Seidenberg agrees with that view, though he also believes that there is no such thing as a good site for casinos in Philadelphia.
A resident of South Philly’s Queen Village neighborhood, the real estate agent and married father of two believes the advent of casinos in the city will bring little but social ills, traffic and lost jobs.
Seidenberg admits his goal in running for the 1st district seat was primarily to pressure DiCicco into sticking with his oppositional stance toward the casinos.
"I don’t look it as a party issue, though that is certainly the vehicle by which I can run," explains Seidenberg. "Not knowing where this was going to go, and with the understanding that ground could have been broken already, I felt that, with something this important, the election shouldn’t be over in May."
With DiCicco being popularly viewed the sole David battling Goliath casino interests, Seidenberg has had little room for headline-grabbing criticism.
Over the last five months, DiCicco has refused to give either casino the zoning needed to build along the river, and he has gone so far as to introduce bills that would either relocate the casinos or ban them altogether.
In fact, DiCicco has been successful enough in obstructing the casinos that SugarHouse and Foxwoods are both suing the city for not giving them the legislation needed to move forward.
There is one area, however, where Seidenberg thinks DiCicco could have done better on the area of casinos.
"If you go out to the neighborhoods right now and knock on doors and talk to people, you’ll find nine out of ten, maybe eight out of ten, are opposed to the casinos," says Seidenberg. "If Frank had really done his job and educated people about the reality of what these things are going to bring to the city, the opposition would be at one-hundred percent."
Seidenberg says he believes that the casinos will take money away from local bars, restaurants and other entertainment venues, and that traffic and gambling addiction will also have the end result of making casinos a losing bet when it comes to economic development.
"The more I looked into it, the more I thought it smelled," says Seidenberg. "I think, in the end, we’re eventually going to end up having to pay more taxes to support the casinos."
In some ways, DiCicco agrees with his opponent’s doomsday analyses of what the casinos will bring to the city.
"Will we end up losing jobs? Mike is probably right about that," says DiCicco.
But, as a city councilman who has little control over the policy that shapes the state-mandated casinos, DiCicco feels he has done as good a job as possible when it comes to damage control.
"I might not agree with it, but I’ve always told people that I think these two casinos are coming to the city," said DiCicco, whose efforts have largely focused on finding new locations for the casinos farther from residential areas.
DiCicco said he faced similar criticism from Vernon Anastasio, his Democratic opponent in the May primary, and that he is proud of his record as it relates to the casinos.
"I could have stood out there in May and told people that I’m going to fight not to have the casinos," DiCicco said. "But if you ask people, I think they’ll tell you that I’ve been a straight shooter and that I tell it how it is" on the issue of casinos.
As for Seidenberg, the Republican challenger would likely have faced a tough battle for votes even if DiCicco had opened the doors for casino developers.
In a city where more than three quarters of registered voters are Democrats, DiCicco gave party rival Anastasio a thorough drubbing in the May primary, beating him by more than 2-to-1.
Still, Seidenberg holds strong, displaying the kind of optimism that only a politician on the eve of an election can possess.
"I think I can win," says Seidenberg. "If people are looking for a change in the way things are done, I’m the candidate." ••
Reporter Brian Rademaekers can be reached at 215-354-3039 or brademaekers@phillynews.com