In my opinion, I believe that having a casino in the City of Buffalo would help develop that waterfront and bring people back downtown. When I look out at the skyline of the city, I am amazed how many buildings are just sitting there empty. Look how long these buildings have been empty and no one has come up with a plan to re-vitalize these buildings. The Seneca’s have spent millions of dollars in Western New York in the last couple of years. They employ a few thousand people locally. They are looking to employ at least 1,000 more in the Buffalo area.
About two years ago, the building where my mother works was slated for demolition to accommodate Bass Pro Shops for parking. Now it seems that Bass Pro is not interested in coming to the city. However, the Seneca Indians said they were going to open a casino in Buffalo and the worked is to begin sometime in December 2006.
I feel that having the casino will bring in jobs to the community and attract people from out of town for a visit. Out-of-towners will return to their homes and if the casino is favorably, they will tell others about it. By having the casino, residents of the city will be able to have something else to do besides just going to bars on Chippewa Street. And the money will stay in area instead of taking it to Canada to the nearest casino.
Since the casino will be built close to the HSBC Arena, where the Buffalo Sabres play, people will be there. People will be looking for things to do within walking distance. If local business owners are looking for people to leave the casino and go to a hole-in-the-wall bar or a restaurant that closes at 8 p.m., that's not going to happen. We need to adjust to the glamour and glitzy entertainment style that the casinos have been associated with and build on that.
Originally, the Seneca Nation was looking at building a casino in Cheektowaga. The city of Buffalo went to court and argued that the casino had to be built within the city limits of...