Saturday, September 17, 2011

Bay Mills Indians Get $600,000 HUD Grant for Housing & Economic Development

HUD AWARDS $52.6 MILLION TO NATIVE AMERICAN COMMUNITIES FOR HOUSING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOR LOW-INCOME FAMILIES

Bay Mills Indian Community of Brimley, Michigan, will receive $600,000

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded more than $52 million in grants to tribal communities in 21 states to improve or create housing and economic development opportunities for low- to moderate-income families. The competitive grants are provided through HUD’s Indian Community Development Block Grant (ICDBG) Program to support a wide variety of community development and affordable housing activities.

“These funds will help American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments create sustainable and community-driven solutions,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. “Housing and infrastructure needs in Indian Country are severe and widespread. I’m inspired by the work the tribal communities are taking on to leverage these funds and get their communities on the right track.”

Among the 69 recipients:

State
Recipient
Location
Amount
California
Chemehuevi Indian Tribe
Havasu Lake
$605,000
Michigan
Bay Mills Indian Community
Brimley
$600,000
New York
St. Regis Band of Mohawk Indians of New York
Akwesasne
$600,000

Original HUD Press Release

Also see:

Friday, September 16, 2011

Shinnecocks or not: New York, NYRA Would be Wise to Include Neighbors in Planning for Future of Belmont Park

Mayor Thomas J. Tweedy
Floral Park, New York
MAYOR'S MESSAGE
9.15.2011

Mayor’s Message Village of Floral Park: September 15, 2011

We continue to again discuss our 2007 Belmont Task Force Statement of Principles. These principles are based on fairness and equity.  Recent press releases regarding NYRA’s Saratoga Race Course and that NYRA property’s development makes our seventh principle, being a good neighbor to your neighbors more timely than ever before. 

Be a Good Neighbor to Your Neighbors

VII. The neighboring communities that have existed in peaceful co-existence with these facilities for decades should have their right to the quiet enjoyment of their neighborhoods respected and continued to be maintained.  Those areas that are natural park-like settings must continue to be maintained.  There must be a comprehensive facilities management plan addressing both modernization and preservation plans and must include design guidelines, based upon generally acceptable community standards, to be used in the development of individual capital and maintenance projects.  Any proposed material change in the nature or time of operations at the facilities must be fully disclosed and reviewed with the neighboring communities prior to such a change.

Belmont Park and its surrounding communities have peacefully coexisted as neighbors for many years. Floral Park residents from Poppy Place to Plainfield Avenue, and all the streets in between, share the longest uninterrupted residential border with Belmont Park. Many Floral Park residents‘ homes are just a short distance from the active areas of Belmont Park. Such as the various tracks and service roads used throughout the year, as well as the parking fields, which recently have been allowed to become a makeshift tractor trailer feed station and a dumpster storage repository next to our school children’s play yard behind the Floral Park-Bellerose School.  While most of Elmont’s border with Belmont Park is buffered by up to six lanes plus sidewalks and turning lanes on Hempstead Turnpike or are next to an occasionally used parking area, many Floral Park residents can literally hear the galloping of horses and the vocal calls of the jockeys every morning on the practice tracks or on the main track during race days.  Therefore maintaining a sufficient buffer zone near neighboring homes and schools is something the State of New York cannot delegate to someone else, be it the current tenant NYRA, or even the proposed Shinnecock casino operations.  Whether it is an attractive natural buffer or a series of football, baseball or even soccer fields, a sufficient buffer zone needs to be incorporated in any planned changes at Belmont Park.

Ironically, just this month in Saratoga, NYRA announced a menu of 21 potential capital improvement projects for its Saratoga Race Course “designed to secure the historic nature of the race track while enhancing the facilities and overall fan experience” according to NYRA’s Sept. 1 press release. {See: http://www.nyra.com/saratoga/stories/Sep012011b.shtml#}. NYRA notes that the various Saratoga projects “will be open for public comment and feedback from the community in order to assess priority and implementation” over the next 5 to 10 years. NYRA President and CEO Charles Haywood has stated that “NYRA is deeply committed to preserving the historic fabric of Saratoga Race Course while implementing a capital improvement strategy that will allow Saratoga to grow and flourish for years to come.” The funding for the capital improvement projects will come from NYRA’s 4 percent share of revenues from the 4500 VLT machines and 500 electronic gaming tables being installed at Aqueduct Racetrack, which is estimated will provide NYRA about $27.6 million annually, which is more than Floral Park’s entire annual budget this year!  Imagine if gambling at Belmont Park could provide Floral Park’s taxpayers with a comparable amount of what NYRA and its thoroughbred horse owners are already in line to get from VLT machines at Aqueduct!

