Where, oh where, will casinos go?

It seems we’re destined to get several more gambling casinos erected in both Chicago and the nearby suburbs.

Will this become political battleground in war of casinos?

We’ll be able to take our pick of just where we want to go on the occasion we feel the need to throw some money away on the off-chance we can hit a big jackpot and become instantly wealthy.

BUT THERE’S ONE factor that has been popping up in my brain – the way in which the siting of a city-based casino will also impact the way the so-called south suburban casino will be located.

There are several municipalities scattered throughout southern Cook County, all of which are insistent that they’re the only local place to erect one of those tacky, flashy, gaudy structures that promise instant wealth (and downplay the chances you’ll walk out of there flat-broke, instead).

It seems there is one line of thought that a south suburban casino ought to be placed in a community fairly close to the Illinois/Indiana border. Almost as though its existence would stand in the way of people who otherwise would try to fulfill their gambling “jones” by venturing to those casinos in Indiana (Hammond, East Chicago and Gary, to be specific).

Why cross over State Line Road to the land of Hoosiers if you can gamble closer to home?

SO IF THE notion of a casino being located near the Lincoln Highway right by Interstate 394 (just barely in suburban Ford Heights) becomes reality, does that impact the idea of a city-based casino by making it more likely that such a facility would be located in the heart of downtown – to take advantage of the nearby presence of out-of-town tourists?

Or does the concept of putting a city-based gambling complex down around the 10^th Ward (as far southeast as one can go and still be in Chicago proper) become the big boost to the people who think a suburban casino ought to be at a site on Interstate 80 at Halsted Street?

I should make one confession. I have a step-mother who enjoys the environs of a casino (playing the slot machines is her big kick), and that latter location would put a casino about a five-minute drive away from her home.

It intrigues me the way these varying proposals for more gambling are going to impact each other – even though the political people tend to act as though the city-based and suburban-based casinos will exist in differing worlds.

ALMOST AS THOUGH they’re Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Rather than the idea of an East Side neighborhood in Chicago casino being only about a 15-minute drive down the Bishop Ford Freeway to the would-be Ford Heights site.

Which may also suffer from the general reputation that suburb suffers in the public eye. I already can envision the notion that many people will have in thinking a Ford Heights site is too decrepit to want to go to.

Or it could also turn out to be like when Ford Motor Co. decided to build an auto plant in that area, and actually picked a site right on the municipality’s border. What was then East Chicago Heights, Ill., went so far as to rename their town to try to make Ford Motor think they were special.

ONLY TO HAVE the company choose to annex into Chicago Heights proper. Would a casino feel the need to claim they’re in another town (Sauk Village or Lynwood?) to escape the perceived stigma?

For all those people who already are calculating how much of a cut their municipality will receive in tax revenues from a proposed casino, we ought to consider that just because the Illinois General Assembly has given authority to allowing a few more casinos does not mean anybody’s ready to open for business anytime soon.

If anything, the real political infighting will now begin – with village vs. village being pitted against each other to argue the merits of who’s most worthy of having a casino with over-priced buffet where one can gorge themselves in between black jack hands operating within their boundaries.

Because let’s not forget – the operating premises of many casinos is that they want to keep customers inside at all times. They certainly don’t want them spending money at any surrounding businesses in the community – spending that would generate true economic development.

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You never know what surprises lurk in those lists of government appointees

I have been a reporter-type person for a quarter of a century, and I’d like to think I know how to conduct myself professionally in ways that I won’t miss out on “news.”

YOUNG: Politically relevant, yet again



Yet every now and then, something comes along that gives me a swift kick in the behind and makes me realize that I’m more than capable of getting lax and missing out on things.

ONE OF THOSE moments occurred this week. Thursday morning to be exact, when I happened to get an e-mail message from the office of Gov. Pat Quinn, informing me of appointments to nearly two dozen state agencies or boards.

The governor’s press release on the issue highlighted the fact that one-time WGN-TV broadcaster Merri Dee is now on the Illinois Human Rights Commission, and Manny Flores will be the secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

It then went on to list many other obscure government bodies and new members picked by Pat Quinn.

When I saw that we were talking about entities such as the state’s Drycleaner Environmental Response Trust Fund Council, my mind shut down. I figured this was a list of the minutia that comprises state government, but that really doesn’t get significant enough to warrant any public attention.

SO I DIDN’T notice the ninth agency on the list – the fact that the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority has a new member. Dr. Quentin Young – formerly a bigwig at the old Cook County Hospital and with his own political ties back in the days of Harold Washington as mayor.

It was there right in between Maria Saldana being named to the Illinois Liquor Control Commission and seven people being named to the state’s Juvenile Justice Commission.

Now, of course, we realize the significance of Young being appointed to represent the governor on the board that operates U.S. Cellular Field, and may wind up being used to help raise money to renovate Wrigley Field similar to how Soldier Field was revamped about a decade ago.

Young’s first day in the post was to attend the sports authority’s meeting Thursday where he shifted the balance of power in the fight over picking a new executive director.

AS A RESULT, Quinn’s desire to appoint one-time television broadcaster Kelly Kraft (who has worked the past three years as a spokeswoman for the state’s budget director) became reality.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s desire to put former Chicago Public Schools CFO Diana Ferguson in the position went down the political toilet bowl – with Quinn getting to smirk while watching Rahm-bo swish and swirl into the sewer!

Of course, it’s a short-term victory. Because Emanuel is exactly the type who knows how to hold a political grudge.

The political speculation now is how will Rahm “get back” at Quinn. What will the punishment be? Nobody thinks either one of these men is capable of behaving like a grown-up.

AND WHILE THIS relationship isn’t as warped and twisted as the one that existed between former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, it’s not that pretty either. A bit reminiscent of the days of old between Mayor Richard M. Daley and Gov. Jim Edgar!

Quinn is becoming the guy who won’t let Emanuel have a casino in Chicago (the governor vetoed a gambling expansion measure), and now he has the upper hand on any future development that might occur at Wrigley.

Which is what this issue really is about. I don’t think anyone really cares whether Kraft or Ferguson gets the “executive director” title. It’s about Emanuel being willing to help the Chicago Cubs in paying for renovations to their nearly century-old stadium – provided HE gets to call the shots.

Now, it’s in the hands of a board whose majority will be taking marching orders from the Mighty Quinn, who might actually dare to think for himself and now kow-tow to Rahm when deciding if that project is worth any government attention.

FOR ALL THE grief that Quinn get for being a political weakling, a gadfly and a “goo-goo,” the reality is that he wouldn’t have survived all these decades on the Illinois political scene if he didn’t have some capability to play hardball.

At the very least, he managed to slip in a crucial political appointment under the cover of positions such as the new member to the state’s Sex Offender Management Board.

And if I (and my reporter-type colleagues) had been paying closer attention, perhaps we could have forseen this issue occurring.

We certainly wouldn’t be walking around feeling like we have the bruises of a combat boot all over our behinds.

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