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?I am a Corbett resident of ten years, within the scenic area.

The Casino: The Cascade Locks casino isn?t really about bringing tourism to the gorge, it?s
about bringing gamblers here from Portland. Oregon?s present policy on gambling is to use its
road system as a buffer between gamblers and casinos. Right now Spirit Mountain has the prime
position in relation to Portland, but 50 miles of two-lane road keeps a lot of would-be gamblers
righteous. I-84 can deliver more gamblers more efficiently to Cascade Locks, except for that
pesky National Scenic Area. Given the pollution issues in the gorge, the specter of $4 per gallon
gas, and the state?s road and infrastructure crisis, making people drive long distances to do what
they want to in order to discourage them is idiotic. Until we face this issue, the river involved is
de Nile, not the Columbia.

The casinos should just be put in Portland. It will take state and federal political work to make it
happen, but in this lottery-driven state the morals argument just doesn?t hold up any more. Put
the casinos next to the Rose Garden, and that failed urban renovation area will have a guaranteed
fix, and the traffic and glitz of casinos will be where it belongs -- in a real urban area, not the
gorge. All the tribes can reach a formula for dividing the profits (I do approve of the historic
poetic justice of tribes profiting from the white man?s vice).

Broughton?s Landing: The revenue figures given by the project?s representative on air this
morning (65 ?family wage? jobs and one million per year in taxes) really sound pretty
insignificant. The project will surely be designed to keep residents? dollars on site. The
surrounding community should be very skeptical of claims that lots of jobs will be generated.
The same pattern has played out in Bend over the last two-plus decades. What really gets
delivered is part-time, no-benefits, minimum wage jobs involving housekeeping and landscape
maintenance. This project is obviously designed to make money for its investors, not to spread it
around the hopeful local community.

posted 5 years, 2 months ago
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