Why Belmont Park, which is home to NYRA’s jewel of the Triple Crown, is getting distant third place treatment after Saratoga or even Aqueduct is outrageous!  While NYRA is willing to solicit community feedback on its ambitious plans at Saratoga while NYRA and the State of New York all but ignore its Belmont Park neighbors is unbelievable! Floral Park has put its cards on the table with its Statements of Principles since 2007, it seems that NYRA and the State of New York pay more attention to those in Saratoga or even the Shinnecock reservation in Southampton than they do about Belmont Park’s neighbors right here in western Nassau County. NYRA’s announcement seeking public comment and feedback to determine the next steps in Saratoga should be a blueprint to do the same at Belmont Park, with or without the involvement of the Shinnecock Indian Nation!  The first thing that must change at Belmont Park, however, is the need for those in Albany to warmly bring Belmont Park’s neighbors with them into the winner’s circle instead of leaving them out in the cold back in the starting gate.

Blogger's NOTE: The Shinnecock Indians propose to build and operate a hotel, casino and new train station at Belmont Park & Race Track on Long Island and various other locations on Long Island (NY). Gateway Casino Resorts, an entity organized by Detroiters Michael J. Malik, Sr., and Mrs. Marian Ilitch, has been out front bankrolling the Tribe's various failed casino development proposals for nearly decade and are behind this latest scheme.

Shinnecock Face New Casino Hurdles; Tribal Leader won't say if Gateway Casino Resorts (Mike Malik / Marian Ilitch) would lobby in Albany on its behalf




Tribe's Latest Hurdle To Casino: Legalized Gambling Proposal
9.14.2011

By Michael Wright

The Shinnecock Indian Nation’s effort to secure permission to operate a potentially lucrative casino has cleared a number of mountainous hurdles. But it has several more to clear before its initial proposal—for a casino at the Belmont Park horse racetrack in Nassau County—can become reality.

The latest threat to the casino effort, or to its economic potential, might come from an unusual quadrant: those who want to see gaming more widely legalized.

A number of state officials, primarily legislators and state senators from economically struggling resort areas in the Catskills region, have suggested that New York should legalize gambling in portions of the state, like New Jersey did for Atlantic City in 1976. That could allow private interests beyond Native American tribes to build and operate casinos…

...Shinnecock Tribal Trustees Chairman Randy King said that the tribe has not discussed internally the potential of non-Indian gaming interfering with their plans at Belmont and elsewhere. He said other tribes from upstate have opposed the consideration of non-Indian gaming, on the basis that it would violate the contracts they signed with the state to operate their casinos.

His own tribe’s efforts are focused on garnering support for their own casino and on securing the funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs for various infrastructure projects that it is entitled to as a federally recognized tribe.

Mr. King compared the Shinnecocks and other Native American tribes as being in a “David-and-Goliath”-type struggle with giant gaming entities like Genting, whose money earns them easy access to lawmakers’ offices. He said the tribe and its representatives have still not gotten to sit down with the governor to discuss the future of a Shinnecock gaming facility.

“Our main focus is getting to the governor’s table, which I would hope is imminent,” the tribal chairman said. “A little media fluff about this doesn’t ruffle my feathers. My priority is getting to the governor’s office, and getting the potholes in our roads fixed.”

Mr. King would not say whether representatives of the tribe’s partners, Gateway Casinos, have been or would be lobbying against any consideration of legalized non-Indian gaming. Gateway and its principals, Michael Malick and Marian Ilitch, have been among the most active proponents of legalized gaming throughout the country, spending millions on pro-gaming lobbying in Hawaii and California and elsewhere. But Gateway has also invested millions in payments to the Shinnecocks for legal fees and tribal business over the last several years in exchange for the right to develop a future, or casinos, and take a cut of the profits...

Read Full Story

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Thursday, September 15, 2011

Detroit casinos report August revenues up 1.9%



9.12.2011

By Matt Helms

Aggregate revenue at Detroit’s three casinos was up 1.9% to $115 million in August compared to the same month in 2010, according to figures the Michigan Gaming Control Board released this morning.

Year-over-year revenue at MGM Grand Detroit was up 3.2% to $49.6 million in August; revenue also was up 8.5% to $38 million for the same period at MotorCity Casino Hotel. Greektown Casino Hotel, however, was down 8.1% to $27.5 million, gaming board figures show.

Aggregate revenue for the casinos for the three-month period ending in August was $348 million, up 2% compared to 2010. Three-month revenues increased 2.3% to $148 million at MGM Grand and 5.2% to $115 million at MotorCity but declined 2.4% to $85 million at Greektown, the gaming board said.

Market share was 43% for MGM Grand, 33% for MotorCity and 24% for Greektown. The casinos paid $9.3 million in gaming taxes in August.

Contact Matt Helms: mhelms@freepress.com or 313-222-1450.

Monday, September 12, 2011

NY Times: Shinnecock Casinos will be Magnets for Tainted Money, Increase Local Crime & Addictions

7.4.2010

EDITORIAL
Gambling Fever

...The new Nassau County executive, Edward Mangano, wants the Shinnecock Indians to build a full casino in the center of his county. A Suffolk County legislator, Wayne Horsley, wants the tribe’s casino out in his neck of Long Island — but not, of course, in the posh Hamptons, where the Shinnecocks actually live.

The federal government has finally granted the Shinnecocks recognition as an Indian tribe, more than 30 years after they applied. That is great news for the Shinnecocks, whose reservation is a pocket of poverty in a zone of immense wealth. As an official tribe they will have access to benefits like federal funds for housing, education, food programs and health care.

Unfortunately, what they prize most is the right to run a casino, and the host of suitors it has already attracted. Casinos are a magnet for tainted money and promote addiction, crime and other ills. The tribe should be finding other ways to use its valuable real estate and its long-denied recognition... 
Read Complete Editorial

Google map suggests more than 24 potential Shinnecock Casino sites

This Google map identifies more than two dozen Nassau and Suffolk County locations previously or currently under consideration for casino development by the Long Island-based Shinnecock Indian Nation and its Detroit-based partner Gateway Casino Resorts, L.L.C.

TVT has welcomed more than 178,000 unique vistors

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Since our first post, more than 178,000 visitors have accessed the details compiled uniquely at TVT.

The citizen activists behind TVT wish to extened a big "THANK YOU" to all those who have provided "tips" -- contributed pictures, documents, link suggestions, leads, reports, insight and comments. Your trust and confidence in TVT has allowed us to create a comprehensive resource that thousands of others -- including bloggers, journalists, Members of Congress and other local citizen activists around the country -- have come to rely upon.

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Google News: Indian Gaming

NEWS: Bay Mills Indian Community & Casino Proposals

NEWS: Shinnecock Indian Nation (Gateway Casino Resorts) Casino Proposals

NY Times: Shinnecock Indian Nation

NEWS: Los Coyotes Indian Tribe

NEWS: Los Coyotes / Barwest Barstow Casino Proposals

NEWS: Michael J. Malik, Sr.

NEWS: Marian Ilitch

Muckety.com: Mapping Social Networks

Play with the interactive tool here or visit Muckety.com

TIP: Search for multiple entries in the Muckety.com database simultaneously by separating their names with the word and

certainly must reads!

Ilitch has backed loosing sports teams and pizza, but casinos in Detroit? Forbes.com 10.09.06 ● Marian Ilitch #1 on "25 Most Powerful People" to Watch 2006” global gaming business o1.oo.o5 ● My Kingdom for a Casino Forbes 05.08.06 ● Big Lagoon’s casino dream awakens north coast journal 07.28.05 ● Shinnecocks launch legal claim to Hamptons land newsday.com 06.16.05 ● Ilitch Plans to Expand Casino Empire RGTonline.com 07.05.05 ● Ilitch outbids partners MichiganDaily.com 04.14.05 ● Ilitch enmeshed in NY casino dispute detnews.com 03.20.05 ● Marian Ilitch, high roller freep.com 03.20.05 ● MGM Mirage to Decide on Offer for Casino in Detroit rgtonline.com 04.16.05 ● Secret deal for MotorCity alleged freep.com 02.15.05 ● Los Coyotes get new developer desertdispatch.com 02.08.05 Detroit casino figure to finance Barstow project LasVegasSun.com 07.07.03 ● Indian Band trying to put casino in Barstow signonSanDiego.com 06.04.03 Pizza matriarch takes on casino roles detnews.com 10.23.02 ● Vanderbilt gets short straw in negotiations for a casino Lansing Journal 10.06.02 ● Indians aim to drive family from tribe in vicious dispute san diego union tribune 04.09.00 ●Malik owns 2000 Michigan Quarter Horse of the Year Michigan.gov 01.01.00 ● Detroit Team to run Michigan’s newest Indian casino detnews.com 05.23.99 Tiger ties tangle Marian Ilitch detnews.com 04.29.99 ● Three investors must sell their Detroit casino interests gamblingmagazine.com 04.25.99 ● Partners’ cash revived election; They say money was crucial to Prop-E detnews.com 04.25.99 Investors have troubled histories las vegas review journal 04.27.99 ● Investor served probation for domestic assault on 12 year old boy detnews.com 04.25.99 Can a pair win a jackpot?: local men hope to... crainsdetroit.com 03.17.97

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